Manchester United dented their hopes of finishing in the Champions League after drawing 2-2 in a dire performance against Bournemouth on Saturday.

Calamitous defending allowed Dominic Solanke to score the opener for the Cherries before Bruno Fernandes equalised. Justin Kluivert restored the home side’s advantage with another before half-time but United fought back again to salvage a point with Fernandes scoring his second from the penalty spot.

The draw stretches United’s winless run to four matches after they failed to beat Brentford, Chelsea and Liverpool since the international break. It’s a run that has seen the Red Devils drop to seventh in the Premier League table, 10 points behind fourth-place Aston Villa and Tottenham in fifth.

Erik ten Hag cut a frustrated figure throughout and there were plenty of problems for him to pick out from the match. With that in mind, we have taken a look at five particular issues he could identify…

Garnacho slams Ten Hag

Alejandro Garnacho ‘liked’ multiple social media posts criticising his manager Ten Hag after he was subbed off at half-time against Bournemouth.

The 19-year-old was replaced by team-mate Amad with United trailing at the interval. Garnacho had given the ball away in the build-up to Bournemouth’s opening goal, and despite assisting Fernandes’ first equaliser, Ten Hag decided to ruthlessly take off the winger.

After the game, the Argentina international appeared to take to social media platform X and like two posts slamming Ten Hag. The first post read: “Garnacho has been one of our best players this season.

“Poor first half but taking him off at half time and holding him up as the problem is a joke. Many have done much worse week in week out and are still out there.”

The second post – written by the same user – said: “Ten Hag subtly blaming Garnacho in the post-match press conference… Not a good look throwing a 19-year-old under the bus who has actually delivered for you this season. But then again he’s clearly scared of upsetting the bigger earners.”

Fernandes and Onana exchange

Ten Hag insists Fernandes was “acting like a captain” against Bournemouth after he was spotted having a furious exchange with goalkeeper Andre Onana during the first half.

Before Solanke had put the Cherries ahead, Fernandes was seen bickering with Onana over goal kicks. The former Inter Milan shot-stopper stood his ground and didn’t take any of it from the United skipper.

Meanwhile, Ten Hag told Fernandes to cool it. When asked about the situation in a post-match interview, he told Match of the Day: “Scoring twice, very creative, it’s true he gives a lot of energy to the team. He is acting as a captain, bringing the energy and we are very pleased with this.

“We are all disappointed but he expresses that feeling. We have to win our games and we have dropped too many unnecessary points in the last few games.”

United issue identified

Diogo Dalot has already pinpointed one issue Ten Hag has to identify and fix. The Portugal international lambasted the fact United are conceding too many shots and has told his team to stop that from happening.

The Red Devils allowed Bournemouth to have a total of 20 shots at the Vitality Stadium. During the first half, Ten Hag’s United conceded their 565th shot in the Premier League this season, the club’s most in a single campaign since 2003/04 – and there are still six games to go.

Asked about the concern of allowing too many shots on their goal, Dalot told Sky Sports: “It’s been one of our concerns, maybe [we need to] try to be more compact as a team – don’t try to make the gap between defenders and midfield too big.

“Sometimes it is, and they counter on the counter-attack. It’s something we have to improve because it’s been nowhere near good enough for the level of this club. We’ve been showing belief through the season, coming back from down moments. Too many this season. We have to control more and have the game under control, we lose it too many times. That’s the aim for the next couple of games.”

Casemiro slammed

Casemiro produced yet another disappointing performance for United as he struggled against Bournemouth, with Jamie Redknapp saying he “looks like he’s in Soccer Aid”.

The Brazilian, who impressed during his first season at Old Trafford following his big-money move from Real Madrid, has not been at his best this term after struggling with injuries and fitness.

Speaking after the game, Redknapp told Sky Sports of Casemiro: “I don’t see too many others right now showing the appetite he does. I see multiple Champions League winners walking around the pitch sometimes like they don’t care, and you can’t have that.

“I’ve watched Casemiro for years and he’s one of my favourite defensive midfield players in football, I’ve loved watching him play. But right now, it looks like he’s in Soccer Aid. He’s playing the game at such a pace where it’s a bit of fun and there’s celebrities coming on – no, this is the Premier League.

“I think to myself ‘What would Rodri do?’ and he’d be flying to help his team-mates. And that’s what he should be doing. At the moment, Casemiro is not setting the right examples to the young players around him. It isn’t good enough.”

Dalot sleepiness

Micah Richards pointed out the role Dalot had in United conceding the opening goal against Bournemouth. With 19-year-old Willy Kambwala – who was making just his third senior start – taking the majority of the blame after slipping as Solanke ran through to score, Richards didn’t forget the role Dalot had.

Richards couldn’t believe Dalot’s positioning which allowed Solanke to weave between Kambwala and the right-back before anchoring his way towards goal.

“It was Man United’s right-hand side, I was a bit disillusioned with what was going on,” he told MOTD. “So Dalot was going inside, we’ve seen full-backs do that with Spurs, and the reason why he was doing that was so Garnacho could be free.

“He [Dalot] goes into one position, he goes into another position – but he doesn’t affect Bournemouth in any way. Fernandes is telling him to go back in his position [just before Bournemouth’s first goal], they win the first ball, they lose the second ball, now a young player Kambwala has been exposed to Solanke. Yes Solanke has done ever so well, but where is the protection?”