Gavin Cooney

FOR ALL THE performative online rage and furrowed-brow punditry that has sprung up as its own industry around Manchester United, that which speaks loudest of all are the dry statistics of Ruben Amorim’s reign. 

Today’s draw at Fulham was United’s 29th Premier League game under Amorim and in that time they have averaged a pitiful 0.97 points per game. Map Amorim’s number of games thus far onto the calendar of a regular Premier League season, his reign would be into March, and United would be into the season’s run in with 28 points. That’s relegation form for which a Norwich manager would expect to be sacked. 

It is a reflection of the depth and length of United’s permacrisis that the pitchforks are not out for Amorim, with everybody – not least the man himself – understanding of the scale of the rebuild job at hand. 

Perhaps the most galling aspect of Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Fulham is you can’t point to anything United did particularly terribly. With better finishing they would have won the game, but it’s hard to argue on the balance of play that a draw was not a fair result.

Plus, Fulham are one of those doughty, inventive and well-coached mid-table sides against whom wins cannot be taken for granted.  But given Amorim’s hideous record, United need to start finding wins. 

United did not win this game because they have chosen to prioritise adding goals to the team rather than root out all endemic faults and errors in goal, defence and in midfield, and today showed the downside of that transfer market gamble.

If United can’t take more than one chance in a game, they are not good enough to grind out a win. 

Jim Ratcliffe has bemoaned United’s years-long allergy to data, but the summer business appears to have been data-dictated. Brentford owner Matthew Benham – the high priest of data in elite football – had a golden rule for his managers: attack more. Attacking, he says, is undervalued, citing the complex mathematical formula of Win = Three points; Draw = One point. 

And, given United scored a lamentable 44 goals in 38 games last season, it’s not exactly an area of diminishing returns for them this season. Hence the splurge of limited resources on a trio of forwards to significantly upgrade their attack.

But today the strategy didn’t pay off, even if the margins of its failure were thin. 

 Matheus Cunha’s early shot might have snuck inside the post rather than hitting against it, and a few minutes later Bernd Leno might not have been so agile to save Cunha’s touch-and-shot so brilliantly. Bruno Fernandes, of course, might not have blazed his penalty over the bar, appearing to have been bewilderingly unsettled by bumping into the referee when first addressing the ball. 

United ultimately needed to get lucky to score, via Rodrigo Muniz’ deflection from Lenny Yoro’s header. Yoro made unimpeded contact in the first half thanks to a shove in Calvin Bassey’s back, a fact in which VAR were strangely disinterested having scoured first-half footage to find Bassey man-handling Mason Mount to the floor. It seems that the pre-season PGMOL directive on set-pieces includes ‘holding’ but does not extend to ‘obvious fouls.’ 

For United, however, one goal was not enough, and Emile Smith-Rowe equalised from close range with his first touch since coming on as a substitute. The goal bore eerie resemblance to that which they conceded in the Europa League final, where a cross from United’s right side misses the central centre back (Maguire in Bilbao; De Ligt today) as Luke Shaw allows the goalscorer run too easily away from him. 

This goal highlighted other problems too. One is United’s crude lack of quality in some positions, with Diogo Dalot’s clumsy touch allowing Fulham recover the ball too easily. Another was Amorim’s dogma around formation, which continues to accentuate more negatives than positives. 

Bruno Fernandes, for instance, is being accommodated in central midfield at the moment, which is not his best role as he is not naturally defensively minded. For proof, see how easily he allows Smith-Rowe run off him to score the equaliser. But a wing-back system should at least be better-equipped to stop crosses arriving into the box entirely. Not so with United’s. 

There were other issues that might have contributed to United losing the game: Altay Bayindir continues to look a rickety mess on corners, while the extent to which Alex Iwobi and Fulham took charge of midfield after Casemiro’s substitution was alarming. Putting Mason Mount in there instead did not fix things, you won’t be surprised to hear, while Manuel Ugarte had a better cameo this week as he was solely in destroyer mode. That United are wedded to a system that has no place for one of their best midfielders, Kobbie Mainoo, becomes more bizarre by the week. 

If there is no place in United’s team for Mainoo, then he should be sold to allow for funds to buy someone for whom Amorim will find room. 

Otherwise, there will be days this season when Cunha and co. find the mark and blow opponents away, but those days will not arrive every weekend.

And it is on those days that Amorim’s United will continue to be exposed for the mid-table fodder they presently are.