Marcus Rashford shows why Manchester United can't hide behind VAR failure for West Ham loss

Head bowed, walked slowly towards the dugout.

He could barely bring himself to shake hands with ’s coaching staff and substitutes after 58 minutes where viewers would have been forgiven for not realising one of the country's most talented attackers was in the game.

, hardly blessed for pace and experiencing their own crisis of confidence, in theory should have represented ideal opposition for Rashford. Instead he spent his afternoon in East London on the fringes of a match where the entertainment was provided by a startling absence of ruthlessness.

There were just 30 touches in 58 minutes. Eleven of those were in United’s half and the solitary foray into the home penalty area ended with him being dispossessed.

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At the moment he sauntered towards the bench, to ironic cheers from Hammers fans, the rest of United’s midfield and attack had at least taken a shot each. Fair enough, they weren’t very good attempts. But better than nothing.

Instead Rashford’s most notable contributions came when acting as an auxiliary full back or decoy man for Diogo Dalot to get forward. And did a really fine job at summing up how much of a structural mess United currently are.

Rashford was nowhere to be seen when ’ delightful diagonal pass, having clocked Emerson Palmieri was struggling to get back after a Hammers attack had broken down, found Dalot. The Portuguese then appeared to do the hard part with ease. He had just managed to stay onside and the first touch to take him around Lukasz Fabianski looked assured.

Dalot charged forward, the goal entirely open ahead of him. He let the ball bounce once and continued running. Then Dinos Mavropanos appeared in his peripheral vision as the ball hopped a second time and the only possible meek excuse for Dalot was that the Greek defender’s recovery offered sufficient distraction.

He chose power over placement and watched the easiest chance United may get all season graze the side netting.

While Dalot dropped to his knees and placed his head on his hands, Erik ten Hag stood frozen on the touchline, perhaps in disbelief that another glorious chance had gone missing.

There were just over 31 minutes on the clock at that point and United should really have been comfortably clear..

Alejandro Garnacho had struck the crossbar after two minutes and curled another glorious chance narrowly wide, while Rasmus Hojlund was denied by Fabianski. Yet with each spurned chance came an increase in anxiety.

Having been awful in the first half, a triple substitution from Julen Lopetegui meant West Ham were a team transformed in the second period.

And Crysencio Summerville, surprisingly kept on the bench having been touted as the natural replacement for suspended Mohammed Kudus, ended up putting West Ham in front.

Casemiro headed in the equaliser - with Dalot playing an important role in the build-up - before Matthijs de Ligt was judged to have taken down Danny Ings for a penalty that snuck past Andre Onana.

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