In a game where the home side dominated the proceedings from start to finish, United were lucky to not concede a goal till the injury time.
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Late drama was the theme of the Premier League contest between Brentford and Manchester United. In a game where the home side dominated the proceedings from start to finish, United were lucky to not concede a goal till the injury time. Goalkeeper Andre Onana was on top of his game, as he regularly denied the hosts from scoring. Besides, posts came to United’s rescue, as Brentford struggled to take their chances.
Out of the blue, substitute Mason Mount gave Manchester United an injury-time lead against the run of play. But credit to Brentford for not dropping their heads, as they got a late equaliser through Kristoffer Ajer. It is the least the home side deserved after dominating the Premier League contest for the entire duration. On another day, Brentford could have won this game comfortably hence, the visitors must be pleased with taking a point out of it.
Manager Erik ten Hag spoke about various things after the game but he started by providing fitness updates on Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof after both were taken off in the game due to injury concerns. “I can’t tell by now. Rapha we took him off as a precaution at half-time and Victor he came off but we have to assess him tomorrow,” ten Hag, quoted on the club’s website, said in his press conference.
Meanwhile, the manager shifted the attention to his team’s performance, as he was honest with his assessment of the game. “We made some mistakes and we have to talk about this of course. We should act differently in that occasion where we conceded the equaliser, we should have acted differently in that situation. As I say if you are in stoppage time and you score that goal, which maybe we didn’t deserve, then I have to make compliments to the team that they hang [on] in the game. They were fighting but I did think Brentford wanted it more during the whole course of the game but we have to take it over the whole game, take it [beyond] the time,” he told various media outlets.
The international break might have also played a part in United’s struggles with plenty of players from the club representing their national teams in this recent break. “We know after the international break that there will always be [times] where the level is not as high than before because they are out of the rhythm. They are going to different nations, different systems, they always need at minimum one half to get back into our system, our way of play. But still when we don’t play so good, we have to win and we almost won and that for me is what disappoints me the most,” he explained.
Ten Hag also gave credit to the opponents, explaining how Brentford have always made it difficult for other teams as well. “Don’t lower the performances from Brentford because I have seen them against Man City and City were also lucky to win that game. I have seen them against Liverpool and in the first 35 minutes Brentford should have taken the lead. We should have done this better. I’m not happy with the performance, it’s no misunderstanding. The players are also disappointed by the performance but we should be consistent in the way we take a game, we [need to] go in a game and perform and show more aggressiveness especially,” he added.
