Manchester United’s final game of 2024 seemed like the moment when the Big Tent at Old Trafford Circus began to collapse.
Before now, United’s calamities over the past decade have incubated to a peak that other clubs can only dream of: completing the back of a Champions League group; Coming in eighth in the Premier League but won the FA Cup; Losing a Europa League Ultimate 11-10 on penalties.
Advert
As we turn into 2025, however, the ground on which this weekly entertainment show is built is crumbling to a base level.
After Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth, Newcastle’s 2-0 win gave United a third straight home league defeat for the first time since 1979. It was their sixth defeat in all competitions in December, the biggest defeat they suffered in a single calendar month. since September 1930. They will end the year in 14th place, their lowest position at this level since 1989.
United are performing like an inverse trapeze artist — “Roll up, roll up, be dazzled at how low we can go!”
Amid such a spiral, the relegation places are looming into the rear view, just seven points behind. Rather than reject the proposal of a scrap for survival, Ruben Amorim is leaning into it. “We have to acknowledge our position,” he said. “I think people are tired of excuses in this club. Sometimes I talk about relegation. Because our club needs a shock.”
Amorim, captivating as he continues to be, offers complete and cold answers. That’s what brought him here, winning two titles in Portugal and taking on the task of updating Erik Ten Hag. and the effect on your equipment will be attractive to see.
A sardonic view might be that a championship finish would provide the canopy needed for further rationalisation of Ineos, but no one seriously predicts a 1974-style shake-up to reboot the club.
Amorim also advised United to replace the manager before compromising their 3-4-2-1 approach, and the mitigation for him is huge. He has had only 4 full education sessions with a team built for a different formula, whose quality and athleticism are demonstrated as the weeks go by.
United’s fans gave their view, heartily singing “Amorim’s Red and White Army,” either side of the break.
The man himself said: “I have to sell my idea, I don’t have another one. If I’m going to change all the time it is going to be even worse.”
Amorim’s commitment is commendable. But starting Casemiro and Christian Eriksen in the center of the field a concept that had become obsolete at the beginning of last season, much less in the center of the field. Newcastle, as expected, were too strong for the appearance of Amorim in the center of the field.
The sight of Bruno Guimaraes passing the ball around Eriksen on the way to Newcastle’s painful moment from a united vantage point.
Advertisement
It is one of the maximum catastrophic openings at Old Trafford in recent memory. Within 25 minutes, with United failing to sign off on an attempt to organise single targets, Newcastle had recorded 8 shots, with 4 on target, 3 of which were wonderful chances set up via OPTA. That didn’t come with two nasty corners of Kieran Trippier that can be noted as genuine efforts to score recent targets opposed to United. The moment Sandro Tonali walked into the United Box for a transparent strike, just to get to the Post, the environment, the environment. rebel.
Instead that one of the two 32 -year -old players in the center of the field was eliminated, and with the United needed with goals, it was Joshua Zirkzee who replaced, a player apparently bought as a striker. Amorim played 33 minutes in what has become a brutal and surreal game. show.
Loud cheers greeted Zirkzee’s number, and some supporters booed the ruthless reaction as a way to show solidarity, the 23-year-old, a £36. 5m ($45. 8m) summer signing, headed straight into the tunnel. He came up a few minutes later, his hood in position as he took his position on the bench.
Kobbie Mainoo arrived and helped you save a hammer, but the gentle comedy continued. Casemiro took the maximum shot off goal in a very credible way and then anticipated a much closer shot. Mainoo, who had recovered the ball thanks to Fabian Schar, had chosen to make way for Rasmus Hojlund or Amad for 4 against 2, for reasons that are not clear.
At one point Harry Maguire tried to inject urgency, bursting forward with the ball and urging Alejandro Garnacho and Diogo Dalot to run ahead. In apparent frustration, his pass went behind both and out of play. (It is notable United have not scored in three successive games that Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui have started as wing-backs.) Even Amad was afflicted, wasting a good counter-attack by passing the ball into touch.
Advertisement
United used the set kicks, Eriksen hit the loose kicks midway as an opportunity to put the ball into the box. A long liberation of Dalot caused certain chaos. In one of those situations, Maguire was closer to purpose with a head that hit the post.
Hojlund seemed desperate, and his own limitations and poor service offered him an opportunity, which he expanded.
Until the final whistle, Marcus Rashford remained on the bench. It’s his first appearance on a team of the day after four omissions. He scored a brace in his last start in the Premier League, against Everton at the start of this long December. however, there are clever reasons why Amorim prevented him from doing so.
He brought back to Newcastle’s opposite team with Bruno Fernandes and Manuel Ugarte suspended. But despite the circumstances, he remained in his place. More humiliating than not worrying at all? Or the first step towards reintegration? Time will say it.
“I’m discussing anything,” Amorim said. You think a lot about Marcus. I just need to win the game and you can feel it. Do I communicate about the concept and fight for relegation and do I need to score a point in a match?I just need to win the game.
The dynamism of this 4-0 win against Everton, when Rashford and Zirkzee scored twice, jumped and so many things about United at the moment seems like a string of strings.
(Top photo: Molly Darlington/Copa/Getty Images)