Just as Manchester United prepared to celebrate a heist that would warrant a prison sentence in any other walk of life, they quickly became trapped by the reality of their own ineptitude. Even the gift of a 1-0 lead with two minutes left isn’t safe on those slippery fingers.
But before we get to the wildest finale, in which Mason Mount put United ahead in the 96th minute and Kristoffer Ajer pulled Brentford level in the 99th minute, it is necessary to reflect on the greater levels of madness that preceded it.
That’s the madness of a goalless draw. The sheer madness that United were somehow in this game when they had been beaten and embarrassed in so many ways other than the ones that really matter.
If we go by a metric as basic as shot count, Brentford won this match 30-10, not counting those on either side of Mount and Ajer. Let’s contextualize those figures a bit, because when Brentford crushed United 4-0 in this match last season, the numbers showed 15-13 in United’s favor. This game was twice as hard as that one.
If Brentford had scored six here it wouldn’t have been a false accounting. Ivan Toney hit a post and had a goal disallowed for a near offside, as well as two other good chances. Bryan Mbbeumo hit the crossbar and scored. Yoane Wissa had multiple chances, as did Keane Lewis-Potter, and Andre Onana was a yellow speck of saves.
Kristoffer Ajer scored nine minutes into stoppage time to draw Brentford level at the death.
Mason Mount appeared to score Man United’s injury-time winner moments earlier.
But Manchester United’s joy quickly turned to despair as they conceded a late equalizer in west London.
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And yet somehow it almost ended in a defeat for Brentford when Casemiro clearly played Mount, so peripheral at United, and achieved the most unfathomable of victories. Thomas Frank seemed almost traumatized; Erik Ten Hag had found a lottery ticket in the bathroom.
But this is United. Of course it is. And so, with a victory they didn’t even remotely deserve on their hands, they made a mess of defending a high ball, Toney played in Ajer, and the team with the worst form in the league was suddenly able to reflect on two dropped points instead of one . Craziness.
A couple of hours earlier, United had arrived with a bit of swagger and confidence from having won nine of their previous 12 games in all competitions. More recently, that meant an FA Cup victory against Liverpool and, on the basis that a good thing is quite rare these days, Ten Hag did not play in the XI.
On the contrary, Frank made two changes to the team defeated at Burnley a fortnight ago, with Lewis-Potter and Yehor Yarmoliuk replacing Frank Onyeka and the suspended Sergio Reguilon. To bring back good memories, among other qualities, Brentford also had Ivan Toney, Mads Roerslev and Mathias Jensen from that team that defeated United in August 2022.
It was a riot, a real assault on the weak, with all four goals between the 10th and 35th minutes. This time, the pressing patterns were almost identical, although Brentford somehow failed to break down.
As? God knows, but in that same period of time when they killed United once before, here Raphael Varane had to dive in front of a Lewis-Potter shot, Onana deflected a Mathias Jensen shot, Yoane Wissa and Zanka were marginally out. -Goal with free headers from Diogo Dalot and Toney crashes into the post.
Man United had a lucky escape when Brentford’s Ivan Toney hit the post with his shot.
Brentford manager Thomas Frank has struggled to achieve positive results in recent weeks.
Man United fans had high hopes for Erik ten Hag’s team after their dramatic FA Cup victory.
None of them entered; On another day, three or four would have been enough. Having looked reasonably stable in the first 10 minutes, United were a disaster. Ducks sitting without colorful feathers or buoyancy.
The components of your problems? Dalot’s marking was repeatedly exposed as a vulnerability, Toney did not match Varane on set pieces and Roerslev spent the half occupying the space behind Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Frank was well aware of how the latter dovetailed with the other two weaknesses and bled that route: so many attacks from Roerslev’s right flank caused United difficulties.
As such, they spent all but a handful of minutes immobilized. Mainoo was a delight when he could catch the ball (of course he was), but many of the attacking options, from Marcus Rashford to Bruno Fernandes and especially Alejandro Garnacho, were passive spectators of a kick.
That they escaped half of it on equal terms was truly incredibly lucky.
Ten Hag responded by hooking Varane in for Harry Maguire on the break (Varane appeared to hurt himself earlier when blocking a Toney shot) and his team’s overall energy also increased. They were able to pin Brentford down by pressing with less space and more urgency, particularly Rashford and Garnacho.
Amid those increased efforts, Dalot went close from distance and Rasmus Hojlund, chasing a goal in a seventh consecutive league game, was deflected by Mark Flekken.
While that was briefly promising, it was quickly closed, with a chance for Wissa and two quality saves from Onana to keep out Yehor Yarmoliuk and Lewis-Potter on the rebound. To cement impressions of a siege, Wissa launched a deflected broadside.
Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo hits the crossbar with a fierce volley after a route one move
Toney thought he had scored with a point-blank volley, but it was disallowed for offside.
Ajer scored the equalizer as the Bees entered the box once again, with Toney turning provider.
Garnacho was replaced by Antony in a roll of the dice and, more worryingly for Ten Hag, had to replace a second centre-back after Victor Lindelof went down injured. That disappointment was possibly offset by receiving the benefit of a marginal offside penalty against Toney when he seemingly volleyed Brentford ahead. Bryan Mbeumo continued to crash against the crossbar after United completely switched off from a set piece.
Just when it seemed like this match couldn’t get any tougher for Brentford, Mason Mount instead put them ahead six minutes into injury time. That was madness, really, as order was only partially restored amid the madness when Kristoffer Ajer leveled from close range a moment later.