{"id":42383,"date":"2024-04-25T02:21:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T02:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=42383"},"modified":"2024-04-25T02:21:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T02:21:08","slug":"premier-league-manchester-united-4-2-sheffield-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/04\/25\/premier-league-manchester-united-4-2-sheffield-united\/","title":{"rendered":"Premier League: Manchester United 4-2 Sheffield United"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With 81 minutes gone Bruno Fernandes collected a Kobbie Mainoo pass and with a swish of his left foot fired a laser past Wes Foderingham and\u00a0Manchester United\u00a0were 3-2 ahead. The question now was could they, at last, hang on to a lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was answered emphatically by Rasmus H\u00f8jlund, whose strike as the end of regulation time neared gave Erik ten Hag\u2019s team security and was the best way to close before a watching Jason Wilcox, the new technical director, who will lead the football department until Dan Ashworth joins from Newcastle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dominic<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The win, though, was the same weary tale of United\u2019s season: bright patches in attack, naive play at the back which twice allowed\u00a0Sheffield United\u00a0to take the lead \u2013 through Jayden Bogle and Ben Brereton D\u00edaz, these goals answered by Harry Maguire and a Fernandes penalty. Victory does quieten \u2013 for a day or so, anyway \u2013 the incessant noise around a United campaign that has been a series of stumbles interrupted by the odd convincing display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Ten Hag said: \u201cMany positives [including] the resilience to fight back after losing two times. But also there were negatives. We gave it away [goals], it can\u2019t happen, unacceptable. Have you seen some panic [when falling behind]? Not at all, we were very composed. I\u2019m happy with the win and we need to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten Hag\u2019s men began the hunt for a first three points in six weeks without the injured Marcus Rashford and Diogo Dalot tingling Foderingham\u2019s fingers with a 20-yard sighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the wake of the scare Coventry gave his team in\u00a0Sunday\u2019s FA Cup semi-final\u00a0the Dutchman stressed how they do the difficult thing expertly: put themselves in a winning position. The problem, of course, is not being able to close the deal, a function of being far too open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twice the Blades illustrated this faultline as Cameron Archer took aim unattended, then, moments later, the No 10 fed Gustavo Hamer who swept the ball to Brereton D\u00edaz and a low shot was clutched by Andr\u00e9 Onana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A prevailing criticism of Ten Hag is that his side show scant pattern of play. Not tonight. Camped inside the visitor\u2019s half, United\u2019s ball retention weaved effective patterns, one move accumulating passes before Alejandro Garnacho sped into the area and blazed at goal, Foderingham diving left and saving smartly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then a rare sight \u2013 the starved-of-service H\u00f8jlund running in behind. Christian Eriksen skipped forward and released his fellow Dane, whose pace took him clear, the effort sharp, but too close to Foderingham who, again, repelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rasmus<\/a>
Rasmus H\u00f8jlund completes the scoring for Manchester United five minutes from time. Photograph: Peter Powell\/EPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now, though, disaster for Ten Hag\u2019s men and unadulterated joy for Chris Wilder\u2019s. Intended for Dalot, Onana hit a simple pass straight to Bogle, who skated in and smashed home. \u201cHow shit must you be, we\u2019re winning away\u201d sang the delighted Blades congregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emotion lasted seven minutes as United levelled with the sweetest of equalisers: Garnacho dinked in from the left and Maguire stooped and flicked a header that was dainty in touch and lethal in aim as he beat Foderingham to his left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheffield United\u2019s opener came as Manchester United enjoyed 80% of the ball. Their second came with the mark at 79%, five minutes into the second half, and was woeful from the home team. A clumsy Dalot touch gave the ball to Brereton D\u00edaz, he found Hamer who slid it left to Ben Osborn. Brereton D\u00edaz had rushed forward and, unmarked, got on the end of the cross from close range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immediately, Ten Hag removed Antony for Amad Diallo, a move that drew jeers from the faithful who surely believed the youngster should have started. It may have unsettled Wilder\u2019s team as \u00adredemption \u00adbeckoned for Dalot: the Portuguese\u2019s curving run took him clear as he controlled a flighted ball but, too ponderous, Auston Trusty caught him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in a quasi-farcical moment, Dalot did score, at a corner, but Michael Salisbury had blown for a penalty for Trusty manhandling Maguire. Despite protests, the decision remained, and Fernandes stepped up and rifled the spot-kick high and in, to Foderingham\u2019s right, and that was 2-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

United\u2019s grandstand finish featured Fernandes\u2019s 25-yard peach and H\u00f8jlund scoring a classic poacher\u2019s goal \u2013\u00a0his first since\u00a018 February: a telling snapshot of United\u2019s ills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Wilder\u2019s side lose to Newcastle on Saturday they are relegated. \u201cThe ball goes in the back of our net too easy,\u201d he said. The late introduction of the striker Ethan Wheatley, 18, was United\u2019s 250th academy product to play for the first team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With 81 minutes gone Bruno Fernandes collected a Kobbie Mainoo pass and with a swish of his left foot fired a laser past Wes Foderingham and\u00a0Manchester United\u00a0were 3-2 ahead. The question now was could they, at last, hang on to a lead. This was answered emphatically by Rasmus H\u00f8jlund, whose strike as the end of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":42384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[7477,12374,5304,5503,7452,10387,8927,7478,9430,7467,6287,10739,1349,10427,5557,5346,5984,9127,9883,7470,5247,2416,69,491,11111,3874,5460,11252,115,507,12309,1717,10691,267,114,10722,5655,304,11259,5818,4615,10885,4482,594],"class_list":["post-42383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-amad","tag-amad-diallo","tag-attack","tag-bruno-fernande","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-campaign","tag-christian","tag-christian-eriksen","tag-coventry","tag-dalot","tag-diogo","tag-display","tag-dutchman","tag-epa","tag-erik-ten-hag","tag-eriksen","tag-fa-cup","tag-february","tag-fed","tag-fernandes","tag-football","tag-h","tag-harry","tag-harry-maguire","tag-injured","tag-lead","tag-maguire","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-united","tag-marcus-rashford","tag-men","tag-newcastle","tag-onana","tag-premier-league","tag-rashford","tag-removed","tag-security","tag-sheffield-united","tag-shot","tag-strike","tag-technical-director","tag-victory","tag-wilder","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42385,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42383\/revisions\/42385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}