No shots on target: Manchester United ease to a draw against toothless Sociedad

Robin van Persie

Marouane Fellaini gets sent off, and Robin van Persie misses a penalty as Sociedad managed to hold David Moyes’ boys to a draw. United will be disappointed with the result as they would have felt they deserved to win. The two dropped points means they have to wait until the next round of fixtures to secure their progress into the knock-out stages of the Champions League.

Key Stats

The home side did not even manage a shot on target, David De Gea’s biggest test came when Chris Smalling chested the ball back to him while Sociedad were on a counterattack. United managed three efforts on target while two of their four off-target efforts actually hit the woodwork.

United should have won the game considering the chances they had, but their finishing was not quite up to their usual standard.

Everything else was pretty even, except for the foul count. United committed 11 while Sociedad just four. A fair few of United’s were given away by Fellaini who saw himself sent off. While none of his fouls were particularly dirty or dangerous many were silly and needless and given the amount that he racked up a red card for two bookings was probably fair.

Man of the Match

Nemanja Vidic piced up the award in tonight’s encounter with a Squawka Performance Score of 58, 13 points higher than second placed Claudio Bravo.

The Serbian centre-back won both the tackles he contested and six out of the seven headers he went in for as well as making three interceptions. Vidic, like he always does when at his best, dominated the defence for United, both on the deck and in the air.

His pass completion was also excellent with 88% of the 59 attempted finding a team-mate.

Performance Score

After the teams had set out their stall United ended up dominating, leading the Performance Score stakes. The Liga outfit were ahead at the fifth minute and came close to matching the Red Devils on the half-hour mark, but United pressed home their superiority thereafter.

By the end of the match United were 127 points ahead if the Spanish side, 198 to 71. Despite not winning United were by far and away the better side, especially in the second half.

Key Observations

Ashley Young continues to cause controversy with his simulation and it remains a wonder to many how the official did not recognise the blatant piece of gamesmanship. If he keeps embarrassing his club in this way he might not be around much longer, especially when his contribution elsewhere isn’t worth the hassle.

He played half an hour tonight and attempted just eight passes, completing only 50%, in addition he attempted four crosses and only one was successful.

Fellaini was on course for his best performance in a United shirt until his red card. He won two of two tackles and two of three headers while completing 86% of passes. If he could keep that up and cut out the stupid fouls he would do well.

Highly-rated Antione Griezmann did not impress on the biggest stage, with a Performance Score of -2. Starting wide-left, he completed only 65% of his passes, none of them were key, and he was hauled off before the end of the match too.

A point and a clean sheet in any Champions League away game is deemed a good return, but under the circumstances, Moyes will be annoyed his side weren’t able to wrestle all three points away from la Real.