BIG TIME MAKE OR BREAK!
Amorim has nowhere to hide on this one. Against Brentford, we know that we've had trouble at the Gtech Community Stadium in the past and he also had the excuse of playing away from home, not that either of those things should've mattered but they gave him some excuse.
At home to a newly-promoted side who are potentially one of the favourites to go straight back down, there are no excuses. Nothing he says or does post-match should we draw or worse, will save him.
This is a game where not only should we be winning, but winning in a manner that suggests there is progress and that these players are behind him, for this one match at least.
We also need to win because we are 14th for fuck sakes! 14th 😩.
With just 7 points after six matches, two victories, one draw and three losses (each worse than the last), United MUST get the 3 points on Saturday.
No places to hide.
Predicted Lineup
You know, forget Amorim and predicted lineup, here's the team I'd like to see and if you read my updated best lineup post, you will know it already.
We do have some absentees like Mazraoui and Martinez but as we saw yesterday, a couple of players have returned including the man on the banner image as well as the forgotten man Malacia! Remember him?
This is my team and as you can see, there is no Malacia. In fact, there's no Bayindir, Shaw, Maguire, Dalot and the captain Bruno Fernandes.
With the way they've played this season, it's like they were not there at all.
I think it's about time we see this not just because they've been awful these first six games, but because they have been awful or at least inconsistent throughout their time at United and been involved in several manager sackings.
Amorim seems to be their next victim although it's on him for playing them.
If he wants to surivive especially beyond this game, he will need to drop them. And if you look at that lineup, you can't tell me that it isn't better balanced (particularly in midfield). It also gives the new goalkeeper Lammens a chance as Bayindir has shown why he isn't the level we require, it's a nod to the future with the likes of Heaven, Yoro and Mainoo in the team, and it removed that problem of Bruno who has been woeful to say the least.
As he isn't there and nor is Maguire, who should take up the captaincy?
For me, this guy should be our captain full stop. Matthijs De Ligt displays more leadership qualities than most in our squad and certainly more than Bruno and on top of that, unlike the current skipper, the former Ajax captain (who was the youngest in the club's history and he led them to the league title), makes the most sense to wear the armband.
He also is a player for the future whereas Bruno is more part of the old regime and it's probably time to move on.
I believe that this team is also better suited to playing Amorim's preferred brand of football. They are better than those that were dropped and as mentioned, provide more balance than any other side seen so far.
Is it truly that difficult for him to pick a decent team? Not even a good team but one where we can all get behind?
He really is sacking himself.
It will be very interesting to see the side he picks because it could tell you A LOT.
Approach
I know we won't play that team I prefer but if that side was somehow miraculously selected, it gives us more of an opportunity to play on the front-foot.
We have so many attackers on the field that we don't need to be defensive. Being at home, that means the onus is on Amorim's side to play some attacking football which isn't what we see.
With the likes of Yoro and Heaven in defense, the back line will have some pace about it allowing us to push that line higher up the pitch without that risk of being caught on the break.
This was a massive error by the manager in recent matches as in both the derby and last week, the line was high but it was Maguire who was the last man.
Harry Maguire, not Tobey Maguire. Had it had been Spiderman, maybe there would've been a chance of preventing those goals.
All modern managers and teams want to push further up the field so as to squeeze the opposition in their own half. For that you're going to need quick defenders. This makes what Amorim wants to do so contradictory because he chooses the slowest centre-back as his last man when playing a high line.
United also concede such stupid goals to a point where the opposition just have to wait for our inevitable cock up and they're in. All 3 of Brentford's goals were preventable, just like all 3 in the derby were. Bayindir messed up against Arsenal, Dalot and Bruno didn't do their jobs allowing for Fulham to equalize, Burnley's 2 strikes were poorly defended and despite having all our players behind the ball, we still couldn't stop Chelsea from getting a late consolation.
Not one of our 11 conceded were goals where you say that there was nothing we could do about it. Not one.
De Ligt and Yoro have also been developing a decent partnership making me question the manager even more as to why he would break that up.
Ugarte and Mainoo isn't a midfield we've seen too often but it's better than having Bruno in there. These are two players who understand their roles and in the defeat to Brentford, Ugarte was actually doing a decent job yet who was hooked off?
Pair him or even Casemiro with someone like Mainoo, then there is more chance of the midfield actually working as we'll have players in there who understand the roles.
Taking our chances (when we do actually create them) is something else we need to improve upon. Hopefully with his first goal last week, it will give Sesko some confidence moving forward - he has been nominated for player of the month.
Put some crosses in, use that direct long ball to the Slovenian and for God sakes get the ball into Cunha! This guy is the maverick of the team and we can see whenever he has possession, he looks to make things happen.
To be honest, you know all of these things. I know all of these things. Every football fan knows all of these things. Unfortunately, our manager doesn't and therein lies the problem.
What team he'll select will not be playing this way. What we will see from that XI is anybody's guess. I doubt it will be what we want.
Form
Every time I do one of these preview, I say we have no form.
This time I say, we have no form. We haven't had any form since Amorim took over.
No back-to-back league victories is the one that does it for me. There are several (several) other stats that are horrendous but for a Man Utd side to not have won two games in a row in the league in pretty much a year is something that I can't even put into words.
I remember a time when we didn't concede for 14 matches in a row. 14 games on the trot of not letting a goal in. That is far harder to do than winning back-to-back matches.
This period of fixtures post the international break did give us a chance to win two on the bounce especially after beating Chelsea which was not something we all expected. When you overcome a team of that quality, most would feel very confident about the next game and take the momentum from such a victory and use it to try and win the following match.
We did the complete opposite at Brentford and blew the chance of getting this unwanted monkey of our backs.
Not only that, we conceded 3 goals again at the Gtech which is something we've done on three of five occasions. That means we've let in 11 this season with only the bottom three having conceded more. The 7 we've scored puts us joint-10th for most goals which is the same as our opponents. But we do know that 2 of those were own goals meaning that United have actually scored just 5 which would leave us in 17th in terms of goals scored.
Fuck me we can't score, we concede too many, the football is crap. WHAT THE FUCK CAN WE DO?! 😩😭
When looking at the home table, we see United sitting in 8th after three matches. Our only two victories have come at Old Trafford (Burnley and Chelsea). The 4 we've conceded is the joint-most in the top 10 while the 5 scored is around the middle.
While Amorim may not have won back-to-back league games, he has done so at home thanks to that 2-1 win over the Blues. He will be looking for his third consecutive triumph at Old Trafford which is something I suppose 🤷♂️.
As we are 14th in the table, it shows that we haven't really improved from last season's 15th-placed finish however, after six games last term, we have gone a spot down. Erik ten Hag's Man Utd were 13th at the same stage a year ago.
Our GD is also worse off (-3 v -4). On the other hand, we have scored 2 more but ten Hag conceded 3 fewer than Amorim. We also had three clean sheets in these six games whereas so far this season, we have none.
ten Hag ended up being sacked just three games later after the 2-1 loss to West Ham. Guess who we play in three games' time? 👀
Brighton. You thought I was gonna say West Ham, didn't you? 🤣
Jokes aside, I could see Amorim suffering the same fate as ten Hag if not sooner. Brighton do have our number after all...
Sunderland
Can you guess where the Black Cats are in the table? I really had to have a closer look as I couldn't believe it!
Sunderland are 5th! Yes 5th!
DO NOT SCRATCH YOUR EYES 😳!
Yes the Black Cats sit in that potential final UCL spot and while it is only six games in, that is still a substantial amount of matches and for them to be above the likes of City, Chelsea, Newcastle, Villa and of course United (although that isn't something to be proud of as almost everyone is above us), is quite an achievement.
They've picked up 11 points with three wins, two draws and just the solitary defeat. While they may not score too many (7, the same as us), they don't concede too many either as the 4 they've let in are the joint second-fewest along with Spurs. Only Arsenal and Palace have conceded fewer with 3.
Sticking with the number 3 and that is the amount of clean sheets kept by Robin Roefs in goal. That is joint-second along with the likes of Spurs, Arsenal and Palace.
Tbh, I didn't know much about them but boy, do I know about them now. Sunderland, I wasn't familiar with your game 😳👏.
They've picked up some good results against tough opposition including draws at Palace and against Villa while getting the 1-0 win at Forest in their last match. Should they beat United, manager Regis Le Bris will have won back-to-back PL matches before Amorim.
He will have done so in just seven games 😐.
Sunderland away from home sit in 9th with one win, one draw and one loss with 1 goal scored. Their GD is sitting at -1. They have a points-per-game of 1.33 on the road.
They really do like the number 1 on their travels, don't they? 😂
Just for reference, we are 18th in the away table 😭.
Prediction
You know, I wasn't feeling that confident before this preview because of reasons, but after having seen what Sunderland have done, I am truly concerned that defeat is imminent 😵.
At Old Trafford, it makes no difference anymore because we are shit at home just as we are away from it. Sunderland should be the favourites considering their form so far and how embarrassingly poor we've been.
Knowing that Amorim will probably stick with the same crap XI as well, we may as well give the Black Cats the 3 points now, have an extra week off before the international break (not like we train during the season anyway), sack Ruben and look to bring in his replacement.
1-2 Sunderland 🙃.
Amad | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)
Granit Xhaka | Image via Sunderland official X (@SunderlandAFC)
Old Trafford | Photo by Harry Walsh on Unsplash