‘What are they doing?’: Wright & Neville in disbelief over surprise Amorim decision – he ultimately paid the price | OneFootball

Gary Neville and Ian Wright, like the majority of Manchester United fans, were taken aback by Ruben Amorim’s decision to drop Amad Diallo from his starting XI last night.

In general, supporters have found it refreshing to see the head coach experiment in each of his games managed thus far, giving players the opportunities to showcase their abilities in his newly implemented system while allowing other members of the squad some much-deserved rest.

One decision of his proved costly against the Gunners on Wednesday evening, though. The contest posed as the trickiest obstacle of Amorim’s tenure yet, with Arsenal sitting second-placed heading into the tie and on the back of scoring a combined 10 goals in their last two outings.

As such, United needed a trustworthy backline to stifle Mikel Arteta’s prolific frontline while also having enough firepower in attack to potentially snatch a goal and take something from the night, so opting to omit the side’s most creative and threatening attacker in recent weeks raised eyebrows.

Wright and Neville in agreement over bizarre Amad omission

(Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

Amad found himself planted on the bench when the match got underway in North London. After United failed to trouble David Raya almost at all in the opening 45 minutes, Amorim came to his senses and brought him into the fold in place of Tyrell Malacia, signifying attacking intent.

It didn’t take long before the Ivorian was up to his usual tricks; a driving run down the touchline culminated with Amad being frantically brought down by Oleksandr Zinchenko, who was brandished a yellow card for the foul. Arteta seemingly identified that the defender was no match for United’s No.16, as he withdrew Zinchenko only five minutes later for Mikel Merino, with Jurrien Timber swapping over to the right-hand side.

Reacting live on The Overlap’s watch-along stream, Wright admitted: “That guy (Amad) frightens me to death!”

Neville chimed in: “Amad has been the best player at Man United for the last few weeks. He has been outstanding.”

“I can’t believe they didn’t start him,” the ex-Arsenal man confessed. “He worries me – but what are they doing getting Mason Mount on?”

https://www.youtube.com/live/6QC-knevi10?si=J79UfIyQvtiXWSpZ

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