Manchester United’s failure to close out their Old Trafford clash with Southampton and take all three points could prove crucial when the Premier League season reaches its climax.
On a night where the Red Devils weren’t at their best, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men looked to be heading into third place however, leading 2-1 into injury time.
However, under increasing pressure from a relentless, hard-running Saints side, United wilted and ultimately conceded a 96th minute equaliser to Michael Obafemi.
The young striker turned home at the far post as United failed to deal with a corner-kick, four players getting beat to the near post flick-on by Jan Bednarek, and the young Ireland striker pinching in ahead of Victor Lindelof to turn home on the goal line.
As such, United dropped from third to fifth, below both Chelsea and Leicester in their Champions League battle.
Paul Scholes has chastised the Swede’s role in the dropped points, claiming he allowed himself to be “bullied” and citing a failure to read danger at a crucial moment from the centre-back. He’s not wrong.
United skipper Harry Maguire said post-game that it was a throwback to earlier in the season, when United conceded from set-plays with increased regularity.
“Defending set-plays is something we've improved on during this unbeaten run.
“At the start of the season, we had a terrible record conceding set-play after set-play. But we've been really good at them lately.
“The guy can’t get a header in at our front post when we've got four men around it. We'll have a look at it and we'll learn from it.”
Again, Maguire isn’t wrong.
But it was something else that the England defender said that was perhaps much more pertinent when looking back on United’s failure to close out the game.
“We’re disappointed. We got control of the game and we had numerous chances.”
He went on to add: “We weren’t good enough on the ball. We gave the ball away far too much as a team, everyone in the team.
"We brought a little bit of pressure onto ourselves.”
And for that, eyes have to be turned in the direction of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in particular with regards his substitutions which handed the impetus to the away side.
As he looked to see out the game, the Norwegian withdrew the most creative elements of his midfield: Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes.
But what they also did was stop United’s ability to negate the Saints’ press by keeping possession; as Spain showed during their European Championships and World Cup successes, sometimes the best way to defend is by not having to actually do any.
Pogba was replaced in the 66th minute. His replacement, Fred, made just nine passes in his 36 minutes on the field - taking into account injury time, with he game heading to the 102 minute mark - completing seven.
Scott McTominay replaced Fernandes in the 87th minute, the Scotland midfielder introduced to offer greater protection and to calm proceedings, to be more pragmatic than the Portuguese. He made just one unsuccessful pass in 15 minutes on the field of play.
United’s ability to keep possession without one of their key men plummeted.
Without both, it was non-existent.
United boasted 55 per cent possession in the first half. In the early throes of the second period, they were ahead in that respect also, actually boasting 66 percent in the first 15 minutes.
At the point of Pogba’s substitution, they had held 55.3 percent possession in total and 3-1 looked more likely than 2-2.
They ended the second half having had just 41 percent throughout the period. From minute 76 to the final whistle (26 minutes in total), United had just 21 percent possession.
There is no question, it was a spectacular drop off.
United boasted 55 per cent possession in the first half. In the early throes of the second period, they were ahead in that respect also, actually boasting 66 percent in the first 15 minutes.
At the point of Pogba’s substitution, they had held 55.3 percent possession in total and 3-1 looked more likely than 2-2.
They ended the second half having had just 41 percent throughout the period. From minute 76 to the final whistle (26 minutes in total), United had just 21 percent possession.
There is no question, it was a spectacular drop off.
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