Photo by Soccer Advice

The feel good factor bubble around Manchester United this season was burst as soon as game week three, as Crystal Palace spoiled United’s return to Old Trafford on Saturday. After filling the fans with optimism by accumulating four points from the first two challenging fixtures, the one that was supposed to be ‘easy’ proved to be the first hurdle. United looked toothless going forward for most of the game, and the defensive errors from previous years came back to haunt them once again in a 1-2 loss.

Here is what we learned from the game:

United lacking the creative spark

We all knew that United needed to bring in a midfielder during the summer transfer window, not only because they lost Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini, but also because it was clear as day last season that the team lacked that “it” factor in the creation department. With Juan Mata getting older, and Angel Gomes being on the brink of the first team, but perhaps not quite ready for regular football, United are forced to rely on Jesse Lingard as the man playing in between the midfield and the front line. Especially now, with Paul Pogba playing a deeper midfield role this season. 

The away day at Wolves was the first glimpse of how United may struggle this season once a team sets up defensively against them and they are forced to break down a wall. It was difficult, United struggled to create many clear cut chances, but had the penalty been scored United would have likely brought all three points back from the Molineux, and so that issue was kind of swept under the rug. 

Then Palace came to town, and United again struggled with the key passes in the final third. There was nothing coming from Lingard, Daniel James or Marcus Rashford (the three behind the striker) for the best part of the game, with Anthony Martial being forced to feed off scraps. And still, United had the chances to win this game, but another penalty miss, questionable officiating, and sloppy defending cost them this time around. But with all that being said, the chances United did manage to create were far from enough as to what they should be against a side like Palace at home, as the season goes on and games against “weaker” teams come thick and fast, United may live to regret not bringing in a creative midfielder. 

An unsure performance from Lindelof could be a window of opportunity for Tuanzebe

What most fans were probably not expecting this early into the season was defensive errors costing United games. And while it’s normal for a brand new centre back partnership to have some communication struggles during the early days, this loss was largely down to the defensive sloppiness that we saw time and time again in recent years, and last season in particular. 

For the first goal, Victor Lindelof lost a soft header to Jeffrey Schlupp, which slotted in Jordan Ayew to cooly put Palace ahead. During that sequence, Harry Maguire was probably a little out of position too far away from his partner, but in his defence, the Englishman likely expected Lindelof to win that aerial duel, just like the majority of the fans did. It’s a little issue that is unlikely to happen again, but the slightest lapse in concentration tends to be punished in the Premier League.

For Palace’s winner, David De Gea was caught out, looking more like the De Gea of last season. Perhaps also because of a lapse in concentration, or a bit of complacency creeping in thinking he would have saved that shot with ease. United’s skipper capitulated on the near post once again following a low drilled shot from Patrick Van Aanholt – a shot that a goalkeeper of De Gea’s caliber is expected to save. 

With the defence largely at fault for United not coming away with at least a point here, perhaps an opportunity for Axel Tuanzebe to slot in at centre back for an audition alongside his compatriot Maguire will come sooner than we may have expected.