Ruben Amorim can at least remind himself that Manchester United’s best managers have had worse starts. An underwhelming 1-1 draw at Ipswich Town otherwise made the size of the job even clearer.
It said much that he immediately began to talk about getting the players to understand a structure and how they will be back at the same spot in a year if they aren’t willing to risk short-term cost. “We are going to suffer for a long period,” Amorim asserted. “There is a lot to change.”
If the Premier League was supposed to be a step up for a manager who has only ever worked in Portugal, this was sometimes like a Championship game. “We have the best league in the world,” Amorim said in reference to the atmosphere, but it didn’t always feel like that in terms of the football.
That is a little uncharitable on Ipswich, who enjoyed a fine result in the context of their recent history and again acquitted themselves well this season. They are never outplayed. Duly, this occasionally felt like their day rather than Amorim’s, the Portman Road announcer even proudly talking about how the eyes of the world were on their stadium. Ed Sheeran’s certainly were. His brief appearance at Amorim’s post-match interview lent the feel of a big day out.
Sheeran still watched his team outplay United for most of the first half, with Omart Hutchinson so outstandingly influential as the best player on the pitch – his fine deflected strike brought the equaliser – that Amorim felt he had to bring on Luke Shaw to man-mark him.
Ipswich just didn’t have the quality to sustain that, with their better players burning themselves out by half-time. The problem for Amorim was that United were similar, and it all turned the second half into a tedious affair.
The atmosphere remained vibrant. The match did not. United couldn’t build on what was genuinely a perfect start. They didn’t just have the ball in the net after a mere 81 seconds, they did it in a way that reflected even better on the manager. It directly came from the wing-back system that he has implemented, with his surprise choice there – Amad Diallo – looking like he immediately fit by surging down the right. He crossed for Marcus Rashford, who responded to a modicum of controversy for going to the USA on annual leave by immediately scoring. Goalkeeper Arijanet Muric might have done better, but Amorim couldn’t have. This was as good as it could get for a start. And, lamentably, as good as it got for their performance.
United looked like they ran out of energy after a mere half an hour. Casemiro and Christian Eriksen, perhaps predictably, were being overrun in the centre.
That midfield can’t work, and it’s impossible not to think Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo will form the main partnership for the biggest games once fully fit.
This question forms the first of many caveats to this display. United, most of all, just don’t look sharp. There were constant private grumbles about Erik ten Hag’s training schedule, especially on the day before games, although that isn’t exactly a new theme. It feels like something that is almost always said once a new manager comes in, and has been said a few times at United.
It’s still a fact that United have run the second lowest distance in the Premier League all season, at a mere 102km. You could see them struggling to cover ground here. That was further influenced by how Amorim had to cover his preferred formation with compromise choices.
On the evidence of this, he at least needs two wing-backs, another midfielder, and another forward option, probably a striker. At least.
The relevant counterargument to that, however, is that this was an Amorim match without any real Amorim coaching. As he made a point of stating immediately after the game, some of the players only had two days with him. That wasn’t enough time to internalise completely different movements, as Amorim elaborated on how he expects specific positions to do different things – not least in terms of where to pass and run – than they are used to.
“We have to put in their heads the structure,” Amorim said. “Then we will play so much better. We need time to do that.”
There is a deeper point to that, too. Part of the value of coaches like Amorim is how they can make players go to a higher level due to the work on the training ground and the formation they are deployed in. You only have to look at the opposition here, and the alchemic work that Kieran McKenna has done with Ipswich.
In a few months, maybe even less than that, it is likely that even some of United’s poorer performers on Sunday will look different. There were also some genuinely promising performances on the day. Andre Onana continued supreme recent form, with Amorim insisting that United could have lost the match if it wasn’t for their goalkeeper. One first-half save, from a close-range Liam Delap, was reminiscent of Peter Schmeichel with the way he so strongly batted the ball away with his hand. A later stop, from the same player’s back-heel, then showed a fine sharpness.
In front of him, Noussair Mazraoui was United’s most assured defender, and he suggested the beginning of a promising right-sided partnership with Amad. Rashford will feel the benefit of his goal, while Bruno Fernandes had some good moments.
It was all mostly disparate, though, which is about the most charitable description you could give a poor second half.
That was still better than Sir Alex Ferguson’s 2-0 defeat at Oxford United, Ron Atkinson’s 2-1 loss at Coventry City and – naturally – Ten Hag’s 2-1 home reverse to Brighton. None of these results were actually that striking, though, since one reason that United had to change manager was because everything was going wrong beforehand. There was a lot to improve, and Amorim is even more aware of that now.
“We have two ways,” he said. “Or we forget about the new idea and I think that’s why I was brought here in the middle of the season and we try to cope with the things that I used to do. Next year in the same stage we’ll be here with the same problems. Or we start now, we risk a little bit, we suffer a little bit and in the next year we’ll be better at this point. So we have to risk it a little bit.”
“This is like steps,” Amorim added. The first was somewhat unsteady. History shows that isn’t necessarily what’s important for the future, though.