Ruben Amorim’s failed experiment sums up his weirdest day at Manchester United | OneFootball

As Manchester United prepared to finalise the departure of the only player to score 30 goals in a season for them since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, Ruben Amorim omitted the two strikers who cost the club a combined £110m, selected a midfielder in attack and saw them fail to score, and his team suffer another loss.

An afternoon that encapsulated much about the modern United – the waste of money and potential, the lack of logic, the underachievement, the increasingly dreadful returns at Old Trafford – was awful for Amorim. “The result is really bad,” he said. This was his worst day so far, despite stiff competition.

If the sacked Erik ten Hag was no stranger to odd selections, Amorim’s decision to field Kobbie Mainoo as his centre-forward ranked as his weirdest to date. While Mainoo hit the post in the first 10 minutes, an odd experiment soon became a failure.

Meanwhile, Crystal Palace showed the merits of a specialist striker as Jean-Philippe Mateta struck twice. “It is amazing when you have a No 9 who scores goals,” said manager Oliver Glasner. United lack one.

open image in gallery

Mateta led Palace to a second win in a row at Old Trafford (Getty)

It is becoming almost passe to wonder if Marcus Rashford could have made a difference; the scorer of 138 United goals was not used, for a 13th successive match, as he closes in on a loan to Aston Villa. But if Amorim’s teamsheet was an indictment of the dropped Joshua Zirkzee and Rasmus Hojlund, the result was damning of a manager who suffered a fifth defeat in six home league games. For Palace, a fourth win in six visits to Old Trafford allowed them to leapfrog their hosts and their supporters to tell United they are “going down with Southampton”.

It shouldn’t come to that, but United’s disastrous day was compounded when Lisandro Martinez was stretchered off. “I think it is a serious situation,” said Amorim, bracing himself for bad news. Any optimism engendered by the weekend signings of Ayden Heaven and Patrick Dorgu, who were paraded on the pitch before kick-off, disappeared amid the haplessness of Amorim and his team.

Whatever the Portuguese’s intention, his leftfield selection backfired. “We chose to play with the characteristics of Kobbie,” he said. “It was nothing against Rasmus or Josh.” It seemed a vote of no confidence in the goal-shy duo of Hojlund and Zirkzee. It looked designed to make a point that reinforcements are required on the last day of the window, with Mathys Tel of Bayern Munich a target.

Without any attacking arrivals yet, Amorim ended up summoning the dropped duo after 70 minutes of embarrassment. Neither could salvage this. Amorim picked the wrong team. United gave the wrong performance. They got the wrong result. “It doesn’t mean if you play with two strikers, you are going to score more goals,” Amorim argued. True as that is, United played with no strikers and got no goals.

open image in gallery

Mainoo was replaced as Amorim threw on Hojlund and Zirkzee (Getty)

The unexpected sight of Mainoo leading the line brought back memories of Ten Hag fielding Christian Eriksen as a false nine in his first game. Mainoo almost began well, bobbling a sixth-minute shot against the post. He dropped off to link play. “Kobbie gave us connections and they found it hard to find the player to press. The idea worked in that moment,” claimed Amorim. But more often Mainoo looked what he is, a midfielder in the forward line, without the penalty-box presence, game-stretching pace or striking instinct to make a difference.

The contrast came with a genuine target man. Mateta took his tally to six goals in five league games, albeit after a glaring miss. He had sprung the offside trap to meet Jefferson Lerma’s pass and dink a shot wide. He was undeterred, taking two other opportunities. “We suffer two goals we can avoid,” said Amorim.

Mateta converted the rebound after Maxence Lacroix, evading Leny Yoro, had headed against the bar. Then Munoz surged free down the right flank to centre for the unmarked Mateta to add his second. Matthijs de Ligt, who had only been on for a few minutes, was nowhere near the striker. Each goal involved Eberechi Eze; ruled out on Saturday, he ruled himself back in and had an influential cameo.

open image in gallery

Mateta turns in his first goal against United after Lacroix hit the bar (Reuters)

But Palace had a menace before his arrival. The watching Dorgu witnessed a dynamic example of how to play as a wing-back, but from Palace’s Tyrick Mitchell and Munoz. As Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui struggled, they were the common denominators in a host of chances. Munoz headed wastefully wide at the far post. Lacroix’s shot from 25 yards was parried. Ismaila Sarr’s flicked header from Mitchell’s cross went just wide.

As Palace played 3-4-3 rather better than United, they had a solidity that was aided by an Old Trafford old boy. The former United goalkeeper Dean Henderson made fine saves to stop Bruno Fernandes and Manuel Ugarte after the break; as United have one first-half goal in their last 14 games, they were scarcely likely to score before it.

The second-half strikes came from Palace. “For me personally it feels very special, it was my first game here at Old Trafford,” said Glasner. But Palace have beaten United so often their fans sounded blasé. “Three points again,” they sang. And again, and again.