‘Worst United team ever’
Amorim blasts players as team slump to 131-year low
20 Jan 2025 - The Guardian
Jamie Jackson - Old Trafford
Ruben Amorim branded his team as the worst “maybe in the history of Manchester United” after they were booed off the Old Trafford pitch following a 3-1 defeat against Brighton.
The result leaves United in 13th with 26 points, 10 points above the relegation zone, on a day when fans and former players paid tribute to the late Denis Law. It was United’s sixth home league defeat of the season, the most from their opening 12 home matches of a league campaign since 1893-94, 131 years ago.
Amorim pointed to his record since replacing Erik ten Hag in the autumn. “In 10 games in the Premier League, we won two. I know that. We are the worst team maybe in the history of Manchester United,” he said.
“I know you want headlines but I am saying that because we have to acknowledge that and to change that. Here you go: your headlines. Imagine what this is for a fan of Manchester United, imagine what this is for me.
We are getting a new coach who is losing more than the last coach. I have full knowledge of that. I am not going to change [his 3-4-3 system], no matter what. I know we can succeed but we need to survive this moment. I am not naive. We need to survive now.”
Amorim said everyone at United is to blame. “It’s hard to explain, we have to acknowledge the moment and not go around the problem,” the head coach said. “Everybody here is underperforming.”
This was a seventh defeat in Amorim’s 15 matches in charge. “It’s unacceptable to lose so many games. For any Premier League club – [but] imagine Manchester United. So it’s a really hard moment but we have to continue, there is no other way. We need to suffer and continue.”
Amorim was asked how hard it can be for elite footballers to adjust to his system. “They are used to different things. Then sometimes you have one team that almost wins the league and then the next season is really bad without confidence. Our players are really nervous. If I feel it the players feel it a lot. The only way is to continue to win games.”
Marcus Rashford was again not in the matchday 20. Amorim has previously said the forward was left out for “training reasons”. He was asked if he felt let down that a player who could help the side is unavailable.
“No. It is his choice. I am not going to put a player I don’t believe is the best for the team.”
On a sombre afternoon graced by a piper’s rendition of Flower of Scotland and a poetic tribute to the great man, Manchester United went down dismally in their first game since Friday’s passing of Denis Law.
Ruben Amorim’s 15th match piloting United enters the record books as a seventh defeat. Afterwards his declaration was damning, branding his side as the poorest “maybe in the history of Manchester United”.
How this will boost the confidence levels of players the Portuguese describes as “nervous” is a puzzle. He may also wish to halt that characterisation as constantly outing them in public as jittery is no Winston Churchill-like call to arms.
Amorim’s view is that honesty is the best way to rouse his charges but he may like to consider altering the Ange Postecoglou-esque insistence that he will not change a 3-4-3 system that has his side as muddled as Erik ten Hag’s vintage, and which is from a “new coach who is losing more than the last”.
As in Thursday’s win over Southampton here, United had chances towards the end to stage a comeback but when struggling you do not require a howler from your goalkeeper to gift the opponent a two-goal cushion.
On 76 minutes, André Onana did precisely this. Yasin Ayari, who starred throughout, swept the ball in from the right. United’s keeper went to ground and saw the ball slip from his gloves to Georginio Rutter. The substitute evaded the despairing Cameroonian and rolled home.
After adding the latest error to a bulging catalogue, Onana lay prone, head on the turf, having provided a bookend to United’s performance as unwanted as the side’s concession at the start.
Amorim’s players were cast as hapless bystanders for Brighton’s early opener, breached in a fluid back-tofront move that was too easy for the visitors to execute. Carlos Baleba lifted the ball from his half to the marauding Kaoru Mitoma along the left. He danced forward, steered the ball across, and Yankuba Minteh’s finish came with the home rearguard awol.
United were rocked. Amorim threw his hands in disgust. Five minutes played and those in red were already squeezed behind the white ball. Studding the display was Noussair Mazraoui three times spilling the ball to Brighton, an aimless Bruno Fernandes pass and Amorim’s men being outmuscled too often in 50-50s.
But, they probed and after several home congregation calls of “foul” for differing Brighton challenges that were ignored by Peter Bankes, the referee pointed to the spot when Baleba hooked an arm around Joshua Zirkzee, the striker hitting the turf. Fernandes sent Bert Verbruggen falling to his left, placing the penalty to the keeper’s right and the scores were level.
Zirkzee is a curious footballer. The Dutchman can be clumsy-footed and silken of touch in the same moment, as when the ball came to him near halfway, he diced with losing it, applied balletic feet to swerve two markers, and ignited an attack.
Amorim’s desire to transform United into a unit akin to Fabian Hürzeler’s requires time and his players to buy into this. Winning is the best way to guarantee they do. Yet they came close to going behind again before the break. Leny Yoro slipped in front of his area and suddenly a block was needed to keep Danny Welbeck from scoring.
Stability is no apt word for United and so after they began the second half brightly – when Amad Diallo roved in and unloaded – you waited for a hole to be punched through them by Brighton. Moments later it came: João Pedro smashed home after more amateurish defending from an Ayari free-kick.
The Swede slipped, the ball bobbled about in the area, and Brighton’s No 9 hit the net. Yet now a reprieve arrived for United as Bankes, sent to the monitor by the VAR, adjudged Jan Paul van Hecke to have kicked Diogo Dalot’s foot in the buildup. The goal was ruled out.
Then came calamity. An Ayari sprint took him clean through United’s midfield. His pass went to Minteh on the right. He flipped the ball over and Mazraoui’s torrid afternoon now featured a failure to prevent Mitoma bundling home at the far post.
Immediately Amorim took off Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo for Toby Collyer and Alejandro Garnacho. Onana’s despair was to follow. After eight minutes of stoppage time, at the final whistle United had again failed to register back-to-back Premier League wins.
England’s record 20-times champions remain stuck at their latest crossroads. The current vintage is several galaxies away from Matt Busby’s brilliant 1960s one that was decorated by the supreme winner Law.
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1893 - United suffered their sixth home league defeat of the season, their most from their opening 12 home matches of a season since 1893-94’s seven.
1990 - They have lost 10 of their 22 league games in total – the earliest into a season they have hit double figures for defeats since 1989-90.
5 - United have conceded first in each of their past five home league games, their joint-longest run (also from Aug to Oct 2023).
2 - Brighton have won successive away Premier League games for the first time since Sept 2023.
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The theatre of tears: fans pay emotional tribute to the ‘King’
Old Trafford is united in grief and celebration as supporters come together to honour club legend Law
‘He has been an emblem of my Manchester United upbringing and education’
20 Jan 2025 - The Guardian
Will Unwin - Old Trafford
‘It’s the end of a generation,” says Ying-Hoi Soo, a Manchester United supporter since the 1960s. He has come to lay flowers at the United Trinity statue after the death of its final member, Denis Law. The bronze is once again surrounded by scarves, shirts and flowers in a growing semi-circle at the base. Law is in the middle, hand aloft, with Bobby Charlton and George Best either side. The passing of the final third of the “United Trinity” is a reminder of what has been lost already for fans. “What a team heaven has got now,” reads one message written on a shirt. They were an iconic trio, leading United to era-defining glories in the 1960s with Law’s death almost 61 years to the day since they all started together for the first time. This was the final poignant goodbye.
Every United household had a favourite at the time. They adored all three but one would always be placed on the pedestal. United supporters were brought up on Charlton, Best and Law for decades after they retired, as youngsters were told stories of their heroics as trophies mounted up under
Sir Matt Busby. All three went on to win the Ballon d’Or but Law was the trailblazer, anointed two years before Charlton and four before Best. Sometimes the other two are more heralded in these parts but Law’s achievements are equally significant. He arrived in 1963 from Torino and the prolific striker was instrumental in igniting a new epoch of success at the club, a world away from the current malaise. He would stay for a decade before moving across town to City, something he was forgiven for.
“He was my dad’s hero and one of the first players I was aware of as a child,” says Richard Redman, a United season-ticket holder from Rochdale. “My parents have a signed photo of him up in their kitchen – along with the rest of the Trinity – and he has been an emblem of my Manchester United upbringing and education through the years. His contribution to our club transcends the generations, with many fans my age idolising him despite never seeing him play. He’s the one who people my dad’s age talk about the most – it’s been that way as long as I can remember. They feel the same way about him as I do about Eric Cantona – probably even more so.”
Once Law hung up his boots, he remained in the north-west, living in Cheshire and was a regular at social and charity engagements. Thousands of United and City supporters crossed his path throughout his retirement.
“The first time I met him was at a former players’ event, and he was such a nice person, and everybody says that,” says Ying-Hoi, who witnessed Law’s peak up close when he won the 1964 Ballon d’Or. “By then he had retired from football, but compared to a lot of ex-footballers there was no sense of entitlement. I was nervous to speak to him but he completely disarmed me the moment I approached him. That was the thing that really struck me.”
Inside the ground the banner behind one goal reads “Denis Law The King Of The Stretford End”, a stand that is home to a second statue of the legend. The plethora of screens on the concourses showed his greatest hits in red, reminding everyone of his clinical finishing. The man was royalty at Old Trafford, a legendary figure who was often in the stands until being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He loved being among the fans, those that made the fortnightly pilgrimage to see their heroes when the Trinity were at their peak. On the walk to the stadium, there are constant reminders of Law. Fittingly he has a mural on the outside of The Trafford pub next to the other King, Eric Cantona, and photos of his goals are plastered around.
“I can always see him score an overhead kick in my mind,” says Ying-Hoi. “He was the best striker at the time – maybe alongside Jimmy Greaves. I have been very fortunate to follow United when we had him, George Best and Bobby Charlton. To see them all go is very, very sad.”
The 73,758 in the ground stood to applaud Law, who scored 237 goals in 404 games for United, after a wreath was laid next to the pitch by his close friend Sir Alex Ferguson, who described him as “the best Scottish player of all time”. Three remaining members of the 1968 European Cup winning team, Alex Stepney, Paddy Crerand and Brian Kidd, were present on the pitch.
They were piped on to the pitch to the subtle sound of Flower of Scotland. Law missed the Wembley final in 1968 because of the knee injury that plagued much of his career. Ferguson wore a black tie in honour of his hero, a fellow Scottish striker he idolised despite there only being a year between them, and the players had the requisite armbands.
Ferguson was not alone in idolising the man who was given a royal moniker, an honour not even bestowed upon Charlton or Best. In that regard only Cantona can claim parity with Law. And as the poem read out before kick-off states, Denis Law is “still the King of the Stretford End”.
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