Ruben Amorim was given a pre-season, £200m, more goodwill than most and the perfect opener against Arsenal. But his Manchester United just isn’t working.
‘Manchester United have trampled over too many green shoots of promise they have only just planted to engender much faith in this latest long-term plan. Their modern history contains more false dawns than a Vicar of Dibley convention. Do this against Fulham and Burnley before the international break and we’ll start believing this might be different.’
Ruben Amorim would struggle to get Journey on board at this rate.
There was a kickback against the general positive slant given to what was ultimately a 17th defeat in 43 matches as Manchester United manager for the Portuguese last week. But in most quarters the praise was tempered.
It was good and could have been better but was also not indicative of the barometer against which this coach and team ought to be judged.
A home opener against an Arsenal side not yet up to speed was almost the ideal game. It brought low pressure to match expectation levels which have dropped through the actual floor based on last season. A halfway decent performance was always going to be painted in a bright light rather than dull, depressing greys.
The reaction was somewhat driven by the narrative on both sides: it is more interesting for Manchester United to be better this campaign; it is funnier for Arsenal to miss out on the title again. Only one of those possibilities has lasted the week.
Manchester United cannot be trusted. Nor Amorim, who has been furnished with a £200m summer spend amid redundancies and claims of imminent bankruptcy to achieve an arguable slight uptick in performances despite also being granted the silver bullet of a pre-season.
And that absolutely does carry relevance in the face of these results. The increasingly absurd, cruel decisions made by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS have been justified all along as a necessary and unavoidable part of delivering Manchester United back to where they supposedly should be. If that process fails, what was it all really for?
Nothing has really changed. Manchester United still start games well, still have moments of genuine ingenuity and cohesion going forward, still concede thoroughly preventable goals through a series of individual and collective mistakes in the middle and at the back, and still end with Harry Maguire as their chosen desperate route to goal.
And when almost that entire £200m spend has been reserved for completely remodelling the attack, at least two of those enduring traits going back at least to last season and arguably well beyond are close to unforgivable.
Matheus Cunha was electric before quickly becoming static, his three shots and single pass leading to a shot all coming in the first 15 minutes. Bryan Mbeumo did an awful lot of running for little reward. Some moves were slick, with speed of thought, flicks, a crispness in execution and technique.
But their biggest first-half chances came from a long Altay Bayindir kick and a relatively contentious penalty – it was ultimately stupid defending from Calvin Bassey – which Bruno Fernandes skied.
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Even the opening goal was a deflected header from a corner as Leny Yoro followed up an excellent tackle on Josh King but expertly nodding a shot off the back of Rodrigo Muniz.
There was no semblance of Manchester United wanting to capitalise on that fortunate breakthrough. The next four shots all came from Fulham, culminating in an equaliser scored by a substitute only just introduced.
Emile Smith Rowe, Raul Jimenez, Harry Wilson and Antonee Robinson all gave the hosts something different; Diogo Dalot gave the ball away for that goal, Benjamin Sesko offered nothing and Manuel Ugarte was similarly ineffective before Maguire and Ayden Heaven were chucked on to give the impression of maximising set-pieces.
Each new player was sacrificed to a system which doesn’t appear to work, subsumed by the flow of the game rather than dictating it. Manchester United’s changes were timid and Fulham’s were brave – although they had to be as they were chasing the game – and the performances reflected that.
Manchester United are stuck. They have yielded so much to Amorim in serving his specific philosophy and publicly ostracising and depreciating high-value players – hello, unused substitute Kobbie Mainoo – that these results, especially after going deep into the overdraft of goodwill last season, should not be accepted and indeed ought to result in his sacking. Yet they have also gone too far down that road to stop now for fear of having completely wasted their time all along.
It is why the modest improvements will be amplified beyond all meaning while the familiar failings are excused and ignored, at least by those blinded by the past or in a position of power to do anything about it.
But there are precious few signs of actual sustained change. The best Amorim can conjure after being granted a summer reset even he conceded was entirely undeserved is more of the same. He is the anti-Klopp: turning doubters into people who might never believe again.
