49% passing, 27% long balls: 68-touch United star was dreadful against Newcastle, should not start vs Lyon
Manchester United suffered a disappointing 4-1 Premier League defeat to Newcastle United at St James’ Park on Sunday.
The Red Devils went into the game as underdogs but produced a decent performance in the first half.
Sandro Tonali opened the scoring for the Magpies. Bayindir made a tremendous save to deny Alexander Isak from doubling the lead.
Alejandro Garnacho’s second goal of the year ensured United went into the break level.
However, the Magpies stepped up after the interval. Harvey Barnes capitalised on positional errors in the United backline to score twice.
Things turned bad to worse as goalkeeper Altay Bayindir gifted the Magpies with a fourth goal in the 77th minute.
The Turkish star handed possession straight to the Magpies. His poor clearance was intercepted by Joelinton, who put the ball on the plate for Bruno Guimaraes to score.
Bayindir made his first United start since January. He was picked in goal after Andre Onana’s double blunder against Lyon in the Europa League.
However, the 27-year-old did not provide much confidence on the ball. He looked nervous against the Magpies over the course of 90 minutes.
Bayindir had 68 touches in the game but completed only 49 percent of his passes. He completed just 10 out of 37 long balls attempted, an accuracy of 27 percent.
The former Fenerbahce man did not capitalise on his maiden Premier League start, and manager Ruben Amorim has an easy decision to make for Thursday night.
Onana was taken out of the firing line after his double howler versus Lyon in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final.
He was not in the matchday squad as Amorim did not want the cameras on him.
The Cameroon international seems poised to return in goal for the second leg. He has a big opportunity to redeem himself.
Stats from Sofascore.com
Article written by Sri Aswin .