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Perhaps the best that can be said of Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United is that you know exactly where you stand with them. It’s 10 months since he was appointed but he is yet to win back-to-back league games. Having beaten Burnley last time out, amid scenes of revealing euphoria, they were never going to win at Manchester City.
Which must have been a relief for City, who had lost two of their first three games this season for the first time in 21 years. There was, for them, particularly after half-time, a pleasing sense of normality returning. Rodri, shaky early on, began to dominate as he used to before his knee injury, while there were fine performances from Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku and Phil Foden.
City may have been the dominant side in Manchester for the past 12 years, but this was the first real battering they had dished out in the derby since the 6-3 in October of 2022-23. And yet, while City were entirely in control by the end, slicing United open on the break again and again, it had not begun like that.
United, though, have become one of those sides who will eventually offer up chances; all opponents have to do is wait. United’s attacking is ponderous and still very heavily reliant on individuals – the save Gianluigi Donnarumma made diving to his right was the result of Bryan Mbeumo’s technique in volleying a deep cross rather than any subtle interplay. Again and again, patient buildup ends with the spectacularly one-footed Patrick Dorgu failing to beat his man or deliver a meaningful cross. At the other end, opponents wander through them.
United had actually started quite well, their pressing leading both Rodri and Bernardo Silva to give up possession, but they undid any early positivity with some unforgivable diffidence. When Rodri found Doku he was in a square formed by Luke Shaw, Manuel Ugarte, Amad Diallo and Dorgu, watched by all of them but tended by none. He turned and had enough acceleration room to sashay past Shaw.
Although Ugarte recovered to block his first attempt at a cross, the second was headed in by an unmarked Phil Foden, United’s defensive structure essentially undone by a pass and a turn, none of it helped by some flatfooted goalkeeping by Altay Bayindir. United had all 11 players in their own defensive third, and yet failed to pick up either crosser or goalscorer.
The issue wasn’t quite so stark with the second goal: there is only so much a defence can do against a rampaging Haaland, but as the throw-in was taken there was a meekness, a vagueness, to United’s response.
Ugarte was not close enough to Nico O’Reilly, which allowed him to be nutmegged, then Leny Yoro was rolled very easily by Doku as seized on Foden’s pass before laying in the Norwegian.
Thereafter it was just a question of how many City would score. Haaland hit the post after Matthijs de Ligt had given the ball away, then got his second after Shaw had been dispossessed by Silva. Tijjani Reijnders also missed a one-on-one. This was 3-0 going on 5-0, without City having to do anything exceptional.
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There were promising signs for City, clearly, but it would seem premature to announce with any certainty that they are back: this was far more about United’s deficiencies than City’s excellence. Worst of all from a United point of view was how predictable it all felt. There were no howls of outrage, no sense of shock. There wasn’t even a booking. It was all extremely tepid, as though United have accepted their mediocrity.
How long can it go on? At what point will more be expected from Amorim, who has won just eight Premier League matches to date? Of the 17 sides who have been in the Premier League since Amorim was appointed, his United have the worst record with 31 points from 31 games. Amorim is not the only problem for United, he is probably not the biggest problem, but it is becoming harder and harder to deny that he is a problem.
Perhaps United feel they are so far stepped in blood there is no going back, but how long is it going to take to get to the other side? Will they ever get there under Amorim? How much more can United sink into a sunk-cost fallacy? Does anybody still believe Amorim could be like Alex Ferguson, that there could be a glorious future waiting at the end of the gloom? And if they do believe that, what exactly are the reasons for hope? And if they do not believe it, why is he still in the job? The empty seats in the United end by the final whistle told their own story.
This wasn’t a shocking defeat. It won’t be remembered in six months, never mind years or decades. It was run-of-the-mill – and that is the most damning aspect of all.
