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Manchester United suffered their third consecutive defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich in the club’s opening Champions League game this evening.
Goals from Rasmus Hojlund and a late double from Casemiro were not enough to overturn the result in United’s favour at the Allianz Arena.
Erik ten Hag’s men had 40% of the ball compared to Bayern’s sizeable 60% possession.
United had a total of 9 shots at goal, with four of these being on target.
In comparison, the Bundesliga champions registered an astronomic 19 cracks at goal. Nine of these required Andre Onana to swing into action.
The Red Devils managed to put together 393 passes with a pass accuracy of 85%.
Bayern on the other hand stung together 602 passes with a success rate of 89%.
During a game in which some of United’s players did not show up, Christian Eriksen stuck out like a sore thumb.
Eriksen started in a midfield trio also consisting of Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes.
The Dane only had 46 touches of the ball to his name, during the 69 minutes he was on the pitch before being taken off and Scott McTominay brought in his place.
He managed a pass accuracy of 83%.
Eriksen did not make even one key pass. He is renowned for contributing offensively but against Bayern, this quality was evidently lacking.
The midfielder also failed to deliver a cross from his one attempt. He tried to ping two long balls but could not find his intended target even once.
His only shot at goal was off-target.
Eriksen embarked on two dribbles but could not complete either one. He missed one big chance, in the early stages of the game.
He won zero of the five ground duels he delved into and lost the ball on 10 occasions.
Eriksen was dribbled past one time and conceded a penalty for Bayern’s third of the game.
The player blocked one shot and made as many clearances.
(Stats obtained from Sofascore)
Certainly, there is a lot for Eriksen to improve on as United aim to get back to winning ways against Burnley on Saturday.
