For one of only a few times this season, Manchester United looked somewhat coherent in the second half of Saturday’s win over Brentford.
The Red Devils entered the changing room at the interval trailing 1-0 after Ethan Pinnock had opened the scoring only moments before. The goal sparked significant controversy amongst the squad, staff and fans, as Matthijs de Ligt had been instructed to come off the pitch to receive treatment for his head injury before Brentford took their corner, leaving them with one less man to worry about in the box before Pinnock headed home.
Despite being without last season’s match-winning hero Scott McTominay, who scored a late brace at the death against the Bees to win 2-1 at Old Trafford, United were still able to get the job done this time around, presumably keeping Erik ten Hag in his job for another round of fixtures.
He’ll be thanking Alejandro Garnacho for inspiring the comeback after the Argentine produced a scintillating volleyed finish to draw the scoring level shortly after half time. However, plenty of his teammates did their bit in the build-up to make such a goal come to fruition.
Bruno Fernandes a catalyst yet again for United vs Bees
(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)Marcus Rashford’s inch-perfect cross to his attacking counterpart stunned supporters, while Bruno Fernandes was – unsurprisingly – pivotal before Garnacho’s strike. Off the ball, he was manoeuvring between Brentford’s defence and making darting runs towards Mark Flekken.
When analysing the skipper’s antics on tonight’s Monday Night Football segment, Jamie Carragher posed the question to Aaron Ramsey: “Midfield runs. Bruno Fernandes. Talk about how important those runs are.”
The Welshman responded: “Oh yeah, they’re massively important. He makes a run, and then Casemiro as well makes another run; it just disrupts that backline and then the fullback gets sucked in, which creates a bit of room for Garnacho at the far post.”
Unfortunately for Ten Hag, he’ll have to navigate Thursday’s Europa League clash away to Fenerbache without his trusty club captain at his disposal following Fernandes’ sending-off against FC Porto last time out.