Ruben Amorim saw his Man United side pick up a disappointing draw at Fulham in the second match of the 26/26 campaign. After what was an encouraging performance against Arsenal despite the loss, hopes were high heading to Craven Cottage.
However, it appeared that the Red Devils reverted to default settings with this display as other than the opening 10 minutes, it was much of the same old shite.
Starting Lineup
Another XI that caused much debate amongst the fan base. New striker Benjamin Sesko not in the starting lineup once again with the manager preferring to opt with a front three of Bryan Mbeumo, Mason Mount and Matheus Cunha with United's no 10 playing the role of striker.
The midfield had that same pairing that everyone has their fears about as Casemiro and skipper Bruno Fernandes were the pivot.
Once more, we saw no Andre Onana but he was at least on the bench for this match whereas last week, he wasn't in the squad at all. Many take this as Amorim signalling the end of the Cameroonian's time as United's no 1.
While many questions were asked of this lineup, the same questions were asked about last week's. However, that XI against the Gunners proved to be the correct one considering how we played. This time though, the fans were right to feel concerned.
First Half
Despite those concerns though, United started this game off even better than they did against Arsenal. Those first 10 minutes were some of the best football we've seen from the team in a while.
We were so good that Cunha had two really good chances to score. One came off the post while the other forced a top save from Bernd Leno after really good play by Amorim's team. The Brazilian visibly frustrated with those missed opportunities.
This all gave us a lot of optimism for the rest of the game and yet...
After those 10 minutes, we began to see the real United, one that we've seen far too many times.
Fulham started to grow into the game from the 15th minute mark with those missed chances looking costly for United. The home side had one of their own after a run in behind caught Amorim's defense napping. Backup Bayindir made a smart save to keep it at 0-0.
This gave the Cottagers more confidence with them beginning to control proceedings.
Yet, not long before halftime, United get a penalty after Calvin Bassey did more wrestling on Mount than defender. The centre-back grabbing and then throwing the MUFC no 7 to the ground. A VAR check followed with the officials telling the referee to take a look at the monitor. We all know what happens then.
Once the penalty was given, everyone (including Fulham) perhaps knew that this was going to be 1-0.
Up stepped the United skipper as he has done so many times before although, there was a bit of a hiccup that caused him to have to do his usual pre-penalty ritual again. Referee Chris Kavanagh accidentily bumping into Fernandes. Many say that this may have put the Portuguese off but tbh, that shouldn't be an excuse for him blazing it over the bar in one of the most unlike Bruno Fernandes penalties you'll ever see.
Very out of character for him to blast it instead of calmly pass it into the net. This blazing over the bar was perfect to describe what was another dire performance by the magnifico.
Second Half
It was clear that something needed to change for United. Whether that be personnel off the bench, tactically or something else, the away side had lost all momentum and composure that which they had in the opening 10 minutes.
Those changes weren't forthcoming as Fulham started off the second period stronger. Several attacks down the flanks with a good few of them resulting in corners. Bayindir might be ahead of Onana at the moment as no 1 but you could argue that he is worse at crosses than the Cameroonian.
Every time a ball came in his direction, he was nowhere near it often flapping at the air or caught in no man's land. Thankfully, Fulham never made the most of those errors otherwise, they probably would've scored 3 goals.
Amorim did make a couple of changes with Amad off for Dalot and Casemiro for Sesko but that raised a few eyebrows because it meant a midfield pivot of Bruno and Mount. Dalot coming on was also a defensive change in a game where you are lacking something in attack.
Just before the hour mark though, against the run of play, after all their issues with corners, United manage to score off of their own. Mbeumo with a good delivery as Leny Yoro (who was voted man of the match) gets his head on it to make it 1-0. Upon closer inspection, it actually ended up being an own goal as it deflected off Rodrigo Muniz.
United still technically not with a goal this season but no one was complainging.
Manuel Ugarte was then brought on for Mount as clearly, the manager saw that that midfield wasn't working. Fortunately, unlike last week, Ugarte came on and actually played for United rather than the opponent.
Yet all of this still didn't prevent Fulham from being the better side throughout the second half. While they may not have created anything clear-cut, they still caused United a lot of problems particularly from those corners.
Marco Silva responded to Amorim's changes by making some of his own. Where the United manager's subs made little and less of an impact, Silva's was an instant improvement.
With his first touch, Emile Smith-Rowe makes it 1-1 after United didn't clear their lines, Dalot giving the ball away cheaply and Bruno not tracking the run of the eventual scorer. Several of United's weaknesses all exposed in one move.
If any team was going to win it, it was the home side.
Yet late on after two final changes by Amorim, it was MUFC who almost took all 3 points. Substitute Harry Maguire with a header that went just wide.
However, these two substitutions of Maguire and Ayden Heaven also raised questions as why are you bringing on two defenders when you're drawing a game? You also have Joshua Zirkzee and Kobbie Mainoo on the bench.
In the end, the score stayed at 1-1 and we all can't help but feel as if we dropped 2 points. 1 point in the first two matches leaves United in 16th place and with less optimism about the future than before the game.
Verdict on Amorim
I think he got a lot wrong this week. The questionable lineup worked against Arsenal but not Fulham and when you question the starting XI as much as we do, at some point/s, you're going to struggle. That proved to be the case as United were nothing like they were on the opening day.
Amorim would've been happy with how his team started the game but failing to take those good opportunities would've frustrated him. He would've known that they could turn out to be costly, just as they were.
"We have to grow up a lot as a team" - Ruben Amorim.
His players didn't create too many clear chances after that with Sesko hardly getting the ball.
The manager making four defensive changes out of five was another perplexing decision given the fact that we needed to look for a winner rather than try to hold on to the win.
The same old mistakes led us to a negative result: not tracking runners, poor from crosses, going too long too often, losing composure, midfield being played through. All of the positivity of the Arsenal game disappeared in this. To have to get us feeling good again is going to be difficult as our next two matches are against Grimsby (Wednesday night) and Burnley next Saturday, two teams United will be expected to beat.
These are the type of games that make us concerned about him and the team.
"I am very confident that we are going to get many wins" - Ruben Amorim.
Ratings
Bayindir - 5
Yoro - 7 MOTM
De Ligt - 6.5
Shaw - 6
Amad - 5.5
Casemiro - 5.5
Bruno - 3
Dorgu - 6
Mbeumo - 6
Mount - 6.5
Cunha - 6.5
Sesko - 5
Dalot - 4
Ugarte - 6
Maguire - 6
Heaven - 6
Ruben Amorim - 5
Final Thoughts
I feel so deflated. I feel a lot like last season to be honest.
This was where we saw what this team was truly made of. Against the better teams like Arsenal, the pressure is off us because we're shite. Against the Fulhams, the pressure is on us because we're supposed to be better than them. With no pressure, we can perform well. With pressure, we don't. That was the issue last season.
Two games in, and it appears to be the same issue this.
You can get away with bad performances if you win. We don't do that. I saw something online that I never thought of before and is a little worrying. It said that when Amorim's team doesn't play well, the chances are we don't win.
That's true. It's very rare that we win when playing badly under the Portuguese. In the past, we had several of these type of performances but somehow, managed to get the 3 points under previous managers. That doesn't seem to be the case with Amorim.
There was just too many of the same old issues in this game that we saw and that I didn't like which doesn't give me much confidence moving forward.
Leny Yoro helps Man Utd get a draw at Fulham | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)