Man United’s shambolic performance leads to embarrassing draw against Brentford, surpassing last season’s 4-0 defeat, says RIATH AL-SAMARRAI

Just as Manchester United set about celebrating a heist that would warrant a prison sentence in any other walk of life, they were quickly trapped by the realities of their own ineptitude. Even the gift of a 1-0 lead with two minutes to play is not safe in those slippery fingers.

But before we come to the most wild of finales, in which Mason Mount had United ahead on 96 minutes and Kristoffer Ajer brought Brentford level on 99, it is necessary to reflect on the greater levels of craziness that preceded it.

That being the craziness of a goalless draw. The sheer insanity of United somehow being in this match when they had been pummelled embarrassed in so many ways apart from any of those that actually matter.

To go by a metric as basic as shot count, Brentford won this match 30-10, not counting those on either side from Mount and Ajer. Let’s contextualise those digits a little, because when Brentford crushed United 4-0 in this fixture last season, the numbers showed 15-13 in United’s favour. This game was twice the battering of that one.

Had Brentford scored six here, it would not have been a false accounting. Ivan Toney hit a post and had a goal disallowed in a close-call offside, to go with two other good chances. Bryan Mbbeumo hit the bar and side-netting. Yoane Wissa had multiple opportunities, so did Keane Lewis-Potter, and Andre Onana was a yellow blur of saves.

And yet somehow it almost ended in a Brentford defeat when Mount, so peripheral at United, was played clear by Casemiro and teed up the most unfathomable of victories. Thomas Frank looked almost traumatised; Erik Ten Hag somehow had found a lottery ticket in the toilet.

But this is United. Of course it is. And so with a win they did not remotely deserve in their grasp, they made a hash of defending a high ball, Toney played in Ajer, and the team with the worst form in the league could suddenly reflect on two points dropped rather than one. Madness.

A couple of hours earlier, United had arrived with a little swagger and the confidence of winning nine of the previous 12 games across all competitions. Most recently that meant an FA Cup victory against Liverpool and, working from the basis that a good thing is pretty rare these days, Ten Hag didn’t fiddle with the XI.

By contrast, Frank made two alterations to the team beaten at Burnley a fortnight ago, with Lewis-Potter and Yehor Yarmoliuk in for Frank Onyeka and the suspended Sergio Reguilon. For the benefit of happy memories, among other qualities, Brentford also had Ivan Toney, Mads Roerslev and Mathias Jensen from that side which trounced United in August 2022.

That was a riot, a real storming of the weak with all four goals coming between the 10th and 35th minutes. This time round, the patterns of pressure were near identical, albeit with Brentford somehow failing to break though.

How? Goodness knows, but in that same period of time when they killed United once before, here Raphael Varane had to launch himself in front of a Lewis-Potter shot, Onana tipped away a drive from Mathias Jensen, Yoane Wissa and Zanka were each marginally off-target with free-headers afforded by Diogo Dalot and Toney hit a post.

None of those went in; on another day three or four might have done. Having looked reasonably steady in the opening 10 minutes, United were a shambles. Sitting ducks minus the colourful feathers and buoyancy.

The components of their problems? Dalot’s marking was repeatedly exposed as a vulnerability, Toney was a mismatch for Varane at set-pieces and Roerslev spent the half getting into the space behind Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Frank was well aware of how the latter dovetailed with the other two frailties and bled that route dry – so many attacks from Roerslev’s right flank caused United difficulties.

As such, they spent all bar a handful of minutes pinned back. Mainoo was a delight when he could get on the ball – of course he was – but too many of the attacking options, from Marcus Rashford to Bruno Fernandes and especially Alejandro Garnacho, were passive onlookers to a kicking.

That they escaped the half on level terms was incredibly fortunate indeed.

Ten Hag responded by hooking Varane for Harry Maguire at the break – Varane had seemed to hurt himself earlier in blocking a Toney shot – and the general energy of his side also lifted. They were able to pin Brentford back by pressing with fewer gaps and more urgency, particularly Rashford and Garnacho.

Out of those increased efforts, Dalot came close from distance and Rasmus Hojlund, chasing a goal in a seventh successive league fixture, was tipped wide by Mark Flekken.

While that was briefly promising, it was quickly shut down, with one chance for Wissa and two quality Onana saves in keeping out Yehor Yarmoliuk and Lewis-Potter on the rebound. To cement impressions of a siege, Wissa then drilled a volley wide.

Garnacho was hauled off for Antony in an act of dice rolling and, more troubling for Ten Hag, he then had to replace a second centre-half after Victor Lindelof went down injured. That disappointment was possibly balanced by receiving the benefit of a marginal offside call against Toney when he seemingly volleyed Brentford ahead. Bryan Mbeumo followed it up by crashing against the bar after United switched off entirely at a set-piece.

Just when it seemed this match could not be harsher on Brentford, Mason Mount, on as a substitute put them ahead six minutes into stoppage time. That was bonkers, really, with order only partially restored amid the insanity when Kristoffer Ajer levelled from close range a moment later.