Manchester United were hardly spectacular Saturday, but they never looked bothered either, comfortably defeating Crystal Palace, 1-0.
Manchester United vs. Crystal Palace: Final score 1-0, A comfortable win for Red Devils
Manchester United didn’t play particularly pretty football and probably should have won by a much larger margin, but a win is a win with their recent form.
The first few months of this English Premier League campaign haven't been terribly kind to Manchester United. Nothing Louis Van Gaal has tried this season has worked for long, and today was little different.
Deploying United in an awfully conservative 4-5-1 with Wayne Rooney playing as the most advanced of the central midfielders, Van Gaal looked to be hoping to limit United's defensive mistakes while trying to take advantage of the ones that Neil Warnock's Crystal Palace side have inevitable been committing this season.
While United were able to hold possession well with this formation, holding over 70 precent in the first half, actually doing anything with that possession proved to be a trickier proposition. United struggled to get Adnan Januzaj and Angel di Maria fully involved in the match, instead being forced to rely on Rooney and Marouane Fellaini to create most of their danger.
That ended predictably, with United struggling to get off more than a few half-chances, most of which were skied thanks to awkward shots from poor positions. Palace did their job well, playing to constrict space and frustrate their hosts. The best chance Manchester had in the first half came off a brilliant run by Luke Shaw. The fullback started in his own half and blew past several Palace players on his way in to the box, where he elected to shoot instead of laying it off to a teammate. The shot was ultimately tame and easily saved by Julian Speroni.
Palace, meanwhile, managed to threaten several times on counter attacks, including an impressive chance when a ball over the top pulled David De Gea out of goal. Frazier Campbell put too much power in to the ensuing lob, though, and sent it well over the bar when a simple chip would have done the trick.
United looked better in the second half, but still couldn’t get that chance. A Di Maria corner that fell to Van Persie was shot tamely, an effort Speroni easily smothered. Rooney blasted a golden chance just wide after Patrick McNair, a reserve-midfielder-turned-defender of late for United, went on a long run of his own that caught Palace off-guard.
Just before the hour mark, Fellaini had a shot cleared off the line, and it started to feel like United scoring a goal or three would be inevitable. Juan Mata came on for a disappointing Januzaj shortly afterwards, and he made the inevitable happen. Just a few minutes after coming on, he had a chance from the top of the box and buried it, hammering a shot so hard not even a deflection off Speroni could deny him.
After that, it was all Palace could do to hold on. They were able to provide some threat via set pieces, but for the most part their efforts were limited to trying to keep United from scoring again. The best chance left for the home side when Mata almost had a second goal off the bench in the last 10 minutes when he cracked one off the post, and the rebound fell to Van Persie, who hit a shot so far off target that it very nearly hit the corner flag.
While normally United would expect to beat a side like Palace easily, given how inconsistent they’ve been of late, just winning the match and keeping a clean sheet is victory enough.
Manchester United: De Gea; Valencia, McNair (Fletcher 90’), Blind, Shaw; Januzaj (Mata 63’), Rooney, Carrick, Fellaini, Di Maria (Wilson 71’); Van Persie
Goals: Mata (67’)
Crystal Palace: Speroni; Mariappa, Dann, Delaney, Ward; Puncheon, McArthur, Ledley, Bolasie (Gayle 81’); Chamakh (Bannan 81’), Campbell (Doyle 90’+1)
Goals: none
See More:
