Three goals, a clean sheet and the Stretford End chanting your name at the full-time whistle. Ruud van Nistelrooy’s employment status at Manchester United is unknown heading into a new week, but he ensured his spell as interim manager ended on a high on Sunday evening.
A 3-0 win over Leicester City only lifted the club to 13th in the Premier League table, but Van Nistelrooy’s four-game tenure brought three victories and some stability to a club in sore need of both.
“United fans have always held a special place in my heart but I can honestly say that my love for you all has only grown during this period,” wrote Van Nistelrooy in his pre-match notes in Sunday’s programme. “The support I have had from the stands at Old Trafford has been fantastic and I have taken memories I will cherish for the rest of my life.
“I see only good things for Manchester United. This club has all the ingredients to get back to the levels I knew as a player. From tomorrow, I will be getting behind our new head coach, Ruben Amorim, and I urge everyone who loves the club to do the same.”
Amorim is unlikely to have watched United on Sunday — Sporting Lisbon’s 4-2 victory against Braga kicked off a couple of hours after the game at Old Trafford ended — yet when the 39-year-old arrives to start work in Manchester over the international break, one of his first issues will be implementing a style of play. There will also be questions over how to get the most out of Amad and Manuel Ugarte. They were excellent against Leicester and have been the biggest beneficiaries from Van Nistelrooy’s interim era.
Amad, 22, picked up from where he left off against PAOK in the Europa League on Thursday and was once again an incisive intelligent attacking presence at Old Trafford. Three minutes into the game, he kept possession under pressure in the final third before drawing a foul from Boubakary Soumare. His clever footwork earned the applause and praise of Bruno Fernandes.
Amad spent much of the first half looking to play in Fernandes and there appears to be budding chemistry between the pair. Amad’s backheel into the path of his captain set up the game’s opening goal. Improving United’s fortunes in front of goal will take work but Amorim is likely to want his team’s creative players to link up more efficiently with Fernandes.
Continuing Amad’s run in the side may help, as will closer instruction on where Fernandes shoots from. In the 10 league matches before Leicester, his 31 shots (excluding penalties) yielded zero goals despite an accumulated non-penalty expected goals (xG) tally of 3.0. It was the biggest goalscoring underperformance from any player in Europe’s top five leagues (with at least 600 minutes played) and something that will need to improve if the club are to climb up the table.
United’s second goal came via a Victor Kristiansen own goal after Noussair Mazraoui’s cross ricocheted off Fernandes’ thigh. It was the sort of good fortune in front of goal that Erik ten Hag’s side had lacked before he was sacked two weeks ago. Alejandro Garnacho’s strike in the second half was less about luck and more about the 20-year-old’s quality. His goal — a curling strike into the top corner from 20 yards out — reiterated his talent and saw him close in on Cristiano Ronaldo’s Premier League tally before his 21st birthday.
With only two attacking positions behind the centre-forward in the 3-4-3 formation Amorim used at Sporting — he said he’d play three at the back on Sunday night — there will be competition over who will get the nod under Amorim. Amad offers something different in the final third to Garnacho, who offers something different to Fernandes. Marcus Rashford, Christian Eriksen, Mason Mount and Antony may also be competing for similar positions.
The new head coach will have to find a way to get these attacking players to work as an effective unit — and not rely too much on counter-attacking football. Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee would hope the incoming head coach has plans for the centre-forward position, too. Long balls are frequently punted towards Hojlund, who is expected to wrestle with centre-backs on his back, rather than run onto passes in space behind the defence.
Ugarte looks to have secured a role as one of the starting central midfielders. The 23-year-old started each of Van Nistelrooy’s four games and looks to be benefitting from more consistent playing time. Ugarte’s role in the side is to disrupt the opponent’s midfield rhythms and to regain possession whenever possible for his team. On Sunday, he won eight tackles and kept his passing tidy in the middle.
Ugarte’s aggressive tackling shoulders some of the defensive responsibilities, allowing Casemiro to play as more of a box-to-box midfielder, rather than a fixed point. Amorim has already worked with Ugarte at Sporting, which should help soothe United’s long-standing midfield woes. Given Amorim’s preference for tacklers in central midfield, expect them to continue their partnership when the Premier League continues in two weeks. Kobbie Mainoo is a talented midfielder who can now be afforded extra time to develop, rather than thrown in at the deep end when he returns to full fitness.
Van Nistelrooy has stabilised the club and there are promising signs but Amorim has problems to solve — including his use of wing-backs, especially given Diogo Dalot’s form.
As a United player, Van Nistelrooy was more of a goal scorer than a creator. As a manager, he has just threaded a decent through ball for Amorim.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
