United picked up their first victory last weekend in what turned out to be a bit of a squeaky bum game. Despite another good performance, Ruben's Reds required an injury time penalty to secure the much-needed 3 points.
Thankfully for Amorim, his skipper didn't make a meal of his spot kick like he did at Fulham. That strike could prove to be vital in the context of the season.
1. Threat from set-pieces
We are no Arsenal but I must admit that we have improved when it comes to creating and scoring from corners, free-kicks and the occasional long throw-in.
The opening goal came from a free-kick as Bruno found an unmarked Casemiro whose header hit the frame of the goal only to bounce off of a Burnley defender and just about make it over the line before goalkeeper Martin Dubravka made a last-ditch effort to save his side's blushes.
That wasn't to be and for Josh Cullen and Burnley, as the defender had the tag 'own goal' next to his name as he gave United the lead. This was similar to the draw at Fulham where we scored from a corner.
Speaking of corners, two other great opportunities came from them. We saw a different and perhaps even old school take where the ball was speared from the corner to a player on the edge of the box to hit on the volley akin to Beckham and Scholes all those years ago.
This time it was Bruno to Amad whose shot was saved by the goalkeeper and then Mbeumo to Bruno whose hit went just wide of the post. Unlucky to have not scored with that second one.
What these showed was an improvement and outside of the box thinking (literally) from United. The deliveries more than anything, were what allowed us to have these chances at all. We've complained about how our crosses can't pass the first man but so far this season, that hasn't been the case.
According to Stat Muse, United are actually top of the table for most accurate crosses.
2. Root one football
Sticking with old school ways of doing things and Amorim has brought something else back from yesteryear: root one football.
We've seen a couple of these so far as a long pump from Bayindir has managed to find the target on a couple of occasions. At Fulham, it was directly to Cunha, who should've buried that chance. Stat Muse say United are 2nd when it comes to accurate long balls in the league.
Against Burnley, it was a long ball to Zirkzee who flicked it on to Dalot before he pulled it back for Mbeumo who had a tap-in to make it 2-1. It's not something that we actually used to our benefit over the last couple of seasons despite United having this habit of going long. Nothing ever materialized from it.
This has to do with the pass itself as Bayindir has actually been really good with his distribution. The Turk has shown that he has improved with the ball at his feet even if he hasn't with his hands.
What this has done is give Amorim another weapon to his arsenal. United do have a couple of target men up front like Zirkzee and of course, Sesko, who is bigger than most. Having someone as big as them in attack and a goalkeeper who can play the accurate long ball means we can cause damage in a simpler manner.
Now that we have Lammens, it will be interesting to see whether he has this type of distribution which will help maintain this threat.
3. Wasteful
However, despite the improvements of creating chances and the manner with which those chances have been created, United are still very wasteful in front of goal.
Amorim's side had a total of 26 shots but just 6 on target. Only 2 big chances were created yet we had an xG of 3.63. It's pretty weird when you look at these numbers as it tells you a different story to the result. In comparison, Burnley had 6 attempts, 3 on target and 2 goals.
Stat Muse again tells us that United are 1st for attempts at goal, 2nd for shots on target and also 2nd for expected goals. Something is right but something is wrong.
But it's because of not putting these opportunities away that we found ourselves having to win the game with a late penalty.
Could this wastefulness simply be down to the fact that our players aren't clinical enough? Or do they lack composure in front of goal? Either way, it is a problem.
This is perhaps where someone like Sesko can come in. As he is a striker, you would expect him to be able to score some of the chances missed by his team-mates. The Slovenian had just the one header created for him but he put it over the bar. That was a difficult chance but in that instance, we saw his now famous jump in action. The hang time is almost Ronaldo-esque.
Put some more crosses into the box!
4. Don't flood transitions
This isn't a new thing. Over the recent years, it's become clear that our players just don't bust a gut to get forward in attacks.
We can see that whenever we do have breakaways, a lot of our players are cruising instead of sprinting as fast as they can to get into the final third. Most of the time, the opposition have several players flying back in order to prevent us from creating a chance and end up overtaking most of ours.
We usually have just one or two players in addition to the man on the ball flooding forward.
I'm not sure when or why this started because since the Ole days, United have been synonymous for being a counter-attacking side. That requires quick transitions and breakaways where as many players as possible get up the pitch to try and score. We were actually pretty good at those.
We just don't seem to do that anymore which is very frustrating because there are multiple opportunities to be created as the opposition have most of their players at the other end of the pitch.
5. Amad
What's going on with this guy? I find that he isn't Amad-ing this season.
With the signings of Cunha and Mbeumo, the resurgence of Mount, as well as still having the likes of Mainoo and Zirkzee, it was always going to be difficult for Amad to get into the team as a no 10, which is where many deem is his best position.
Amorim has also used him as a right wing-back at times which is an area where he faces competition too. Dalot and a returning Mazraoui will probably fight Amad for that position.
You can also see what I'm talking about how we don't get bodies forward in these transitions. Look at all of them just jogging at the edge of our box.
The Ivorian is a player who's too good to be benched or used as a squad player. At 23 years old, he is also quite young meaning he has a lot of time ahead.
However, with all of this competition and not knowing where he will actually play, he needed to have a great start to the season.
He hasn't.
This is why he is on the list because I think it's safe to say we all really like Amad and we can see the quality he has but whether he has played as a no 10 or wing-back, he has been very below par this season even if it's only four games in.
I find that he is disaplying too many of the unwanted attributes of the likes of the now departed Antony and Garnacho where they would keep their head down, cut in and shoot. Amad is doing that a little too often for my liking. He also happened to miss a sitter in this game which in his post-match presser, Amorim acknowledged:
"When they put the effort in, I'll always love them. Even when Amad is missing that kind of goal, I love Amad if he's giving everything."
At least the manager gave him some positivity.
We do need to see more from him because he cannot be wasting his talent.
Bruno Fernandes scores late penalty to give Man Utd 3-2 win over Burnley | Bruno Fernandes via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)