Manchester United continued their poor run of form with a drab goalless draw against Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League on Thursday.
United never looked like scoring for most of the evening on the plastic surface of the Kyocera Stadium in The Hague and failed to produce one effort on target.
The result leaves United winless (0-6-4) in 10 straight away games in all competitions. The streak directly follows a 9-game win streak in away games in all competitions after Ole Gunnar Solskjær became a caretaker manager in mid-December.
Academy product Brandon Williams was handed his first start for United, who saw teenager Mason Greenwood denied by a superb block from Ron Vlaar on 30 minutes.
United was without Paul Pogba after the midfielder aggravated an ankle injury against Arsenal on Monday. He was also left out of the France squad named Thursday by Didier Deschamps.
If any team looked like scoring it was Alkmaar for whom the lively Oussama Idrissi was the best-attacking player on view.
Alkmaar striker Myron Boadu had a first-half goal ruled out for offside before Idrissi forced David de Gea into a sharp save. Idrissi skimmed an effort wide after the break and tested De Gea again with a powerful shot the keeper punched away.
United’s ambition was limited but they brought on Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard and Scott McTominay in the final quarter of the game to try and force a winner.
Rashford was denied what looked a blatant penalty 10 minutes from time when he appeared to be clipped by a sliding Stijn Wuytens after a sharp turn in the area.
The draw puts them on four points from two games, level with Partizan Belgrade who won 2-1 in Astana in an earlier kickoff.
“The conditions were tough but I thought we did very well. It puts us in a good position,” Solskjaer, who had criticized the state of the artificial pitch in the build-up, said.
Solskjær’s worries were added by Jesse Lingard limping off late on with a hamstring injury to leave United to see out the match with 10 men.
