Cardiff City 2-2 Manchester United - Statistical Analysis

Cardiff hit back to stun Manchester United and grab a draw in an incident packed game in South Wales. Wayne Rooney put United ahead – having escaped a red card for an early tussle with Jordan Mutch – before Frazier Campbell equalised with a crisp finish, owing to a brilliant ball from Mutch. Evra put United ahead on the stroke of full time, but substitute Kim Bo-Kyung converted from Peter Whittingham’s free kick to give the Welsh side a share of the points in a 2-2 draw.

Key Stats

United will be disappointed to have missed out on the three points but, based on the balance of play, can have few arguments with the results. The two sides were close on most of the major statistics, with each having the same number of shots, similar pass completion and similar possession levels.

Performance Score

The two sides finished the game with Cardiff a mere eight points ahead of United on performance score. United spent most of the game ahead of their opponents by performance score, but couldn’t close the game out. They looked comfortable after each of their goals – reflected by the performance score difference – but both times they allowed Cardiff back into the game.

Man of the Match

Many will feel that Rooney shouldn’t have been on the pitch, following his early kick-out at Jordan Mutch, but having been let off with a yellow card he proceeded to have a hand in both United goals and win the Squawka Man of The Match Award. Rooney opened the scoring with a deflected effort before taking the corner from which Evra scored. He missed a golden opportunity to give United all three points late on, but his all round play secured a performance score of 65.

Key Observations

Manchester United failed to impose themselves when in possession. Despite this being a case of the reigning champions against a newly promoted side, United had less of the ball than Cardiff. Having gone ahead twice, they would have been expected to monopolise the ball and slow down the pace. However they failed to do that, and have less possession than their opponents for only the third time this season.

Where they should have been patient and demonstrating the calmness of a top side, United were sloppy in possession and failed to keep the ball. Their pass accuracy was 79% – compared to recently promoted Cardiff’s 78% – and they only made three key passes all game.

In the absence of Michael Carrick, it was left to Tom Cleverley and Maroune Fellaini to take up the central midfield berths. Fellaini contributed defensively with six headed duels and three tackles, but neither player covered themselves in glory going forward as they failed to make a key pass between them. Cleverley was particularly poor, making 11 passes fewer than Fellaini and failing to make a tackle or win a header on a pretty anonymous afternoon.

United’s sloppiness was also typified by the number of failed take-ons they made when they should have been slowing the game down. David Moyes’s side attempted 16 take-ons, but only completed three of them – a success rate of just 18.75%.