Jose Mourinho’s red cards are usually considered acts of deflection, but Thursday night’s probably served that purpose for Erik ten Hag. A raucous game with a lot of sub-plots offered perhaps the most entertaining shows in Europe this season, if not all for good reasons or with any real pay-off.
That’s Manchester United on the pitch, and Mourinho off it. The Portuguese failed to get proper “revenge” on his old club, but then United have now failed to maximise a lead in every single Europa League game this season. This raucous 1-1 at Fenerbahce was the third draw in three, any positives again offset by obvious flaws. Youssef En-Nesyri, who ended Ten Hag’s first United European campaign when at Sevilla in 2022-23, here ended any sense of momentum after the win over Brentford.
There was also the theatre of Mourinho being somewhat harshly sent off for complaining about how a penalty claim was dismissed. The cuts to Ten Hag’s predecessor on a step here meant there wasn’t the same scrutiny on Ten Hag’s present problems. United can’t seem to get any form going. This was actually a regression to another issue.
After so many recent games where they have struggled to score and matches have often been boring, United did step it up in attack. The issue, as we have seen before, is that they can’t seem to play well going forward without simultaneously being so porous at the back. They here had Andre Onana and Manuel Ugarte to thank for this otherwise solid result not being worse.
Some of it was admittedly better, but not all of it. It is fitting of the kind of limbo that United are in. They have obviously never got so bad that the new football hierarchy felt they should sack Ten Hag, but it’s still not like there’s proper progress.
Progress in the Europa League itself is also that bit trickier, as a mere three points from three games leaves them well off the automatic qualification places. That here translates to 21st in the table, stuck between Viktoria Plzen and IF Elfsborg.
Are these United’s levels now? “We want to win,” he says, but there are obvious problems there. It has a flattening effect.
It’s just this back and forth, back and forth. Ten Hag described this as “not bad”, which maybe sums it up. Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford can both be exhilarating and anxiety-inducing in the same move. It was here in the centre of Mourinho’s new stage, and he suitably played to the crowd. His team were also better than they have been in the league, although that might have been because there was so much space to run into.
It is that balance Ten Hag can’t quite seem to strike.
The opening goal was one of those where you wonder how it is that United have so struggled to score this season. The talent has long been there and, just as encouragingly, two of the new signings were involved. Noussair Mazraoui was there in the No 10 position, for the first time in a United shirt. His touch back from Alejandro Garnacho’s pass was clumsy, but did the job, with Joshua Zirkzee playing it back for Christian Eriksen. His finish was sublime, the ball soaring into the top corner.
It was almost equalled moments later by a Rashford run. The England forward has done more and more of this lately to add another element to his game, but this time the finish was lacking. By centimetres. A curved shot went just by the post.
You couldn’t quite say there were only centimetres of difference at the other end, mind, unless it was in terms of how close Fenerbahce got to goal so often. United were again offering up so much space. There was a canvas of green for Fenerbahce to work with, which Dusan Tadic was greatly enjoying.
He of course supplied the crosses on numerous occasions where the home side had an opportunity from mere yards out. United required real heroics to keep them out. For the first, Ugarte got back to block a certain goal brilliantly. It may well be his arrival moment for United. Onana then immediately showed how players can grow despite uncertain starts for the club. He produced two of the best saves you will see this season, with both all the more impressive because one immediately followed the other. Having got down for one header, he then jumped up to get across for another.
It was the same Fenerbahce player thwarted for all these moments, in En-Nesyri. While that could have affected the confidence of other players, he kept going. En-Nesryi eventually got his reward, plundering a superb poacher’s header after half time. That, of course, was from mere yards out. Onana could do nothing this time.
United were suddenly unable to do much at all, in what was an anxious spell. It culminated in Ugarte appearing to nick Bright Osayi-Samuel on the edge of the box. There was contact, but wasn’t exactly a cast-iron spell. It certainly wasn’t worth getting sent to the stands for, but that was exactly where Mourinho went having remonstrated a bit too angrily. He was shown a straight red.
While it would be tempting to say he again put on a show, it seemed harsh. The worst you could say was that Mourinho looked at the referee sarcastically.
United immediately benefitted from the chaos, as Diogo Dalot surged down the right. He had three options to choose from in a huge opportunity, only to misplace a pass to Rashford.
Again, after so much entertainment, there was no crescendo. Mourinho didn’t miss as much from his step in the stands. It offered a bit of show, though, which is something that has been missing from both United’s season and Uefa’s.