Moises Caicedo has thwarted Manchester United's sudden comeback under Ruud van Nistelrooy with a stunning volley. The Ecuador midfielder's second-half goal helped Chelsea leave Old Trafford with 1 point.
Van Nistelrooy, who took over as caretaker manager after Erik ten Hag was sacked last week, inspired United to beat Leicester City 5-2 in the Carabao Cup. This was also the first match the Dutch strategist took charge.
In the match against Chelsea, Bruno Fernandes took the "Red Devils" to the lead when he successfully took a penalty kick in the 70th minute. However, the home side's hopes of a win were extinguished just four minutes later by Caicedo.
Van Nistelrooy will still take over in the Europa League games against PAOK Thessaloniki and the Premier League against Leicester. Ruben Amorim will then arrive on 11 November to become United's sixth permanent manager since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.
The former Sporting boss will need to inspire a quick change to get Man United back on track this season.
Van Nistelrooy's natural attacking instinct has made the difference for Man United in the last 2 matches. However, the "scare" from Ten Hag's cautious approach is still deeply held on the players.
Man United's weakness is proven by the fact that they have only led for a total of 90 minutes in the Premier League this season. And 55 of those minutes were against struggling Southampton.
It is unbelievable that for a club with Man United's resources, only Southampton and Crystal Palace have scored fewer goals than them in the league this season.
The Red Devils' five-goal performance in the midweek win over Leicester was an example of them playing more freely under Van Nistelrooy. And in fact, they also played very delicately against Chelsea. But while Man United have often been caught attacking under Ten Hag, they have struggled and been cautious when deploying the ball from the back. And Van Nistelrooy quickly extinguished all that innovation against Chelsea.
The former Man United striker clearly wants his players to aim forward whenever they have the ball. However, an important mistake when Ten Hag was in charge was that the players often chose the safest option of passing the ball back.
When defender Matthijs de Ligt did so in the first half, passing back to goalkeeper Andre Onana instead of passing forward to Alejandro Garnacho, Van Nistelrooy scolded the Dutchman on the touchline.
There have been many other times when Van Nistelrooy pointed forward, but when a team is struggling like Man United, the players tend to choose easy solutions to reduce the risk of making mistakes. That is a problem that is still affecting the Old Trafford team at the moment.
"It was an emotional journey. From Monday to today it's been almost a full week with a lot of things happening. My task is to stabilize the ship and get the team back on track.
I think the players responded well on Wednesday and today. That is the foundation to build on for the next two matches" - Van Nistelrooy said after the draw with Chelsea.
