Despite not playing too well, Manchester United ground out a 2-0 win over PAOK on Thursday at Old Trafford, their first win of the current Europa League campaign.
A second-half brace from Amad Diallo proved to be the difference on the night with the Ivorian re-acquiring his mojo under interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy after some baffling treatment by former manager Erik ten Hag.
While incoming manager Ruben Amorim might have found himself his right-sided forward, the rest of team’s performance was quite poor as they kept running out of ideas in the final third.
The players seemed lethargic and hardly showed any real urgency against the Greek champions with the team’s mentality in need of change once the new boss walks in.
Rasmus was poor vs PAOK
At least, the interim manager has got the team back on the winning track but the form of his No 9 will be a concern even though he publicly backed him in his pre-match press conference.
Rasmus Hojlund is young and with that inexperience, performances are bound to be inconsistent but United need more from their main striker.
Under the lights, the Dane struggled to hold on to the ball under pressure and often took it too casual when trying to pass to a teammate.
He only had 16 touches of the ball and completed four out of six passes in 89 minutes, shocking numbers which highlight the huge task on Amorim’s hands.
The 21-year-old missed one big chance and failed to attempt a single dribble. He also lost four out of five ground duels while winning three aerial battles.
Huge task ahead for Amorim
The Denmark international managed zero crosses and long balls and also did not have a solitary key pass while losing possession seven times (all stats via sofascore).
Unfortunately, owing to summer recruit Joshua Zirkzee’s form, Van Nistelrooy had no choice but to keep Hojlund on for as long as he did.
Amorim needs to repeat the magic trick he did with Viktor Gyokeres, who went from a Championship striker with Coventry City to Europe’s finest at Sporting Lisbon.
Unfortunately, owing to United’s flawed recruitment, they have a very young forward line prone to bad days. It will be intriguing to see how the new head coach gets his house in order this season or if INEOS are forced to help in January.
Feature image Carl Recine via Getty Images
Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
