Manchester United held at Leeds as winless run stretches to six matches

Manchester United's miserable autumn continued on Sunday as a 1-1 draw at Leeds United stretched their winless run to six matches in all competitions and left them 13th in the Premier League.

Bryan Mbeumo put United ahead in the 35th minute at Elland Road, but Dominic Calvert-Lewin levelled six minutes after the restart and the visitors never looked like taking the game back.

According to BBC Sport, the six-match sequence is United's longest without a win since the end of the 2018-19 campaign. Reuters noted the contrast with last season's third-place finish.

Lead given up, control never taken

The pattern will feel grimly familiar to anyone who has watched United recently. Reuters reported that they surrendered their lead from a set piece and lacked enough quality in possession to take control of the match.

The numbers back that up. ESPN had Leeds with 61 per cent of the ball to United's 39, and five shots on target to the visitors' three. For a side who led for 16 minutes, that is a thin return.

United now have seven points from seven league games, a record of one win, four draws and two defeats. Reuters noted that the run includes the 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur the previous weekend and the 2-0 loss at Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.

Leeds, by contrast, sit seventh on 10 points, according to ESPN. BBC Sport reported that they had been unbeaten in their previous three league meetings with United, winning one and drawing two, although they still have not beaten their old rivals at Elland Road since 2002. Their home form more broadly has been strong, with four wins and three draws from the previous seven matches there.

Carrick looks for positives

Michael Carrick did not pretend the performance had been convincing, but he argued there was something to build on.

"Maybe if you talk about top quality, maybe it wasn't top, top quality I think we are capable of playing," he said, as reported by Reuters. "With the results we've had we weren't quite flowing but there's enough in there to take from it."

He was also keen to stress that the problem was not one of application alone.

"It's a bit more than just effort," Carrick said. "It is the way you go about it. The plan. The responsibilities. The roles. I thought the boys took that responsibility on really well for the most part."

The mood around the club has not been helped by events off the pitch. Reuters reported that Lisandro Martinez had publicly criticised the United hierarchy before apologising in the build-up to the match. Against that backdrop, Carrick's emphasis on unity was pointed.

"I suppose you're looking at the togetherness, the spirit, the unit," he said. "I don't doubt that within the group. The way that we went about it today gives me a lot of belief in us moving forward."

Belief is one thing. Points are another, and United are not collecting enough of them. Four draws in seven league matches tells its own story: this is a team that is hard to put away but equally struggles to put anyone else away. Being out-shot and out-possessed by a side sitting seventh underlines how far the gap to the top has opened in a matter of months.

Little time to regroup

There is no breathing space. United travel to Como for a Champions League match on Wednesday, kicking off at 16:45 UTC, having already lost at Atletico Madrid in Europe.

That trip to Italy now carries more weight than it would have a month ago. A seventh match without a win would push the sequence deeper into territory the club has not visited in years, while a victory would at least break the cycle and give Carrick something firmer than spirit to point to.

Before then, Tottenham host Coventry on Monday evening, and Atletico Madrid, United's recent conquerors, go to VfB Stuttgart on Tuesday. By the time United take the field at Como, the pressure to show that Sunday's draw was a floor rather than another step down will be considerable.