Five things we learned from Fulham 1-1 Man Utd

Football writer Alex Keble analyses the 1-1 draw between Manchester United and Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Ruben Amorim would have hoped to have more than one point from Manchester United's first two matches of the Premier League season. 

Just like in their opening-weekend loss to Arsenal, Man Utd looked much-improved from the team that ended last season as they draw 1-1 with Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday. 

But despite signs of promise, two matches into the season and no Man Utd player has scored, with their goal coming from Fulham's Rodrigo Muniz. 

Here are five key takeaways from the match.

Silva's 3-5-1-1 is a template for how to tackle Amorim

If it looked like a bit of a tactical slog out there, then blame Marco Silva, whose decision to mirror United’s back three worked well in shutting down the threat.

Lining up in a 3-5-1-1 formation, Fulham’s plan involved a cautious midblock that snapped into action via one of the back five jumping out to meet the Man Utd forwards.

Wing-backs Timothy Castagne and Ryan Sessegnon in particular were allowed to come out of defence to hit the United inside forwards Mason Mount and Bryan Mbeumo, a hugely successful strategy throughout.

The second part of Silva’s tactical masterplan was to outnumber United’s two-man midfield with three of his own, ensuring that Alex Iwobi was repeatedly the spare man.

From minute one to the end, and despite several changes by Amorim to shut him down, Iwobi led the charge.

Eventually this advantage in the centre-left space paid off, launching a counter-attack for Emile Smith Rowe’s equaliser.

By playing a back three, fielding an extra player in central midfield, and instructing his defenders to step onto Man Utd’s inside forwards, Silva might just have provided a template for other Premier League teams to follow.

Man Utd's midfield gap remains an issue despite improvements

Once again Man Utd looked more coherent and competitive than in 2024/25, although it would be remiss not to mention the gaps in central midfield that once again opened up.

It is a well-known problem at Man Utd, and although the issue has been getting better, today Iwobi finding space was largely of United’s own making.

Situations like the one below happened a little too often, although this example was especially pronounced after Casemiro dived in. The next time the ball went out of play, he was substituted.

It was perhaps ambitious of Amorim to field Bruno Fernandes and Mount in the middle following that change and to his credit it shortly led to the Man Utd opener.

However, as the second half wore on energy levels dropped and Fulham turned the screw in midfield.

Fulham held 52 per cent possession in this match and always looked the more likely to make something happen.

Amorim, however, saw it more as a pressing problem: “We tried to press high, and after one, two times we need to understand and we need to manage the game and wait for the opponents,” he told Sky Sports.

“We wanted to press all the time, but sometimes we have to do better in that moment, understand the game, try to trop a little bit and then start the pressure. So they had more space than us when they were attacking.”

Faster, shot-heavy starts suggest United's forwards could be prolific

In better news for Man Utd, they raced out of the blocks and could have scored a couple early on as Matheus Cunha, Mbeumo, and Mount exchanged smart one-touch passes to create shooting opportunities.

It was a blitz of early action that could easily have given Man Utd the lead and indeed had Fernandes not have blazed a first-half penalty over the bar, it seems likely the visitors would have accelerated away.

Four of these were in the first 15 minutes.

It is encouraging for Man Utd supporters that the first 30 minutes were incisive, powerful, and entertaining.

Italian side Genoa (30) are the only team in Europe's big five leagues who have failed to score a first-half goal in more matches than United (29). Judging by today’s opening, that stat won’t last.

In fact, another start like that at home to Burnley next weekend should bring the first goal by a Man Utd player this season.

Amorim may only need a spark to set this thing alight.

Silva's super-subs continue to give Fulham hope

Fulham will be feeling particularly optimistic about the upcoming season after yet another super-sub goal dragged them back into the match.

It was Muniz off the bench, in the seventh minute of stoppage time, at Brighton & Hove Albion, and this time Smith Rowe scored 94 seconds after coming on.

Silva certainly has a knack for picking the right player at the right time: four of the six quickest substitute goals since the start of last season in the Premier League have been scored by Fulham players.

Fastest PL goals by subs since start of 2024/25

They are the kind of game-changing moments Amorim hoped for from his own substitutes, but at the moment he does not have quite the same touch as Silva.

Benjamin Sesko, his only attacking substitute, had only 16 touches of the ball and just one in the box.

Man Utd's start a concern with big matches to come

Man Utd have failed to win either of their opening two matches of a Premier League season for only the second time across the last 11 seasons, also doing so in 2022/23 under Erik ten Hag.

That doesn’t mean too much right now, although it does pile pressure onto a home meeting against Burnley next weekend.

They simply cannot countenance anything other than a win, not with Manchester City away and Chelsea at home to follow.

Amorim, however, is not worried.

“I think we can do better, but we are putting the effort, so that is the most important thing for me,” he said. “I think in some moments we did well, especially in the beginning of the game.”