Manchester United has had a turbulent season due to their fluctuating performances. Their latest reality check came in a match against Sevilla in the Europa League. The La Liga strugglers defeated Manchester United 3-0, causing Manchester United to crash out of the competition.
The Athletic’s Laurie Whitwell reported that Erik ten Hag’s men were not up to their mark and just wilted against a team struggling to stay afloat in the 13th position in the Spanish top-flight. David De Gea was undoubtedly the worst of the bunch, and made three dreadful errors, as per Colin Mirror from The Mirror, which led to Sevilla scoring all three goals.
De Gea was responsible for providing the ball to captain Harry Maguire in the build-up to the first goal, which led to the white shirts surrounding him before allowing Loic Bade to score a looping, guided effort just after the break. In the end, the Spanish footballer gifted the ball straight to the feet of Youssef En-Nesyri, which led to the Moroccan footballer slotting the ball home from range for his second goal of the night.
Whitwell suggested that this performance by the former Atletico Madrid man has created long-term doubts about his future in the club. No decision has been made about his contract extension.
On a different note, Christian Eriksen’s performance deserves as much scrutiny as David De Gea. Eriksen’s return to the pitch only recently had generated high hopes as he was praised for his performance in the match against Nottingham Forest. However, the Danish midfielder was brought down to earth after being part of the Manchester United midfield trio that was simply “schooled” by Ivan Rakitic and Fernando.
According to Manchester Evening News journalist, Samuel Luckhurst, Eriksen was careless in his lapses when Manchester United needed him to be a calming influence. Eriksen lost possession 23 times from his 79 touches, proving to be a liability on the ball despite recording three key passes from his deep-lying position.
GOAL’s Richard Martin stated that Eriksen could not handle Sevilla’s intensity and had lost four of his nine total duels along with being dribbled past on two occasions, indicating he fell short of defensive expectations. Manchester United will hope that this performance will only be a blip as they look ahead to the FA Cup semi-final against Brighton and Hove Albion.
