The north west giants went into the game against Fulham on the back of an opening day defeat to Arsenal, and were clearly desperate to arrest a slide that's manifested itself ever since Ruben Amorim took over midway through the 2024/25 campaign.
Bruno missed chance to put Man Utd in full control
When United were awarded a penalty on 32 minutes after Calvin Bassey attempted to rugby tackle Mason Mount to the ground, Bruno Fernandes was handed the perfect opportunity to give the visitors to Craven Cottage some breathing space.
However, the Portuguese sent his spot-kick into the stands to the joy of the majority of supporters inside the ground. It was the fifth penalty miss of Bruno's Premier League career, equalling Mo Salah and Aleksandar Mitrovic as the players with the most misses from the spot since the United man's debut.
To that point United had been the better team. Matheus Cunha in particular had run the hosts ragged and had three shots at goal within the first 13 minutes, including one that came back off the woodwork.
Fernandes had also got one shot on target as a much more attacking Red Devils side really took the game to the Cottagers.
Check out the match summary here
United's profligacy will be a worry for Amorim
Whilst Amorim will have been pleased with the way in which his players took responsibility and played on the front foot, their profligacy in front of goal was unacceptable at this level.
Of United's total of 10 shots throughout the game, only three were on target. Benjamin Sesko, a second-half substitute, was totally anonymous and whilst one can make some allowances as he settles into a new team in a new league, Amorim and the board would surely have expected more than one touch in Fulham's box during his 38 minutes on the pitch.
Winning two of his three aerial duels denotes a real presence in that respect, however, goals are a striker's currency and getting himself in those centre-forward positions to really make a difference - as long as he gets the service - has to be a big part of his game moving forward.
Fulham had clearly identified a weakness in their opponent's defence in the opening exchanges too. Luke Shaw, making his 200th appearance for the Red Devils, was consistently targeted, with 47.8% of all Fulham's attacks in the opening 20 minutes coming down United's left-hand side.
It therefore wasn't a surprise at all that Shaw was the United player with the most touches in the first-half, and by the end of proceedings, the player with the most attempted passes (65).
Amad's withdrawal was counter-productive
To give some further context as to how the hosts were also wasteful in their attacking endeavours, Rodrigo Muniz attempted just two passes in the entire first half, and his poor performance was complete when directing Leny Yoro's header into his own net to give the Red Devils the lead.
Though Amad Diallo was taken off in the 52nd minute, he, along with Matheus Cunha, had the most shots inside the Fulham box (two), so his withdrawal was in many ways counter-productive.
Indeed, in the opening 15 minutes of the second-half, it was the Cottagers making all the running with 41.5% of the action taking place in the United third of the pitch.
Just a minute and a half after coming on, Emile Smith Rowe levelled the scores after he wasn't tracked in the area by Matthijs de Ligt.
Though the Dutchman's passing was on point - his 94.9% completion was bettered only by Amad's perfect 100% - de Ligt didn't really have one of his best games in a United shirt, making just one tackle in the entire match.
Losing possession on a couple of occasions was regrettable, however, that was the least of all of United's players. Patrick Dorgu, by comparison, lost the ball on an incredible 19 separate occasions, and his lack of application in all areas has to be a concern for Amorim.
Clear disconnect between United's defence and attack
If the Portuguese is looking for answers as to why his team again dropped points from a winning position, he'll see that there's a clear disconnect between his defence and attack.
United attempted more tackles than Fulham (17 to 10), had more success in that regard (11 to eight) and were better in both one-on-one duels aerially (53.5% to 46.5%) and on the ground (56.4% to 43.6%).
However, the Cottagers attempted more shots (13 to 10), had more on target (four to three), had more touches in the opposition box (38 to 25), more possession (52.4% to 47.6%) and more total passes, accurate passes and 33 crosses to United's 14.
If the Red Devils want to start winning games under Amorim, they're going to have to make their presence felt up front.
The lion's share of that responsibility will therefore fall on the shoulders of Cunha, Sesko and Bryan Mbuemo and the sooner that those three are in tandem, the better.
In the meantime, it's back to the drawing board for United.
