Ajer rescues point for Brentford in Manchester United thriller

It doesn’t matter what they did two weeks ago, this is still the modern Manchester United, and they are still dismal. A 1-1 draw hardly tells the story of the game. Brentford had 31 shots, four of which hit the woodwork. They didn’t score until Kristoffer Ajer equalised in the ninth minute of injury time, by which point they were mystifyingly behind, but really by then they should have won almost as comfortably as they did in this fixture last season.

The problem for United under Erik ten Hag has been that, while there have been decent performances and results, they have rarely been followed by anything approaching a consistent run. Quite what the win over Liverpool in the FA Cup was, other than thrilling, is unclear.

Related: ‘We didn’t deserve to win’: Ten Hag asks for more desire after Brentford draw

There were long spells when United were second-best in that game but they had the spirit and resilience to hang in and find a win. It’s far too early to know whether history will remember that as a turning point or a last flailing of a fading beast, at least before a change of manager.

Even before the draw that paired United with Coventry in the semi-final, there was talk of Amad Diallo’s goal being Ten Hag’s ‘Mark Robins moment’, but the goal that, in legend at least, saved Alex Ferguson’s job in 1990, didn’t lead to an immediate uptick in form: that win over Nottingham Forest was followed by a home league defeat to Derby County as Steve Bruce was sent off. There were echoes of that at Brentford on Saturday.

The best that could be said of the first half for United was that at least it wasn’t as bad as last season’s equivalent fixture, when Brentford scored four times. Even if United didn’t have Cristiano Ronaldo sulking or David de Gea inspiring panic with every attempt to pass out from the back, there were worrying similarities in the way Brentford seemed faster, stronger and more aggressive. Given the nature of that win over Liverpool, the sense that it was achieved as much by will as anything else, this was a bafflingly diffident performance.

Against a more confident or more fortunate Brentford, this could have been a defeat of similar magnitude. The chances kept on coming and kept on somehow not going in. André Onana made a remarkable double save from Yehor Yarmolyuk and Keane Lewis-Potter but mostly this was a tale of shots flashing just wide or hitting the frame of the goal.

Ivan Toney was first, rolling a one-on-one against the post and highlighting the structural problems United have. As Brentford broke, the back of United’s midfield was strikingly absent, drawing Raphaël Varane out of the defensive line to create the space that Yoane Wissa exploited with a clever flick. Mathias Jørgensen then had a header flick the top of the bar.

Wissa continued the policy showcased against Chelsea of attempting to score only through the spectacular, a fascinating game within a game. He had spoken then of his delight in “doing something beautiful for the people who love football”, which is a lovely principle, although presumably the odd scuff or tap-in would be considered just as beautiful by the people who love Brentford. The DR Congo international has a game based largely around flying volleys and elaborate plummets; few players have such an overt love of grass. If only he had indulged himself with another frolic, casting himself down to writhe among those luscious blades, when the ball dropped to him in the 59th minute, Wissa might have got the opener; as it was, his ill-advisedly conventional standing volley kissed the outside of the post.

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Bryan Mbeumo became the fourth Brentford player to bother the woodwork, pinging a shot off the bar. And the more chances Brentford missed, the greater the danger of United somehow pinching one. Rasmus Højlund had drawn a fine save from Mark Flekken early in the second half and Antony had whipped a speculative effort just wide when, six minutes into injury time, Mason Mount seized on Casemiro’s pass to score his first goal for United.

The injustice seemed outrageous, but Ajer’s goal from Toney’s cut-back three minutes later restored at least a measure of fairness to the scoreline. United, though, were very fortunate to get away with a draw.