Second-half substitute Mason Mount appeared to have secured victory with a well-taken strike deep into stoppage time at the Gtech Community Stadium, only for Ajer to hit back in the 99th minute to salvage a deserved point for the hosts.
Thomas Frank’s Bees managed 31 shots across the game, compared to United’s tally of 11, with the visitors’ performance passing no resemblance to the showing that saw them knock Liverpool out of the FA Cup prior to the international break.
The result meant Brentford opened up a five-point gap between themselves and the dreaded drop zone, while the Red Devils remain stranded in sixth, 11 points off fourth-placed Aston Villa in the table.
In his post-match interview, a downbeat Erik ten Hag suggested Brentford ‘wanted it more’ than his players and legendary ex-United goalkeeper Schmeichel agreed with the Dutchman’s damning statement as he analysed the display in the SuperSport studio.
‘Mason Mount came on, he’s hardly done anything for Manchester United since he arrived at the club, and so many times we’ve seen in Manchester United’s history, somebody turns out and becomes a hero,’ Schmeichel said.
‘You think that’s one of those moments but in all fairness, that would have been so undeserved had that stood as a 1-0 win.
‘It comes down to a lot of things. You look at the stats, touches in the opposition box, but I’m looking at how much the team work, how much they run.
‘Brentford ran five kilometres more and I think that tells a very big story about what this game was all about. They wanted to chase every ball.
‘Ivan Toney was just dominating everybody. We changed both our centre-halves, one at half-time and one later, both injured, new guys are coming on and nobody is making their mark. Nobody is really doing what we expect them to do.
‘The standards are low. We [Schmeichel and fellow pundit Andy Cole] grew up with Sir Alex Ferguson at the club and you had to be proud of what you did on the pitch. We could lose 1-0 and he would say that was fine because the performance was there.’
Schmeichel, part of United’s treble-winning side of 1999, felt Wan-Bissaka was largely to blame for Brentford’s equaliser, with the full-back guilty of switching off as Toney cut the ball back to Ajer.
‘If you look at Wan-Bissaka on the Brentford goal, and this is what I mean by standards. Wan-Bissaka is out there to the left, the ball gets crossed and now look at him. He’s walking off, walking, walking, he’s jogging!’ the Dane added.
‘And Ivan Toney would have been offside had he followed the back-four line up and then that goal wouldn’t have happened.
‘Look at him [Wan-Bissaka] coming out! Look at it!
‘That’s not Manchester United, that’s not pride, that’s not high standards. That’s not focussing on what your job is.
‘He has cost – not to blame him for this – but in that moment, because of what he did, or didn’t do, a simple thing like concentrating, they equalised.’
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