In what is becoming a regular occurrence, Manchester United once again snuck to a win despite putting on a less than dominant performance against Sheffield United.
Goals from Scott McTominay and Diogo Dalot cancelled out Oli McBurnie's penalty to send all three points back over the peaks.
Manchester United now sit 8th in the Premier League table, five points off of the Champions League places.
Despite their best efforts, Sheffield United sit at rock bottom with a single point. They are four points off of Luton Town in 17th.
While Manchester United had the lion's share of possession (62%), The Blades tallied an expected goals stat of 1.42, higher than Manchester United's 1.10.
For Sheffield United, it is the same old story. There are lots of positives to take from the game, but ultimately the result is just not good enough. It is still worth examining those positives though, to see when and where a victory might come for Paul Heckingbottom's men.
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Auston Trusty and breaking the press
Having signed for Sheffield United on August 3rd from Arsenal, centre-back Auston Trusty made only his second start for the club last night.
Although it could be argued that Trusty should have done better for Manchester United's first goal, he had a good game otherwise by all accounts.
By being constantly tight to Rasmus Højlund, Trusty nullified the Dane from the game, making United's only out and out forward completely isolated.
Højlund rarely had space and time to hold play up and bring Manchester United's plethora of taking options into the game. Erik ten Hag recognised this and Højlund was substituted on minute 63' for Anthony Martial.
As well as this, Trusty did well to break through Manchester United's disjointed press. Playing a pretty standard 4-4-2 instead of 3 at the back with wing-backs gave more options to move the ball around the back.
Previously Sheffield United's wing-backs kept setting up too high and not providing a safe option out of press.
Playing with more conventional full-backs (who still had the legs to overlap the wingers when the time was right) was less risky and allowed Trusty to utilise his ability on the ball to consistently find a way out of the press.
Moreover; knowing that Manchester United were left guessing when pressing, Trusty found opportunities to drive forward with the ball.
This left Manchester United's marking of the creative Ollie Norwood in midfield spaces redundant, as Trusty could move forward into the space with the ball himself and take out Manchester United's pressing players, while also creating new options.
The first half was dominated by Sheffield United because of this trend. It also highlighted that pressing is something that Manchester United still need to work on.
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Manchester United's forwards are playing without confidence
There were multiple points in the match where you could tell a fully firing Manchester United would have been far more decisive and clinical.
As mentioned, Højlund never got much of a look in, and Marcus Rashford and Antony struggled to break past Sheffield United's quick full-backs. They were constantly outnumbered when the ball went wide.
Even when there were chances, they weren't taken. On minute 55, Rashford had an open goal to aim at after goalkeeper Wes Foderingham gave the ball away with a misplaced pass. A simple lifted ball over or round the defender into an empty net was all that was needed. He instead laid it off for Højlund to strike. Foderingham recovered to make the save.
It's perhaps unsurprising that these players are playing without confidence. Rashford has only scored once so far in the Premier League this season. We all know about Antony and his personal situation. Højlund, while having scored three this season, is not living up to the £64 million price tag in other aspects of his play.
Manchester United's forwards don't exactly have an easy game next week to build up confidence. They are hosting Manchester City.
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Oli McBurnie and his lukewarm penalty record
Another Sheffield United player that impressed despite the result was Oli McBurnie. He was able to win knockdown after knockdown, feeding Cameroon Archer ample opportunities to make things happen.
One thing UK viewers would have noticed when the Scotsman was stepping up to the penalty spot was the graphic showing his poor penalty record. Before taking the penalty which levelled things up at Bramall Lane, McBurnie had only scored 50 percent of his penalties in the top two divisions.
He didn't take a single penalty for United last year so there were question marks about who would be the penalty taker this year (with Iliman Ndiaye gone). It's possible that McBurnie felt confident because he had played well up until that point, and so decided to take the penalty instinctively.
However, he put all of those questions to bed with a superb penalty which cannoned off of André Onana's left post. Onana dived the right way at the right height, but such was the power and precision of the penalty that the Cameroonian had no chance.
If McBurnie can keep that up, Sheffield United will have a consistent penalty taker for the season. Who knows? Maybe that could be the difference between survival and relegation.
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Manchester United are underequipped to deal with Manchester City next week
This game was a good opportunity for Manchester United to find good form against an inferior team before going into the Manchester Derby next week.
If they press like they did in this game against Manchester City, the game will be over before half-time. Manchester City themselves haven't been perfect in recent weeks, but the likes of Manuel Akanji and Kyle Walker will have a field day with not only beating United's weak press but also neutralising United's forward options.
