Man United vs Everton: Four things we learnt from the match

Manchester United welcomed Everton to Old Trafford in the Premier League on Monday night.

Senne Lammens kept his usual spot in goal with Patrick Dorgu starting at left wing back. The most used back three of the season was back in action with Matthijs de Ligt, Leny Yoro and Luke Shaw all getting a start.

Noussair Mazraoui came in at right wing back and Bruno Fernandes started alongside Casemiro in the midfield.

Injuries to Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha meant that Joshua Zirkzee and Amad got a rare start in the front three. Bryan Mbeumo retained his usual spot on the left of the attack.

Here are four things we learnt from the match.

Man United couldn’t believe their luck when Idrissa Gueye was sent off early in the first half for slapping his own teammate, Michael Keane.

Strangely, United seemed to react worse than the away team and seemed puzzled how to respond to the crazy events.

Consequently, 16 minutes later Everton took the lead through a long-range effort from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in front of a shocked Old Trafford.

United struggled to create many clear-cut chances despite playing with an extra man for most of the first half and found breaking down the Everton defence a huge challenge.

The Dutchman has barely played any football this season and it is normal that he looked out of his depth in his first start of the season.

Zirkzee regularly misplaced passes and looked out of step with his teammates.

He was unlucky to be on the receiving end of a nasty tackle from James Tarkowski early on in the match, which did not help matters.

He also created a good chance for Patrick Dorgu but the Dane could only fire over from close range.

With injuries to Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha, Zirkzee will be a very important player over the next few weeks and United fans will hope he will soon get back into the groove.

The Red Devils have been unlucky in that two of their attacking summer signings have got injured at the same time.

Nonetheless, the lack of attacking options and flaccid play on the pitch only highlighted the problems in Amorim’s squad.

Without Cunha and Sesko, Zirkzee and Mbeumo struggled to create against a water-tight Evertonian defence.

The United manager has faced a lot of criticism for his insistence on playing his 3-4-3 formation in spite of poor results.

Improved performances had somewhat silenced the critics but his instructions to play three central defenders when playing ten men at home raised serious eyebrows.

To be fair, both Leny Yoro and Luke Shaw were playing very wide in the second half but fans might have been wondering if those positions could have been taken up by more proficient attackers.

Featured image Carl Recine via Getty Images

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