MANCHESTER UNITED fumed after conceding a controversial late penalty against West Ham but they should have wrapped up the match by half-time.
In the end they lost 2-1 at the London Stadium.
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Erik ten Hag‘s side missed several opportunities to take the lead and somehow the match remained goalless at half-time.
Diogo Dalot even missed an open goal after poking the ball past Lukasz Fabianski before firing over the bar.
United managed eight shots in the first half but just two of those were on target.
It saw them go into the break with an xG of 1.48, compared to West Ham‘s awful 0.04.
But the home side came out firing after half-time and looked a completely different side, putting pressure on the Red Devils.
They found a breakthrough with 15 minutes to go through Cryscenio Summerville, before United finally found the net thanks to a Casemiro header six minutes later.
West Ham pushed for a winner and ended the match with 2.98 xG, so perhaps deserved a touch of fortune when Mattijs de Ligt was judged to have fouled Danny Ings for a late penalty, which Jarrod Bowen put away.
But United finished the game with an xG of 2.12, so if not for poor finishing could have had a point or more from their visit to East London.
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It is a familiar tale for Ten Hag’s strugglers, who are perhaps the worst finishers in the league.
No team has a bigger negative differential between expected goals and goals scored in the Premier League, with United producing just eight goals from an xG of 14.6, per Opta.
Ten Hag is now under considerable pressure having won just three of his nine Prem games this season.
He bemoaned the missed chances after the game and when asked about Dalot’s clanger, he said: “I can also say Alejandro Garnacho twice, Rasmus Hojlund one time, Rashford and Bruno.
“It is not fair to pick one of the players out who missed chances. There were so many who missed chances.
“It was clear and obvious that the best team didn’t win. We created so many chances, played such good football. So dominant. I collected six or seven 100 per cent chances we should have scored.
“I believe in my players that they are capable of doing this, I trust them and will encourage them to keep going, keep doing the same things we did in this game and others.
“Finally it will go in the net and kill and we win more games. We need better conversion, we are looking to creating more chances because both will give you a higher opportunity to win the game.
“What my players and I always do is look in the mirror, what did we do wrong. The only thing I can criticise my team for is missing the chances – that was the main factor.”
