Manchester United of old might have been disappointed with a 0-0 draw at Villa Park. But in the context of this season and Aston Villa’s incredible rise, it was a point worth having.
Erik ten Hag remains under pressure because stats will tell you it has been United’s worst start to a league season since 1989/90, a campaign which purportedly saw Sir Alex Ferguson close to being sacked. But a clean sheet in the wake of successive games conceding three goals is important.
United are still struggling to score goals, however, drawing blanks in four of their last five Premier League games. Ten Hag has previously said he will only be truly worried about that when his team stop creating chances, with Sunday’s game producing more shots on target than Villa.
With the help of 90min‘s player ratings, these are United’s best and worst players from the game.
Jonny Evans – 8/10
Nobody could have predicted that, in 2024, a 36-year-old Jonny Evans would be the best Manchester United player on the pitch in a Premier League game. But it happened at Villa Park.
Ten Hag made a huge call by benching both Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez after both centre-backs were extremely poor in Thursday’s 3-3 draw against Porto, with Harry Maguire joining Evans in the starting XI. Injury meant Maguire couldn’t continue after half-time, but Evans was great.
Reliability and consistency has seen the former Northern Ireland international unexpectedly rise to the top of the centre-back pile. Considering he was originally only re-signed on a short-term contract to make up the numbers in pre-season in 2023, it is genuinely astounding.
Honourable mention
Diogo Dalot – 7/10
Following on from his horror show in the 3-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur just a week earlier, Diogo Dalot deserves credit for how he bounced back here. The Portuguese full-back battled for the ball and was good at winning his tackles, which ultimately made it tough for Villa to create.
It’s also worth noting that with Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia still not available on the left, Dalot continues to play out of his usual position.
Joshua Zirkzee – 4/10
United spent £34m on an international forward in the summer in the hope that he’d be able to make an impact in games like these. Rasmus Hojlund is only two starts into his injury comeback and can’t do it all on his own. So when Joshua Zirkzee came on, there was hope of some fresh energy and invention from the Dutchman. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.
In 26 minutes on the pitch, Zirkzee had just eight touches of the ball and lost it four times. Part of that comes down to service, or a lack of it, but he needed to do more to imprint himself on the game, as well as do better with the ball when it actually did come his way.
Zirkzee scored his first United goal only 26 minutes into his debut back in August. But it’s now nine further appearances and counting without a single goal involvement since then.
Dishonourable mentions
Quite a few United players, certainly those in creative positions, showed some moments of quality but failed do enough. Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Christian Eriksen and Rasmus Hojlund have all shown in the past they are capable of much more.
