Forget Rashford: Sloppy Dalot Was Worse for Man Utd v Atletico Madrid

· GiveMeSport

Manchester United fell to a disappointing Champions League defeat on Tuesday night, and one defender was very poor.

Manchester United fell to a 2-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid away from home in the Champions League on Tuesday night . Goals from Pablo Barrios and Ademola Lookman saw off Michael Carrick's men, ensuring United 's miserable start to the season continues.

United conceded the first goal within a minute when a long ball picked up apart an uncoordinated press and freed Alex Baena down the attacking left. The World Cup winner found Barrios right of centre, and he slotted home despite the best efforts of Ayden Heaven, who tried to clear from behind Senne Lammens.

The Red Devils huffed and puffed, and their best chances fell to Bryan Mbeumo, who had one short blocked and the other denied by Jan Oblack, while Marcus Rashford fluffed his lines by mishitting a volleyed chance after making a promising run into the box to latch onto a cross.

Leny Yoro, who had been playing well, was sent off after 74 minutes, and pretty harshly so, tussling with Jonathan David, who gets in behind the back-line. VAR intervened despite the referee deciding it wasn't a foul, and Yoro was sent off for denying a goalscoring opportunity.

In Yoro's defence, it was a rather soft red card, but Atleti punished it all the same, with David getting a shot off to force Lammens into a solid save, and Lookman was on-hand to tap into the empty net.

Rashford's performance will have left United fans frustrated again here. The England international didn't do anything alarmingly poor, but he simply lacks that elite piece of skill needed to dominate against teams like Atletico Madrid. He gets into good areas and then try to beat his man with the most basic side-step or touch, and defenders simply know better.

United cannot get Rashford into true space, where he can be dangerous, and when he receives the ball with a defender in front of him, he cannot beat his man. The one time he did spring his marker, he missed the ball completely. In comparison, Atleti managed to find Julian Alvarez with a higher and longer cross later in the game, and while the Argentine didn't score, he met the ball perfectly on the volley and rifled it off the post. That's the sort of quality United need and are not getting from Rashford.

But Rashford wasn't the villain here. Diogo Dalot had an absolute shocker on the right side of defence. Dalot was completely out of position when a long ball freed Baena down his side within the first minute, and that's where the goal came from.

United put together a poor press, but how do you get so caught out of position as a right-back within the first minute? He was the wrong side of Baena when the ball was played, and he was looking straight at him as the ball was played. You have to close that gap.

Early in the second half, he was a long way out of position again as Álvarez is picked out, once again chasing blindly back when it is too late, and he was lucky to see the shot hit the post.

To wrap up his sloppy performance, Dalot has to approach Grimaldo as he storms down the left in the lead up to the second goal, but he stays in the line and then Grimaldo gets a free pass to David. United were short of numbers defensively, so he may have a defence from the standpoint for this one, but you still have to be wise enough to know when to press the ball when a player is closing in on your box.

This was always going to be a close game, and defensive errors like Dalot's cost United on the night.

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