Three things we learned as United hit third place the hard way vs. Palace

Manchester United crashed into third place in the Premier League with a battling win at home to Crystal Palace.

The Red Devils did things the hard way and had to come from behind, but Bruno Fernandes and Benjamin Sesko turned things round with a little help from VAR. Here are three things we learned from the match:

Super Sesko

As the clamour for Sesko to start a match reached fever pitch following a series of wonderful cameos from the bench, Michael Carrick broke with tradition and altered his starting lineup.

Amad dropped to the bench to accommodate Sesko in the middle of the front three, but he was left to feed off scraps in the first half as the team’s general lethargy prevailed.

Fortunately, the big Slovenian didn’t let his head drop and after a couple of sniffs at goal he found the back of the net from a sweeping Fernandes cross in the second half to put United ahead and turn yet another single point into three. His powerful header was a real centre-forward’s finish and was a perfect illustration of what he was brought into the club to do.

Sesko didn’t have too much else to do, but continues to grow into the role of United’s key man and should expect to start in Wednesday’s trip to Newcastle.

Mentality minnows

United seemed worryingly disinterested as they hosted bottom-half opposition in a game where three points would put them into third place in the Premier League. Once again there was a lack of energy, the home side’s tempo was slow, and their passing was frequently wide of the mark.

It was a golden opportunity to turn positive results into actual progress up the table, but Carrick’s team seemed more overawed than motivated.

Luck was on their side thanks to a benevolent VAR call which utterly changed the course of the game, handing United a penalty and reducing Palace to ten men, but even after taking the lead the hosts never really looked like a team sitting third in the league.

Dodgy defenders

United got off to a nightmare start, conceding from a run-of-the-mill set piece within five minutes as Maxence Lacroix was given the freedom of Old Trafford by Leny Yoro. The young Frenchman’s confidence was clearly knocked, and he was shaky and error-prone thereafter.

He wasn’t the only one, with Luke Shaw a shadow of his in-form self before he limped off to be replaced by Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot typically mediocre on the right.

Ultimately the backline’s bad day went unpunished but it was a wake-up call for Carrick, whose options in defence reduced further as Shaw joined Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt on the treatment table. Ayden Heaven’s solid second-half cameo, at least, was a positive.

Featured image Stu Forster via Getty Images

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