Amorim wins 3-4-2-1 battle but his system is still flawed

Perhaps for the first time in his Manchester United tenure, a 34-2-1 worked well for Ruben Amorim. Not his own specifically; more the fact that Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner also chooses to deploy that system.

- CHRIS WILSON

While Amorim's iteration has been the subject of plenty of debate, Glasner's has often been praised, but it was the Portuguese who came out as the victor this time around as United secured a 2-1 win over the Eagles courtesy of goals from Joshua Zirkzee and Mason Mount.

Amorim came into the game under plenty of scrutiny after sticking to his formation in the dismal loss to Everton despite the Toffees having 10 men, while Glasner enjoys full backing at Palace after delivering the first trophy in the club's history with the FA Cup win last year.

But while any formation and all tactics can have merits at different times, this match was not an advert for the merits of a 3-4-2-1.

The visitors almost got off to a dream start when a long throw caused problems in the Palace box, with a brilliant save from Dean Henderson denying Casemiro from point-blank range.

However, from there United offered precious little, again relying - as is often the case these days - on a lucky break, a counter or a set-piece to create anything in attack.

At the same time, Palace were quick to create their own opportunities, the home crowd gaining plenty of encouragement as Jean-Philippe Mateta found the side-netting before dragging an effort wide a few minutes later, the Frenchman having gone clean through after a fortunate ricochet off Leny Yoro.

Mateta knew he should have opened the scoring but he didn't need to wait long to do so anyway, winning a penalty and converting it not once but twice, after a VAR review showed he touched the ball twice on the first effort.