Manchester United travelled to the City Ground to face Nottingham Forest, looking for their first back-to-back Premier League wins of the season.
Andre Onana started in goal while Patrick Dorgu returned to the starting eleven after serving the final game of his suspension.
Diogo Dalot returned at right wing back, while Matthijs De Ligt, Leny Yoro and Noussair Mazraoui made up the back three.
Casemiro’s improved form saw him get a start alongside Manuel Ugarte while Alejandro Garnacho and Bruno Fernandes started in the number ten positions.
Joshua Zirkzee was selected ahead of Rasmus Hojlund in the number nine slot.
Here are five things we learnt from the match.
United continue to be naive
The Peoples Person highlighted before the game that United would need to be careful on the counter against a dangerous Forest team.
It surely would have been something that Ruben Amorim and his coaching staff would have discussed at length in their preparation for the match.
It took only four minutes for United to overcommit themselves from a corner and the ball broke to their former player, Anthony Elanga, who charged through a terrified United backline to put the Tricky Trees ahead.
The Red Devils seem to be making gradual improvements under Amorim but just when there seems to be real progress, the players take a step back with a basic error or poor organization in key moments that stunt any growth as a functioning team.
United lack goalscoring threat
Amorim’s side kept the ball well and had 69% of the ball and 10 shots to Forest’s three in the first half.
They also clipped the bar with a Dalot header but no matter how much of the ball they had, they rarely looked like scoring in the first 45 minutes.
The sad truth is having Zirkzee, Garnacho, Casemiro and Dorgu in attacking areas is just not going to result in many goals at this moment in time.
A lack of goalscoring threat has been a huge problem all season as they have only scored 37 goals in the league before tonight’s match.
It is most definitely the most glaring issue that the club needs to solve this summer if they are to make the sort of progress everyone connected to the Red Devils yearns for.
United carried some threat from corners
The Red Devils have steadily improved this season from set pieces.
Bruno Fernandes has produced some free kick goals and assists from corners in the last few weeks and it looked one of the most likely avenues to score in a frustrating night for United.
Dalot hit the crossbar and Casemiro had a couple of free headers that he should probably have done better with. Garnacho also almost smashed in an equaliser in the second half when the ball was fired in across the box from another Fernandes corner kick.
Supporters of the club will hope that the team can continue to pose a bigger threat from set pieces than they have in previous years.
Garnacho’s wastefulness is a huge issue
On the one hand, it is difficult to judge a 20 year old who has very little in the way of a supporting cast of goalscorers.
In addition, the young Argentine doesn’t back down and never goes into hiding, as he always demands the ball in United’s ...
