Paul Scholes believes the recent introduction of Christian Eriksen into Manchester United‘s starting lineup has changed their fortunes around, with the Danish playmaker cementing his resurgence this evening.
The 20-time record English champions though got their Europa League campaign off to a false start with a 1-1 with Eredivisie outfit FC Twente, a club close to manager Erik ten Hag’s heart.
Presumably due to Casemiro’s unfortunate decline, Eriksen, who had been linked with a summer departure, has found himself in Ten Hag’s plans and tonight marked a fourth successive start for the experienced Danish international.
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“It has actually gotten a bit better since Eriksen has come into the team,” Scholes noted. No longer the dynamic number ten of his youth, the 32-year-old now predominantly operates as a deep-lying playmaker, playing tonight alongside defensive midfielder Manuel Ugarte in United’s all-too-familiar 4-2-3-1 shape.
Eriksen broke the deadlock in the 35th minute to bring his tally for the season to three, having bagged a brace against Barnsley in the EFL Cup third round last week. This subsequently means he’s enjoying his most prolific campaign since 2020/21, when he registered four goals for Inter Milan.
To put this in further context: Eriksen has three goals in five games in all competitions in 2024/25, as many as he’d scored in 72 games in 2022-23 and 2023-24 combined for Manchester United. He has three in his last two at Old Trafford, more than he scored in his first 40 on home soil for the club (2).
On his 100th appearance across the Europa League and Champions League, Eriksen also became the third Danish player to score for Manchester United in major European competition, along with Peter Schmeichel and Rasmus Højlund.
He would go on to produce a strong display in possession with him effectively distributing the ball (43 successful passes from 46 attempted) while only Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes played more passes into the final third when he was on the field.
Twente making waves at Old Trafford 🌟#UEL pic.twitter.com/AD9HVHUvvl
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) September 25, 2024
But this United team is shy of being a resolute outfit despite recently picking up consecutive Premier League clean sheets on the road. They’ve already shown in England’s top division that they are prone to giving their opponents ample opportunities to breach André Onana’s goal.
Twente marksman Sam Lammers needed no second invitation. He cancelled out Eriksen’s effort and, in doing so, ended a run of 12 major European appearances without a goal, netting in his first such game for Twente – indeed, his other goal in Europe was on his Eintracht Frankfurt debut in September 2021 against Fenerbahçe.
The points would ultimately be shared, meaning United have now failed to win their opening major European match in each of the last four seasons, losing in 2021/22, 2022/23, and 2023/24 and drawing 1–1 tonight while going on to win just one of their last six major European matches when scoring the opening goal (D3 L2).