A Different United
During his customary press confrence before each game, Ten Hag said we were going to see a different United team at Selhurst Park and throughout the first half one might have quite easily mistaken the red side of Manchester for their blue fitting counterparts. By the 20th minute former goalkeeper Henderson had made 4 good saves, with the clearest chances falling to Garnacho and De Ligt, the former was brought in at the expense of Rashford and contrary to speculations, Ten Hag stressed it was mainly for tactical reasons and he got so agitated in his explanation that he called Pundit Jamie Redknapp "crazy" for suggesting otherwise, De Ligt had another excellent game at the back and going forward, his efforts showed that United are not going to be blunt and clueless anymore at corners and set pieces. United continued the game in the same manner, playing out excellently from the back, carving out the Palace midfield and creating chances galore, Zirkzee was inches away, Garnacho and Fernandes struck the bar within seconds of each other, the only difference between the first-half at Palace and the one at Old Trafford on Tuesday against Barnsley was that the scoreline read 0-0 instead of 3-0, it might have gotten worse for United had Eze managed to shoot at either side of Onana instead of straight at him after Mitchell managed to run behind a sleeping Amad to cut back for the Palace talisman who aimed a tamed effort straight at Onana, it was their only shot of the half.
The Resurgence Of Christian Eriksen
A lot of people thought the only change in formations would be a first start in the Premeir League for new signing Ugarte but Ten Hag has always been a coach who believed in form therefore Eriksen kept his place, the United midfield that was a major problem last season looks so different to the extent that Ten Hag can chose two different sets of midfield three. The resurgence of Mount who is back from yet another injury and signing of Ugarte might have resulted in less playing time for Eriksen, but just like how Mctominay took the signing of Casemiro personal two years ago, Eriksen seems to have taken the signing of Ugarte personal, the midfielder who was close to leaving during the summer break has started United's last three games and has been United best midfielder ever since, scoring two goals, assisting one and serving expertly as the link between defence and attack. As mentioned above, many might have thought that Ugarte would be able to casually work into the United first team but just like Casemiro he will have to wait.
United Paying For Missed Chances
An afternoon that seemed like a wonderful one ended up been a frustrating on for United, they played arguably there best bit of football in the first-half but Palace learned there lesson and were more compact in the second half, eventually the game that was so one-sided suddenly looked like it had no clear winner, Onana had to make to excellent double saves in two seconds which I strongly believe where better than that of Raya during the week. Hopefully the habit of missing chances will be forgotten story now that Rasmus Hojlund is back, but for what it's worth, the game at Palace was indeed different and it showed a clear direction of where the team was heading.
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