United View: A frustrating result at Palace- but a promising one

Manchester United’s trip to Selhurst Park on Saturday was the old football cliché of a game of two halves.

The Reds dominated the first half, playing some of their best football of the season, but struggled to replicate that after the break and left with a point, thanks to an incredible double save by Andre Onana.

This result was a frustrating one compared to the infuriating emotions due to the 4-0 defeat to Palace back in May. On that day United had to play Casemiro and a half-fit Johnny Evans a centre back, on Saturday they had Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez.

It was frustrating because, Erik ten Hag’s side were very impressive in the first half, with some of their best football they’ve played all season. They dominated possession, created chances and nullified Palace to very few opportunities. However, they were still unable to get the goal that they needed to truly take control.

Former United goalkeeper, Dean Henderson, made several saves to deny Alejandro Garnacho, Martinez and de Ligt, along with the Reds struck the bar twice in the same move. As much as United need to be more clinical, they were equally as unlucky not to score on Saturday.

After the break, Palace made changes and looked more assured, meanwhile United were unable to sustain the momentum they built up in the opening 45 minutes. A golden chance for Bruno Fernandes went begging and the Reds found themselves hanging on at times.

Andre Onana, was once again United’s hero, following up last week’s penalty save against Southampton with a fantastic double stop to deny Eddie Nketiah and Ismaila Sarr. The Cameroon international is starting to show he is capable of becoming a top goalkeeper at Manchester United, with big saves to bail out his side when called upon.

One of the big talking points from the match was the decision to bench Marcus Rashford, after scoring against Southampton and twice in the week against Barnsley. Erik ten Hag said the decision was due to rotation and wanting to give minutes to Garnacho.

“Not a difficult decision because we have to rotate, so many games to cover, and we have to give Alejandro games, as we have seen he has such a lot of end-products, goals and assists, as a sub. He started only one time this season.”

It did feel like a strange decision to bench Rashford, given his reign of form. Rashford has often been a confidence player and would have made more sense on paper to give him his rest against FC Twente in the Europa League (which has not been played at the time of writing) rather than in the Premier League.

Even then, he was initially brought on a central striker for Joshua Zirkzee, despite having Rasmus Hojlund on the bench. This has never been Rashford’s strongest position, despite grabbing a brace playing there on Tuesday against League One Barnsley.

He did eventually move over to his favoured position on the left with 15 minutes to go, but by then it was too late for him to make an impact on the game. If there is a silver lining, at least United now have the option to be able to rotate, rather than forcing players back early from injury, as was the case for much of last season.

A goalless draw is undoubtedly a trying result, especially against a Palace side that’s still yet to win a match in the league so far this season. However, there were still green shoots from this game and had United taken their chances, the mood would be much more positive. Hopefully they can find their clinical edge in front of goal sooner.