Fernandes double earns reprieve for lacklustre United
BOURNEMOUTH 2 MANCHESTER UNITED 2
For Manchester United, is there a more damning indictment of their current state than the fact they have faced more shots than anyone else in the division this season?
Andre Onana’s goal was peppered again here and they have now conceded a league-high 574 shots. The other teams at the top of that list? Sheffield United, Luton and Burnley, a trio mired deep in relegation trouble.
It is so easy for sides to ruffle United and it seems Erik ten Hag does not know the solution either, though Bruno Fernandes scored twice at Bournemouth to prevent a humbling defeat. Dominic Solanke and Justin Kluivert struck for Andoni Iraola’s swarming side and the hosts thought they earned a stoppage-time penalty, only for VAR to rescue Willy Kambwala from further pain.
There were nine minutes of firsthalf stoppage time and while Fernandes, the United captain, clipped the crossbar with a dipping shot from 25 yards as he went in search of an equaliser, when the fourth official indicated as much it was the visitors who badly required some respite.
If anything was symptomatic of their alarming, anaemic display it was the chance that fell to Kluivert on the edge of the six-yard box a few minutes earlier. The excellent Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez popped up on the right to recycle a free-kick and when he sent the ball back, United were static.
Kluivert was alert, however, and made a perfectly timed run but his effort was repelled by Onana, who was left exposed throughout. Fernandes was the only United player to bother tracking the opposition and even he, really, was too late to react.
By that point United trailed 2-1, Fernandes having volleyed in from closerangeafterafortuitousdeflection off Illia Zabarnyi, but that scoreline flattered Ten Hag’s side, unchanged from their draw against Liverpool. Solanke got the first courtesy of a United tragicomedy and Kluivert got the second.
Bournemouth could have been out of sight by the interval. Onana went berserk when the woodwork came to United’s aid after Kerkez met Adam Smith’s superb cross from the right. Kerkez’s downward header hit the bar and it spoke volumes that when the ball boomeranged back towards him, he was quickest to it. Diogo Dalot, Kambwala, Harry Maguire and Casemiro watched as Kerkez made a mess of the rebound.
Kluivert’s goal came down United’s right flank, where Bournemouth had joy time and again. Kambwala pointed at an unmarked Kluivert but, with Dalot and Alejandro Garnacho looking at each other in front of the ball, suddenly the teenager was faced with the Bournemouth forward himself. Kluivert feasted on the space and rattled a shot inside Onana’s near post. It encapsulated United’s looseness. They were outnumbered, overwhelmed and outrun. It was a similar story for Bournemouth’s first goal, when Solanke seized on a Kambwala slip. Kambwala lost his footing, tried to regain it, and then stumbled once more. But the goal stemmed from a United goal-kick. Rasmus Hojlund chested Onana’s kick into Garnacho, who was replaced by Amad Diallo at the interval, but his touch was poor. It was, again, a Bournemouth player who showed greater hunger to get to the ball. Marcos Senesi toe-poked a first-time pass into Solanke and he turned Kambwala and promptly buried his 17 th league goal of the season, the best tally for a Bournemouth player in the top flight in a single season. Presumably Ten Hag introduced Diallo in an attempt to prevent Kerkez from charging down the left wing and give the full-back something to think about going the other way. Kerkez pushed into midfield after Lloyd Kelly replaced the injured Luis Sinisterra towards the end of the first half and Kelly almost fed Solanke approaching the hour, only for Kambwala to nab the ball. United, by contrast, offered nothing going forward, so no wonder several of their players celebrated when the referee, Tony Harrington, gave them a chance to level, penalising Smith for handball in the box. Kobbie Mainoo’s speculative shot from the edge of the box cannoned off Ryan Christie, relentless in midfield, and off Smith’s right arm. Smith did not appeal but United’s jubilant reactions — before Fernandes sent Neto the wrong way — said everything. Bournemouth were inches from earning a penalty in stoppage time but a VAR check showed Kambwala’s cynical body check on Christie was outside of the box.