(Brentford 1 – 3 Manchester United) The Red Devils snatch three important points at Brentford Community Stadium tonight! It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but they managed to pull it off thanks to a good second half with goals from Elanga, Greenwood and Rashford.

Ralf Rangnick went with a 4-3-3 this time around, a new formation for Manchester United. The starting line-up left little to the imagination despite the formation change. McTominay still in the holding midfielder role where he clearly doesn’t belong. Scott is so much better when he’s allowed to move forward towards the opposition’s box, but falls short when he approaches ours. Lindelof and Varane as CBs seems to be working and keeps going with that while Maguire has been recovering from injury.

The first half got off to a rocky start for United, with Brentford having their chances but failed to capitalize on them. Manchester United got more into the game and managed to create some chances, but the midfield yet again lets us down! The coaching staff and the manager insists om playing with the same midfield, leaving Van De Beek on the bench as usual, and nothing changes; the very clear definition of insanity. Even though United have hired a set piece specialist, we still can’t defend nor score from them. United have now had over 100 corners without a goal. David De Gea keeps the team in contention as usual, making great saves one after another.

The second half was much better from all players. McTominay got his act together and managed to get a hold of the midfield to some degree. Fred kept having a terrible game however. But, now the goals were starting to come. First, Elanga with an assist from Fred, controls the ball and heads it past the keeper. Greenwood scores the second goal after an assist from Fernandes who got a great chest pass from Ronaldo after 62 minutes. Then come the substitutes, which make very little sense as usual. Rashford and Maguire enter the field to replace Greenwood and Ronaldo respectively. Ronaldo was fuming after being subbed off and Rangnick had to have a chat with him as Rashford puts it past the Brentford goalkeeper. Can’t blame Ronaldo to be honest; he has a fighting mentality and want to be on the pitch to score goals. 15 minutes later, Rashford goes on the attack, gets the ball from Fernandes and puts the ball at the back of the net to make it 3-0. After 83 minutes, McTominay gets substituted for Matic after getting injured and one minute later, a mess in front of our goal ends up in the net, giving Brentford a consolation goal.

Brentford didn’t pose much of a threat to United apart from a few good chances on the break in the first half. Other than that, they didn’t put up much of a fight, unlike Aston Villa last week.

There are still major issues at United that need sorting out, starting with getting a proper defensive midfielder. The Glazers keep up with the excuse that the January market is hard to buy anyone, the team is crying out for someone to take on this role. We have Matic, but he’s getting on in age and getting slower for every season and can’t keep up with the pace of the Premier League. Another weird event on the pitch was that Maguire took the captain’s band from Bruno 15 minutes after entering the pitch. It seems the Maguire and Rashford substituion was more to rush them back into the first team after injuries rather than having them have to work their way back unto the pitch, since Varane and Lindelof has been decent as central defenders for us.