Four things we learned as United slip to desultory draw with West Ham

Manchester United once again let a lead slip at Old Trafford, slumping to a dispiriting 1-1 draw with West Ham United. Here are four things we learned from a match with an all-too-familiar outcome. Intensity issues the downfall once more Head coach Ruben Amorim demanded intensity before the game, but for some half hour after kick-off his team left him tearing his hair out with another pedestrian performance. A better team than West Ham would have picked off the listless Red Devils, but United eventually rallied and finished the first half by far the stronger side. That they eventually built up a head of steam is good, but that it took them so long to get there means there are still problems beneath the surface. The momentum dropped again after Diogo Dalot’s goal and never really returned as the players’ mindset was once again called into question on their way to a dismal draw at home to bottom-half opposition. There’s no simple answer to how Amorim ensures United hit the ground running – it seems for all the world more attitude than aptitude, but the Portuguese needs to get to the bottom of things fast. Zirkzee luxury wearing thin Joshua Zirkzee started a third game on the bounce and turned in exactly the kind of performance United fans have come to expect from the mercurial Dutchman. Sometimes mesmerising but more often maddening, United’s striker played to the level of his side’s performance and not an inch further, wasteful when the tempo was low but clicking into gear as his team mates upped the ante. As his deft touches started to find their man United looked much smoother in attack, and he was unlucky not to open the scoring in the first half when Aaron Wan-Bissaka cleared an improvised effort off the line. He proved himself not to be a striker to lift the team but certainly an asset when the going is good, which perhaps explains why he was replaced by the industrious Mason Mount with 15 minutes to go and United starting to look shaky in their ill-fated defence of a 1-0 lead. It doesn’t bode well for a player whose Old Trafford future is in doubt, with Amorim a million miles away from being able to accommodate luxury players in his piecemeal squad. Amad deserved more As United grew into the game in the first half, their right wing-back led the charge. Amad was too much for El Hadji Malick Diouf to handle and looked by far the most likely to engineer an opener, wriggling past his man at will and delivering productive crosses into a crowded penalty area. The Ivorian demonstrated why he is a tremendous fit for the attacking requirements of the wing-back role and was a real danger on the overlap past Bryan Mbeumo, although like the rest of the men in red faded badly in a limp second half. He was tidy defensively and well covered by Noussair Mazraoui at right centre-back, who completed a right flank which will be lost to AFCON commitments later this month. On top of dealing with yet another shambolic performance, Amorim will need to find a way to fix the gaping chasm which will appear on that side of the pitch. A tale of two centre-backs Amorim made the bold call to hand Ayden Heaven his first start of the season, with Leny Yoro and Lisandro Martinez benched, presumably due to a wobble in form and a lack of full match fitness respectively. The heart of the back three is a serious hotseat and Heaven wobbled with an early yellow card before rallying for a solid, if unremarkable, rest of the half. He will have been disappointed to be hooked at half time but the introduction of Yoro was a show of faith in the young Frenchman and shouldn’t be seen as a snub towards Heaven. Yoro was part of a backline which became increasingly unsettled by West Ham’s attack but did little wrong on an individual level, moving past his error at Crystal Palace in an understated way. Featured image Justin Setterfield via Getty Images The Peoples Person has been one of the world’s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social Joe Ponting Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried. He cut his teeth working in print media for local newspapers and entered football journalism covering the grassroots game for the Non-League Paper. Here he achieved a career high, interviewing United legend Sir Bobby Charlton to get his views on the lower echelons of the football pyramid. To kill time during international breaks Joe writes album reviews and has strong views on post punk for Plus One Magazine.