Scoreless, But Not Pointless

Newcastle United bounced back from last week's loss by hanging on for a scoreless draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The game in one sentence: Hard-working Newcastle battles for a somewhat fortunate point against misfiring Man U.

The lineup: Krul; Mbemba, Taylor, Coloccini, Haidara; Anita, Colback; Obertan (Thauvin 69), Wijnaldum, Perez (Tiote 78); Mitrovic (Cisse 88)

What went right: Steve McClaren's makeshift backline wobbled, but never collapsed. Tim Krul made two big-time saves. Fabricio Coloccini looked more like the 2012-13 version of himself. Massadio Haidara was energetic and steady. Vurnon Anita played one of his best games in a Newcastle jersey. Aleksandar Mitrovic reined himself in, but was still active and almost scored the winner.

What went wrong: Newcastle couldn't hang on to the ball for long stretches and would have lost to a better Man U team. Chancel Mbemba isn't a right back, and Gabriel Obertan didn't give him much help. Obertan was back to being meek and ineffective. Newcastle needs to find a way to get Georginio Wijnaldum more involved, and the Dutch midfielder needs to assert himself and come find the ball, too.

The verdict: It wasn't pretty — Newcastle had less than 30 percent of the possession in the second half — and a vintage Man U would have probably won by a couple of goals. But credit to Newcastle for not allowing many premium scoring chances (the 50/50 offside call on Wayne Rooney early on helped!) and grinding out a point. There were a few encouraging signs from McClaren's Newcastle, particularly Coloccini's revival and Mitrovic's first start. And regardless of the performance, a draw at Old Trafford is nothing to discount — Newcastle had taken five points from its past 11 visits in the Premier League.

Next time out: Tuesday, Aug. 25 against League Two club Northampton Town in the Capital One Cup