{"id":464115,"date":"2025-12-22T10:06:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T10:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/464115\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T10:06:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T10:06:23","slug":"the-burning-question-facing-ruben-amorim-before-boxing-day-clash-with-newcastle-why-costly-new-signing-still-looks-miles-off-it-and-the-past-mistake-man-united-must-avoid-making-in-january-ian-lad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/464115\/","title":{"rendered":"The burning question facing Ruben Amorim before Boxing Day clash with Newcastle, why costly new signing still looks miles off it – and the past mistake Man United must avoid making in January: IAN LADYMAN"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was actually a progressive Manchester United performance <\/a>in many ways.<\/p>\n

They were missing key players and lost their captain\u00a0Bruno Fernandes<\/a>\u00a0at half-time. Yet in players like\u00a0Luke Shaw<\/a>, young centre-half Ayden Heaven, left-back Patrick Dorgu and reborn midfielder Mason Mount<\/a>, they had some of the best players on the field.<\/p>\n

With manager Ruben Amorim<\/a> asking his two wing-backs to push high, United managed to get bodies in to midfield and play from there. Ultimately, they were beaten by two superb goals from Morgan Rogers and sometimes that happens.<\/p>\n

\u2018Goals can change the narrative and that\u2019s what happened here,\u2019 said Amorim afterwards. \u2018Sometimes it\u2019s not about the fact you suffer goals but the kind of goals you suffer. We know Rogers can do what he did today. We were the better team here but sometimes the best team doesn\u2019t win.\u2019<\/p>\n

Amorim was right in all of that. His response to this defeat was logical and rationale. But the burning question is why a team capable of playing like this against the Premier League<\/a>\u2019s form teams has just played West Ham<\/a>, Everton<\/a> and Bournemouth<\/a> at home and not beaten any of them. That is what should trouble the United manager as he heads towards a huge home game with Newcastle on Boxing Day.<\/p>\n

The fact is that his team have kept one clean sheet all season – at home to Sunderland<\/a> in October – has won just seven out of 17 Premier League games and – since what was supposed to be a transformative victory at Liverpool<\/a> in mid-October – has claimed victory in only three of the eight games that followed.<\/p>\n

No matter what happens to performances, those numbers just have to improve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ruben <\/p>\n

Ruben Amorim must reverse his team’s uneven fortunes fast ahead of facing Newcastle<\/p>\n

A striking problem\u00a0<\/p>\n

With so much money being spent on centre-forwards in the Premier League over the summer, some of the guys with the big price tags are finally starting to show their worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indeed Nick Woltemade at Newcastle, Liverpool pair Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike, Chelsea\u2019s Joao Pedro and even Arsenal\u2019s Viktor Gyokores all scored this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

United\u2019s Benjamin Sesko continues to struggle, however. With just two goals to his name so far in his debut United season, the big Slovenian looked miles off it here at Villa Park. The 22-year-old only had a couple of half chances – once he was denied by Emiliano Martinez and once he took a dreadfully heavy touch – but it was Sesko\u2019s general lack of involvement or threat that will have worried Amorim the most.<\/p>\n

Some strikers go through bad runs looking as though they will score any moment. Others look like they never will and sadly Sesko is in this latter category at the moment.<\/p>\n

Worse still for United, with Bryan Mbeumo now away at AFCON with Cameroon, Sesko is likely going to have to play against Newcastle on Friday.<\/p>\n

No panic is the right move\u00a0<\/p>\n

With United short of bodies due to injuries and international absences, the temptation to panic and spend money in January is clearly there. Let\u2019s face it, United have been here before.<\/p>\n

Speaking at his post-match press conference at Villa Park, however, Amorim seemed to suggest that wouldn\u2019t be the case.<\/p>\n

\u2018We cant go in to January and try to do everything with urgency,\u2019 said Amorim. \u2018Here we could make mistakes so I am not going to sit here and say we will need lots of new players. We have a plan and if we need to suffer in the meantime then so be it. We know we are going to suffer without all these players but I still think we should stick to the plan.\u2019<\/p>\n

Some feel that Amorim has a habit of talking too much and saying things that create headlines. Here, though, he struck exactly the right tone.<\/p>\n

United\u2019s transfer strategy has been so erratic over the years that it is this that, among other things, that has brought them to where they are now. It can’t go on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amorim knows some things at the football club have to change. He mentioned culture yet again at the weekend and another one is how they recruit players. He is right to urge caution and it\u2019s understood that director of football Jason Wilcox and chief executive Omar Berrada are on the same page.<\/p>\n

\"Academy <\/p>\n

Academy prospect Jack Fletcher was a bright spot on a difficult afternoon for Man United<\/p>\n

A chink of light from the academy\u00a0<\/p>\n

After all the noise around Kobbie Mainoo last week, the young United midfielder may have ended up with some minutes here. When captain Bruno Fernandes didn\u2019t reappear after half-time because of injury, defender Lisandro Martinez was sent on in midfield. Martinez can play there and did a more than decent job but the fact is that Mainoo probably would have played had he had not picked up an injury of his own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was some positive news in terms of United\u2019s young players, though, as teenager Jack Fletcher came off the bench for the final 20 minutes to make his first team debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The son of former United midfielder Darren, young Fletcher equipped himself well, winning the ball in the tackle two of three times and doing what he could to drive his team forwards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His father was always a player whose first instinct was to look forwards as soon as he got the ball. Young Jack was very much the same here and actually had his team\u2019s final shot on target of the game, drilling a ball in to Emi Martinez\u2019s midriff from 22 yards in the 90th minute.<\/p>\n

One excuse Amorim doesn’t have\u00a0<\/p>\n

United do finally look – at least on occasions like this – like a team that is starting to understand what their manager wants them to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was a pretty well-drilled performance at Villa Park against a team for whom everything is going right.<\/p>\n

However, this is how it should be. While other Premier League teams are playing European and Carabao Cup football, United are largely being asked to play just one game a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not in Europe and knocked out of the League Cup at Grimsby back in August, Amorim\u2019s team have only played one game since that humbling on the east coast that hasn\u2019t been on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday.<\/p>\n

This translates in to lots of rest and lots of time on the training field. If Amorim and his coaches aren\u2019t going top get things right this season then it\u2019s reasonable to suggest they maybe never will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This was actually a progressive Manchester United performance in many ways. They were missing key players and lost…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":464116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[211,1318,3782,220,12445,221,1926,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-464115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-manchester-united","11":"tag-premier-league","12":"tag-ruben-amorim","13":"tag-soccer","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115762665683018591","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}