They don’t deserve him, do they?
Even before this ridiculous one-man rescue mission Turning what looked like a 0-1 loss to Southampton into a stunning 3-1 win There has long been chatter about how far United’s season might have sunk without Amad Diallo.
Now there’s no need to wonder how bad it might look. The answer is: it’s bad. For 80 minutes it looked like it was going to be a humiliating low for United in a season full of them. Give one party a real deal Trapped at the bottom of the table and potentially becoming the worst Premier League team everThe defense was so disorganized that they conceded a goal from a corner kick for the 10th time this season, the first time a team had scored in this way.
It might have been deeper had it not been for Andre Onana making some decent impressions on Peter Schmeichel, with Amad finally pulling his side out of trouble. If Kamaldeen Sulemana had even an iota of the final word composure to match the rest of his performance, not even Ahmad could do anything about it.
The first hour of this game saw Manchester United perform poorly while Southampton performed well. The most shocking thing is that it’s not shocking. Except Southampton is the brilliant part.
There isn’t a Manchester United fan alive who wouldn’t have foreseen a performance like this from Sterling’s efforts in liverpool and arsenal recent. Ruben Amorim hinted at this after the game against Liverpool; Bruno Fernandes said flatly. What United showed us against the Saints tells us more about them than any heroic performance in those big games.
Indeed, as ridiculous as what Amad did between minutes 82 and 94 was, we still have an answer.
Bruno tried to get United heading in the right direction in the first half but never had the numbers, effort or courage to keep Southampton under sustained pressure.
United’s clever use of a back five in the first hour of this game left them severely short of ideas and goals going forward, but Lenny Yoro didn’t get what he desperately needed in a mismatch. help. The match with Suleimana.
Time and time again, the Southampton striker found himself free of Yoro, once again successfully orchestrating a one-on-one match that could only have a winner. While Ruben Amorim’s second-half substitute would have had a considerable impact on the final result, it was a lengthy period in which the United manager appeared to make no attempt to provide any remedy for the most glaring problem imaginable. People are deeply troubled.
Southampton were littered with heroes throughout the first two-thirds of the game. Mateusz Fernandez and Tyler Diblin were outstanding against Suleimana’s furious running game, with Joe Aribo dominating the midfield against Kobe Mainu and Manuel Ugarte Dominated, while Tyler Harwood-Bellis – commanding in the air and composed on the ground – ended the night narrowly unable to equalize before a horror display of the third goal.
Kyle Walker-Peters also seemed to match Ahmad for 80 minutes, until he simply couldn’t.
Everywhere else you look there are redshirt horror stories. Alejandro Garnacho performed exactly as you would expect from someone who has been linked with Tottenham Hotspur in the past 48 hours. The thought of jumping from the frying pan into the fire is enough to stun anyone with self-doubt, and Grenache has plenty of it. He clearly missed one coherent move in United’s first half, being cleverly picked out by Rasmus Hoylund, and the entire evening was littered with questionable decision-making and poor execution. We’ve all been there.
Neither Ugarte nor Mainu lasted past the hour mark, and given that second-best United found themselves up against a Southampton midfielder, they undoubtedly had no complaints.
Yoro’s time on the court was generally hot. Lisandro Martinez ran around and looked confused and Matthijs De Ligt made some desperate last-ditch efforts in the middle while spending the evening Deliberately not looking to see what was happening to Yoro to his right most of the time.
Noussair Mazraoui – who has been one of United’s main sources of solace and comfort this season – has never been able to provide anything worthwhile in the ‘wing’ element of his job description in this system. Something of value, even for Amad – clearly United’s least terrible outfield player. In what was an absolutely abominable first half – showing considerable defensive naivety and failing to provide any real help to a beleaguered Yoro.
Amorim made one change at half-time and, frankly, he could have made five. Few can complain. But when the answer is Anthony at halftime, the question can only be a serious one.
He somehow missed an absolute, real mount when the score was still 1-0, and his decision to sit on his butt and try to score was enough to temporarily put even Ally McCoist on Co-Com Lost sense of humor.
By then, though, Amorim’s other changes had begun to take effect. Hojlund and Ugarte lasted just eight minutes of the second half, which was as notable as Mainu’s half-time performance. Their replacements have all performed their part, the only caveat being that it’s almost impossible for them to fail to raise the bar.
Joshua Zirkzee added much-needed energy and energy to United’s attack, and Toby Collier did the same for a previously lethargic midfield.
But there will only be one name on the lips of those watching this game. It’s always exciting to see a young player realize his value and ability in real time the way Amad has this season. Logically, when you think about it, it’s also a flower that often appears in the harshest soils.
Amad had some luck of his own with the first ball as the ball deflected back into its path from Walker-Peters, who played brilliantly here of the first 80 points and a nightmare final 10 before immediately regaining control and swiping past Aaron Ramsdale with his weaker right foot.
The second goal was quite good, a clever volley shot past the defender with a perfect heavyweight short pass, the defender had time to realize they were screwed, but no time according to Christian Eriksen for over a decade. Take action on known information. It was exactly the kind of goal you might have seen Dele Alli score in 2017.
The third goal was the kind of goal we’ll see Southampton concede in 2024, and the less said about it the better. It was cruel for Harwood-Bellis, who was performing well until a hint of total sobriety crept in, allowing Amad to complete his hat-trick. One wonders whether his attention was still on the header he sent earlier, only to see the ball bounce to the safety of team-mate Flynn Towns.
Even as the game progressed into the 94th minute, Amad was there to pounce on the mistake and he had dragged the team back into kicking and screaming form, which spoke volumes about where he was now.
Whether it’s the first time of the season or the last, Manchester United are very, very grateful.
