United waste perfect chance to lock up Round of 16 spot
Manchester United will have to win its final UEFA Champions League group game away to Wolfsburg if it is to be sure of progressing to the Round of 16 after settling for a lackluster 0-0 draw on Wednesday night.
After yet another stalemate, the Red Devils trail Bundesliga runners-up Wolfsburg by a point and is a point clear of PSV, which is at home to the group's bottom side, CSKA Moscow, in its last game. If United does end up slipping into the Europa League, it will be the result of a familiar failing: An inability to convert possession into chances and chances into goals.
''We are not ruthless enough - we have to score more goals as a team,'' United captain Wayne Rooney said. ''(It's) a learning curve but we cannot go on saying that. We have to change these (draws) into victories.''
United had 58 percent of the possession at Old Trafford, created more chances than PSV, and yet, after a promising start, was reduced in the final stages to log humps up to Marouane Fellaini. As has been the way throughout Louis van Gaal's reign, United stuttered just as it seemed to be generating some momentum.
"They couldn't find a solution to beat our defense. We were tactically very good," PSV coach Phillip Cocu said.
On a night when Old Trafford paid tribute to George Best on the tenth anniversary of his death, fans illuminating their smartphone screens and holding them aloft after seven minutes -- Best, of course, having worn the number seven shirt for much of his time at the club -- the absence of the sort of magic the Northern Irishman was capable of creating was sorely felt.
By the final whistle, Old Trafford was an anxious and tetchy place. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the performance was that United had begun well before fizzling out. It is unbeaten now in nine games and at first, it played with something that began to approach the swagger that used to characterize the club.
It was possible in the first half to believe there is an increasing confidence about this United side. The accusations that it plays an unadventurous possession-based form of the club aren't without foundation, but there is evidence of more fluid, dynamic attacking patterns beginning to emerge. Paradoxically, that may be because of the solidity it has at the back with just two goals conceded since it went down 3-0 at Arsenal at the beginning of October -- and one in open play for more than 11 hours.
Rooney and Anthony Martial returned to the side that had beaten Watford with a late winner on Saturday and that perhaps added a little to the sense of early verve. With Martial, Memphis Depay and Jesse Lingaard across the forward line, there was pace and inter-movement and Rooney, although his diminishing pace is becoming increasingly obvious, revelled in the space behind them. He has seemed sluggish when used as lone front man this season but this role allowed him to drift into space and create the play rather than looking to lead the line.
But for all the sense of purpose, all the neat passes and unusual angles United found around the edge of the box, it struggled to create clear chances, its first real opening coming 31 minutes in as Morgan Schneiderlin prodded a Daley Blind corner goalwards only for Jeroen Zoet to save.
PSV offered little in the way of creative threat, its only chance of the first half arriving after 33 minutes as a Jorrit Hendrix curler was plucked out of the air by David De Gea. United was in almost control and all that was missing -- and it's not an unfamiliar refrain this season -- was a goal. Martial hit a couple of shots straight at Zoet and Depay scuffed a shot early in the second half after a sharp run.
Van Gaal's solution to unlocking PSV was the introduction of Fellaini and Ashley Young after 58 minutes. By then, there was a sense that United had begun to lose its way and the chants of "Attack! Attack! Attack, attack, attack!," never far below the surface this season, were beginning to be heard from the Stretford End.
The ease of movement that had been there in the first half disappeared and as United became more and more scratchy, PSV presented more and more of a threat. And then, with 17 minutes remaining, came a glorious chance, as Young's cross was deflected into the past of Lingaard. Eight yards out with just the keeper to beat, he was perhaps deceived by the bounce of the ball and clubbed his shot high over the bar.
His look of anguish said everything. This was a game United had to win and should have won but ended up, for the fifth time this season, drawing 0-0.
Information the Associated Press was used in this report.
