In a season of record lows, there is almost a numb sensation accompanying Manchester United’s slump to 15th place in the table.
It is an unprecedented position for United at this stage in a Premier League campaign, and yet, at the same time, the team’s performances are acting as anaesthetic against justified outrage.
People have grown accustomed to the club languishing in the lower half, so slipping behind an Everton side that has teetered on the brink of implosion for much of the season barely registers.
The response is similar around United’s impotence in front of goal. The blank at Tottenham Hotspur was their 10th failure to score in 25 games. That is a scandalous ratio, the type familiar to those in the relegation zone. But it has become normalised.
After the full-time whistle on Sunday, Ruben Amorim and his players applauded the travelling fans and, in return, there were claps and a song about loving United. The atmosphere was far more acrimonious when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer tried to acknowledge the away supporters at Vicarage Road following the 4-1 loss to Watford in what proved to be his final game in charge. At that point, in November 2021, United were seventh having finished second six months earlier.
United went on to end the 2021-22 campaign in utter turmoil, with players in revolt and Ralf Rangnick as interim manager, but still placed sixth.
Such heady heights look like a speck on the horizon right now, and the question is how small that prospect needs to shrink for anger in the stands to rise again.
Bruno Fernandes reacts at the end of Manchester United’s latest defeat (Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)
United putting in a display at Spurs that, on another day, could have won them the game, amid an injury crisis that meant eight teenagers with a combined 10 minutes of senior football were on the bench, undoubtedly coloured the mood for those in the stadium.
Rather than spiralling into disarray there was at least resilience with some chances — two big ones for Alejandro Garnacho and Joshua Zirkzee — created en route, albeit that is a low bar.
But a bad result from Saturday’s trip to Everton, resurgent under David Moyes, could mean acceptance morphs into animosity. Moyes is another former United manager, of course, who was sacked with the club in seventh.
Garnacho contemplates missed chances (Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
Amorim has come in mid-season and been given Patrick Dorgu, a 20-year-old from Lecce, as his only senior January signing, while shedding Marcus Rashford, who has the third-highest total of goal contributions for United in the Premier League this season (four goals, one assist).
Amorim is trying to implement the 3-4-2-1 system that brought him two titles for Sporting CP of Lisbon using a United squad assembled for a different style. All while being charming and erudite.
He believes he needs a pre-season to be able to spend quality time with his players, establish better links between them and him, and work through the nuances of his approach. He could be just the guy to turn United around.
But Amorim has lost eight times from 14 Premier League games, already one more than Ragnick who had 24 top-flight matches in charge, and the longer this desperate run of form continues the more chance players and others at the club lose confidence in his ideas. Or, conversely, the higher probability he decides United is too much of a mess for him to fix. He has spoken of some managers finding a break from a bad situation “liberating”.
There were calls for Sir Alex Ferguson to be sacked during his five years as manager before things clicked. Nobody knew for sure back then what he could go on to achieve. There is an element of faith required.
The same was true for Erik ten Hag. His football at Ajax was thrilling but never replicated at United, his attempts chewed up by the club and its habitat.
Amid the bleakness, Amorim has shown signs that his system could work, notably in the win at the Etihad, but more so with the front-foot display at Anfield.
At Tottenham, United had the better chances. Garnacho was found clear in the box by Bruno Fernandes, and Zirkzee was picked out with a cross from Noussair Mazraoui. Dorgu’s energy and enterprise down the left flank hinted at the potential of him as an individual as well as Amorim’s formation when populated by players of a suitable athletic profile. Had Garnacho found Dorgu’s overlapping runs more frequently the result could have been different. The one occasion Garnacho did, Dorgu’s quick pass set up Rasmus Hojlund for a shot.
A frustrated Zirkzee as another chance is passed up (Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)
Fernandes covering to the right defensively opened up space in midfield for Tottenham, while Casemiro was exposed for mobility, but they were choices borne of necessity. Amorim only picked Casemiro for his first start in six weeks because Christian Eriksen was ill. Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte and Toby Collyer all suffering injuries in training was calamitous misfortune.
In the absence of Amad, Amorim could have put on Chido Obi earlier, the 17-year-old who has scored 12 goals in 12 youth games this season. Obi has a knack for finding finishes in the box, at academy level at least. Hojlund, Zirkzee and Garnacho all completed 90 minutes having scored a combined eight Premier League goals between them this term, the last coming on December 7.
Whether any of the other teenagers on the bench could truly have been brought on is debatable with United having the second-half momentum. Jack Moorhouse, a strong ball carrier from midfield, was perhaps best placed. Jack Fletcher, two years Moorhouse’s junior at 17, put in a creative display at No 10 during United’s 5-1 FA Youth Cup win over Chelsea last Wednesday, so might have been worth some minutes in search of a goal, also.
Fletcher’s dad Darren had led the warm-up for the substitutes and then passionately watched the game with the analysts in the stands.
Supporters need a sense of hope this season, and young faces give them that. Amorim said he will award debuts in the FA Cup and Europa League, a competition that stands as the great lottery ticket for United’s future.
Ayden Heaven (left) joins Mazraoui and Obi in applauding the travelling support (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Winning the Europa, and therefore qualifying for the Champions League, would transform morale and the club’s finances. But without Amad such glory is faint.
Exiting that competition would draw attention to those in charge. After Dan Ashworth lasted only five months as sporting director, the football department is led by Sir Dave Brailsford, chief executive Omar Berrada, technical director Jason Wilcox and chief operating officer Collette Roche. This is new territory for all of them and it is only natural to wonder from which experiences they would draw should tension grow at United.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is at the top, of course, and he felt the heat from fans at Craven Cottage over ticket-price rises. Now he is leading the move for more redundancies, potentially as many as 200, and there are people connected to the club who insist that is a choice rather than a necessity given the money saved compared to overall debts.
Job losses are undoubtedly affecting the atmosphere at Carrington and Old Trafford, and Amorim accepted that wider anxiety is seeping into the first-team bubble. The way Amorim handled United’s financial plight head-on was statesmanlike, a quality United need from their figurehead.
Whether Amorim can translate that composure to the pitch will factor into results. As much as fans might joke for someone to wake them up when the season is over, there is still much at stake in the coming weeks.
GO DEEPER
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(Top photo: Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)
