But Daley Blind scored in stoppage-time to rescue a scarcely deserved point after a lacklustre performance from the visitors which was summed up by a second-half miss by Radamel Falcao.
United's equaliser came after Marouane Fellaini had been sent on to cause havoc in the air.
All his managerial career, former Newcastle manager Big Sam Allardyce has had to live with taunts of 'long ball game', as though there was no Plan B.
Sam Allardyce: "I suppose in the end we couldn't cope with long-ball United.
"It was just, 'thump it forward and see what they could get' and in the end it paid off for them.
"You (the media) might just criticise Louis van Gaal for playing long balls as much as you've sometimes criticised me for being direct.
"(But) it's paid off for them, so you can't knock it in the end."