Daley Blind snatches late leveller for Man United at West Ham

West Ham 1 Man Utd 1: It comes to something when Sam Allardyce calls Manchester United a long-ball team; but that’s what it took for Louis van Gaal’s side to earn a point at Upton Park – and the post-match comments should make uncomfortable reading for United fans despite the temporary frisson caused by their side’s last-gasp equaliser.

Daley Blind’s excellent effort saved United from defeat and confirmed the spirit that served them so well in the Alex Ferguson days is still alive. But that, sadly, is where comparisons with teams of the past comes to an end — because it was not flowing football that prompted the revival but the muscular presence of substitute Marouane Fellaini as a target man.

The question, of course, is whether van Gaal deserves praise for his pragmatic approach as United lumped long balls forward, or whether his betrayal of the United brand and his strange use of Wayne Rooney and Angel Di Maria – both played deep in midfield again – is part of the problem at Old Trafford.

The bottom line is that this United team, despite having a front five that is worth €200m in the transfer market, remain a shadow of champions of days gone by, and were largely second best against a vibrant West Ham team whose pace and energy up front, where both Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho were excellent, almost secured them a famous victory.

They went ahead with a wonderful strike from temporary centre-back Cheikhou Kouyate after 49 minutes and were denied further goals on at least six or seven occasions by yet another excellent performance from United goalkeeper David de Gea; and it was only the late introduction of Fellaini that changed the game for the visitors, who had Luke Shaw sent off for a second bookable offence late on.

“It was a fantastic performance and I thought we were going to see it through,” said Allardyce. “But it was not to be and in the end we couldn’t cope with ‘long ball United’.

Blind’s late equaliser, sweetly struck with his left foot, was the reason for Allardyce’s disappointment; but for United the bigger picture was of two points dropped rather than one saved. There had been faint murmurings this week that, having seen Man City stumble for two weeks in a row, a late title challenge – or at least a push for second place – was not beyond van Gaal’s charges.

“We didn’t close the gap, so it’s a missed opportunity,” admitted the United manager. “I thought we played a very bad first half. We lost the ball so easily. Then within minutes of the second half they scored. But after that my team showed fantastic spirit and also fantastic football. We created a lot of chances. Yes, we played longer balls but that was only in the 15 minutes.

I have done that already a lot of times, it’s not new. With Fellaini we have more power. With Adnan and Di Maria we have more creative players.”

That warning is one for United’s flair players to take note of – especially as Juan Mata was also left on the bench – because van Gaal’s pragmatic and ruthless streak means he is likely to pay little heed to tradition and public opinion when choosing a style of play to win games. Certainly he should feel that United were less than the sum of their parts at Upton Park where the home side deserve huge credit for the way they performed. West Ham were without injured striker Andy Carroll and needed Senegalese midfielder Kouyate to fill in at centre-back for the first time.

But Allardyce’s side were still comfortably the better team in the opening half; and the only reason they didn’t go into the break ahead was the form of United goalkeeper De Gea, who made two fine saves from Valencia and one from a Tompkins header. When West Ham finally earned the goal they deserved, it came from an unexpected source — ‘centre-back’ Kouyate juggling the ball unchallenged in the area following a deep free-kick — and lashing a shot into the centre of the goal. Falcao had a great chance to equalise but, after being put clean through by van Persie, he skewed his shot horribly wide.

That summed up his afternoon; and United needed de Gea to make another stunning double save, from first Noble and then from Nolan, to keep the game from running away.

The reason it didn’t was down to a pragmatic decision from van Gaal to bring on Fellaini and resort to a tactic not often see from a United team over the last 10 years – lumping it up to the big man to save the game.

In the end it worked. Fellaini sent one header over the bar and was a constant menace before a tiring West Ham failed to clear properly in injury time, and Blind stuck to earn his side a largely undeserved point.

Same old United, you might say. But it didn’t really feel that way...

WEST HAM: Adrian 6, Jenkinson 7, Song 7, Tomkins 7, Cresswell 7, Kouyate 9, Noble 7, Downing 7, Nolan 7, Valencia 8 (Jarvis 83), Sakho 8.

MAN UNITED: De Gea 9, Valencia 7, Jones 5, Rojo 6, Shaw 6, Blind 6, Rooney 6, Januzaj 6 (Fellaini), Di Maria 6, van Persie 5, Falcao 5 (Smalling 90).

Referee: Mark Clattenburg.