Manchester United defender Chris Smalling is hoping to recover the lost ground following United’s frustrating stalemate with Crystal Palace.
Prior to the match, Jose Mourinho set his vision eyeing a top-four spot by January. But given the current form it would be a mountain to climb as the Red Devils are currently trailing the league toppers by a mammoth 14 points.
United were supposed to all guns blazing taking full advantage of their home comfort but instead, they barely looked threatening against the Eagles who secured a valuable one point on their road to safety.
The Red Devils do have a crucial run of home fixtures ahead in the Premier League and Smalling insists they need to make the most of it from these games. “We knew in the period we had coming up, there were so many home games that three points had to be a must. A point or no points? It might as well have been a loss.
“Given this run, we can’t afford any more slip-ups at home like this.”
“We were just lacking that first goal and then that unlocks people and it makes them become a bit more open
”It is just frustrating.
“They had good chance in the first half and then, in the second, we were pushing for the goal and they had another good chance for [Andros] Townsend, but really it shouldn’t have got to that stage because we should have got a goal before then.
“We need to keep working hard as a team, keep creating those chances and finishing them and making sure that the games that we are dominating, we win.”
