Four things we learned as United’s Groundhog Day continues in drab 0-2 defeat to Palace

Manchester United welcomed Crystal Palace to Old Trafford, searching for their fourth consecutive win.

Andre Onana started in goal with Lisandro Martinez, Leny Yoro and Harry Maguire forming the back three.

Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot were named as the starting wing-backs while Bruno Fernandes and Manuel Ugarte formed the midfield duo.

In an interesting move, Ruben Amorim left both Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee on the bench, with Amad, Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo making up the attacking trio.

Here are four things we learnt from the match.

No striker in front three interesting but not the solution

One of Ruben Amorim’s best traits so far is his ability to change things when they are not working and he made the brave call to drop Joshua Zirkzee and Rasmus Hojlund to the bench.

Kobbie Mainoo impressed as a number 10 on Thursday night in Romania and was given the task of playing as a false nine against Palace.

It was almost the perfect start when he struck the post after just seven minutes and almost created a goal for Garnacho.

Unfortunately his threat faded as the half went on and United lacked any real presence in the box.

United struggle to score goals in the Premier League and this is largely due to the lack of natural goalscorers in the team. Moreover, there are rarely any attacking options in the box when the Reds do get into dangerous attacking positions.

United have a major issue at home

When Jean-Philippe Mateta put Palace in front after 64 minutes it marked a horrible statistic for United.

It was the sixth consecutive Premier League game at Old Trafford that United conceded the opening goal.

In other words, not since the 1st December against Everton have the Red Devils scored first at the Theatre of Dreams.

This is clearly a mental block that must be dealt with if United are to salvage anything from this season.

Matthijs De Ligt is a miss when he doesn’t play

Whilst United have been less open than the chaos ball days of Erik ten Hag, they still regularly make strange choices in defence.

The home side had the majority of the ball in the first half but it was Palace who carved out the majority of the real chances on goal.

Matthijs de Ligt dropped to the bench and in his absence, the home side suffered as the Eagles passed up at least three good chances to score on the break.

The Dutchman is far from the perfect defender and he has had his own moments of madness this season, but he often makes a difference when he is on the pitch and others tend to up their game around him.

Amad not his usual self

The young Ivorian has been the club’s brightest spark this season and is without doubt the club’s most dangerous attacking option.

Nonetheless, the 22 year old was far from his best this afternoon.

He played with his usual energy and endeavour but he struggled to make much impact on the match.

When he did get on the ball, he was careless in possession, giving the ball away on numerous occasions and strangely making poor passing choices in the final third.

All of this is perfectly normal for such a young player but it says a lot about United’s current state that they rely so much on the form of such an inexperienced attacking option.

Featured image Carl Recine via Getty Images

Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social