Manchester United's nightmare week ended in defeat to Tottenham as their injury-hit squad went down 1-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

With six players who were in the squad against Leicester City going down with illness or injury during the week, this was a United squad stretched to the limit. Eight of their nine substitutes had never played for the club before.

United would have certainly feared the worst when James Maddison put Tottenham in front after just 13 minutes, but the response was a promising one and in the end this squad left north London feeling they could have earned a point.

Alejandro Garnacho wasted a brilliant first-half chance and twice tested Guglielmo Vicario after the break, but once again United's lack of firepower cost them.

Fernandes' De Ligt talk

Matthijs de Ligt looked round in horror when Maddison appeared out of nowhere to give Tottenham an easy lead, reacting quickest to finish after Andre Onana had parried Lucas Bergvall's shot.

There were many defensive issues with the goal. Onana should probably push it away from goal and Heung-min Son was left unmarked again on the left to direct the ball back across goal, with Diogo Dalot constantly defending too narrow.

But when Bergvall's shot came in it was De Ligt who was slow to react. Maddison raced out of the blocks but the Dutch defender was ball-watching. It was that most basic of failures that angered Bruno Fernandes, who marched over to his centre-back to call him out on his failings.

Dalot's Son message

Dalot was hardly faultless for the goal either and the most disappointing aspect was that Amorim had told him to get tighter to Son just a minute or two earlier.

On that occasion, Son was tight to the left touchline and Dalot was too far infield. Amorim bawled at him to get wide and Dalot is still defending as a full-back too often when the temptation is to get narrow. When he has three centre-backs inside him, he doesn't need to do that.

He did it again as Tottenham built down the right. When Rodrigo Bentancur crossed it, Dalot was marking Mathys Tel when there should have been three central defenders to pick him up. It left Son free to fire a ball back across goal.

On the touchline, Amorim shrugged his arms in indignation, furious that another simple message had failed to get through.

Casemiro's screams

Casemiro tried to play a simple ball back to Fernandes just in front of where the media were sat before half-time and only succeeded in knocking it out of play. His scream of anger could be heard loud and clear.

It came just after the Brazilian had picked up a booking for a woefully executed tackle on Son, and it summed up another difficult afternoon for the Champions League winner, who just hasn't got the legs or the physicality to play in this league anymore, especially in a system as demanding as this.

Time and again the 32-year-old was caught on the ball, taking too long to get his head up and look for a pass or taking an extra touch when he should have released the pass.