After 22 rounds of the Premier League, Manchester United ranked seventh with 9 wins, 5 draws and 6 losses with 32 points, five points behind fourth-place West Ham United, and the prospect of competing for four was extremely unoptimistic. However, due to the previous large-scale outbreak in the team, Manchester United has played 2 rounds less, and if they can win these 2 games, Manchester United can continue to maintain the hope of competing for the fourth.
Therefore, this 17th round of play against Brentford is extremely important for Manchester United.
As a new premier league force, Brentford had a strong storm at the beginning of the season, but with the deepening of the season and the attention of opponents, this crazy little bee has calmed down. In the last round of the Premier League, Brentford suffered a 0-3 defeat at Anfield, while Liverpool were missing two aces, compared to the performance of brentford in the first leg of the two teams in the first leg of brentford equalized the score with 1-3 behind, the trend of this is very obvious.
But even so, Lonnick did not dare to be careless, and the German tacticians did not dare to line up their original 4-2-2-2 formation to attract attention, but continued to use the 4-2-3-1 that worked well in the last round.
Cristiano Ronaldo returned from injury and replaced Cavani as the starter, but Manchester United did not play the expected football, although Manchester United controlled nearly 70% of the possession in the first half, but played hard to say a word.
Brentford manager Thomas Frank's onslaught play for the team exposed the weakness of United's double-back interception ability and lack of ability to shoot the ball. United's defence was under Brentford's frantic onslaught, scattering at first stroke and breaking at the first poke. In the first half, Brentford had many chances, but he could not break De Gea's ten-finger mark.
De Gea became the "picturesque" again, in the face of Brentford's sharp counterattack, De Gea perfectly interpreted what is "one husband, one hand, no one"- 3 key saves, saving Manchester United's face.
After all, the strength is limited, Brentford can not pass the de Gea barrier, that is fate. Therefore, when Ronnick strengthened his control in the second half, the gap in strength between the two sides ultimately determined the outcome of the game.
United scored two goals in seven minutes to set the game open.
In the 55th minute, youngster Erlanga stepped forward, received a direct pass from Fred and picked up the ball, breaking the goal with a close-range header, and finally breaking the deadlock for Manchester United. In the 62nd minute, B-Fernandez received a pass from Ronaldo and burst into the box, and greenwood easily pushed the empty goal to win, and the score became 2-0.
Seeing the victory in his hands, Lonnick finally breathed a sigh of relief, and he replaced Greenwood and C Ronaldo with Rashford and Maguire in the 70th minute.
Ronnick replaced C Ronaldo, which is reasonable and is the right choice, but C Ronaldo is extremely unhappy about being replaced.
C Luo slowly swallowed the field, blackened the whole time, threw the coat handed by the staff on the ground, and then sat on the ground without sitting on the bench. In the BBC's description, it was "a complete play by Ronaldo shaking his head"—walking at snail's pace, arguing rather comically with his coat, and creating a completely unnecessary add-on scene with conceit.
Soon after Rashford came on, he sealed the victory for Manchester United. In the 77th minute, he received a diagonal pass from B-Fernandez and fired a powerful shot at the goal, which also saved himself face.
But United's goal was still scored by Brentford at the last minute, and De Gea was busy all the time, or late in the season. The problems of United's defensive line cannot be counted on De Gea to save every game.
After scoring 3 points, Manchester United's points also equaled Arsenal, but they played 1 more game than Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur beat Leicester City in this round, in the case of 2 games less than Manchester United, 1 point more than Manchester United.
Manchester United seem to have won, but it seems that nothing has been won, and Ronaldo's displeasure after being replaced has once again become a problem for Ronnick to solve.
Not easy, really not easy! Because Thomas Frank still doesn't believe that his team has lost...