Toronto Star

Man U drawn out of slumber

- STEVE DOUGLAS

It seemingly needs a sleepy start to a game to jolt Manchester United’s players into action these days.

Their latest stirring comeback came at Southampto­n on Saturday. Trailing 2-0 after 20 minutes against a team without a win in three months, United recovered to draw 2-2 for a result that leaves Jose Mourinho’s side 16 points off the lead in the English Premier League after just 14 games.

First-place Manchester City, which beat Bournemout­h 3-1to go five points clear of Liverpool.

Reacting to a crisis at centre back, Mourinho fielded a back three featuring centre midfielder­s Nemanja Matic and Scott McTominay.

“Today we had a reason for the fragility,” Mourinho said. Romelu Lukaku ran onto a pass from Marcus Rashford to shoot high into the net in the 33rd, cutting the margin to 2-1. Rashford crossed to Ander Herrera for the second goal.

In the race for a top-four finish to qualify for the Champions League, which might be a minimum requiremen­t for Mourinho to stay in his job, United is six points behind fourth-place Chelsea, whose game in hand is against Fulham on Sunday.

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