Manchester United severely short on inspiration against Stoke City

Radamel Falcao scores equaliser but Louis van Gaal's side are evidently below their best, writes Andy Mitten.

Stoke City 1

Shawcross 2’

Manchester United 1

Falcao 26’

Man of the match Marko Arnautovic (Stoke City)

Stoke // Manchester United’s abysmal away record of two wins from 10 has surely ended their limited hopes of winning the Premier League.

United drew 1-1 at Stoke City in an enthralling match played in a swirling Potteries’ wind. Louis van Gaal’s side remain third but are nine points behind table leaders Manchester City and Chelsea with 18 games to play.

Stoke won the equivalent fixture last season and while they lost at Old Trafford at the start of December, their form has improved having won their two most recent matches.

Mark Hughes’s side went ahead within two minutes when Peter Crouch beat Chris Smalling in the air and headed a corner towards Ryan Shawcross, marked ineffectively by Phil Jones.

The former Manchester United defender anticipated the ball and pushed it into the roof of David de Gea’s net. Crouch has 53 Premier League assists, the same as Robin van Persie.

United’s attacking formation failed to cause an early threat while, at the other end, Stoke repeatedly exposed vulnerabilities in United’s three man defence, with Marko Arnautovic, whose corner led to the goal, a threat on the left.

Jonny Evans looked unsettled when Mame Diouf beat him to go one-on-one with De Gea after 19 minutes.

The former United striker blazed a shot wide, as United were unable to deal with the balls Stoke, in 11th position, played forward on a windy afternoon.

United were short of inspiration and fortunate to go level in the 26th minute when Rooney drifted a corner, which Michael Carrick flicked on towards Radamel Falcao.

The Colombian got his left foot over the ball to finish from close range.

Both teams struggled to create anything of note for the remainder of the first half and the start of the second before United made a double substitution on 63 minutes.

Adnan Januzaj on for Radamel Falcao and Ander Herrera for Luke Shaw.

Falcao looked annoyed to see his number held up, but his side needed penetration. Rooney moved up front from his deeper role to offer it.

The substitutes had been on the pitch a minute when the majority of the noisy 27,203 crowd hollered ‘Handball!’ after the ball hit Smalling’s arm in the United box. A penalty wasn’t given and Stoke were irked that they did not get a penalty after Robin van Persie tangled with Geoff Cameron.

Van Persie, who barely featured in the first half, showed brilliant skill to loop a shot wide after 67 minutes before a Crouch header hit the post a minute later.

As Stoke took their turn to attack, Diouf’s volley was deflected wide by Smalling.

United are two months and 10 games unbeaten, but Louis van Gaal stated pre-match that his side needed to improve their away form and conceded that they had been fortunate in their two victories on the road at Arsenal and Southampton.

Those two wins from 10 away games is a poor return – bottom-placed Leicester have won as many times on the road – and while United possess prodigious attackers, they have scored only 12 times away while conceding 13.

Stoke can again be encouraged by their performance, which demonstrated their progress under Hughes.

A top-10 finish is achievable. United should get the desired top-four finish, but loftier ambitions can wait.

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