Manchester United are shifting from being a circus to uninteresting, which is a step in the right direction as far as Ruben Amorim is concerned.
Sunday’s 1-0 win for Manchester United at Fulham lacked nearly everything you want from a football match, especially quality. Amorim and his players won’t care having left west London with a brilliant three points thanks to a little bit of luck.
Craven Cottage is a happy hunting ground for Manchester United, yet Sunday was another away match against Fulham many expected them to lose, only to win.
Their previous two trips to the Cottage were decided by injury-time winners – Bruno Fernandes last season and Alejandro Garnacho in 2022/23. They scored the winner a little earlier this time around, but still in the latter stages, and conveniently added a second in the 95th minute, only for Amad Diallo’s strike to be ruled out for offside.
Lisandro Martinez provided a sublime match-winning assist for Fernandes against Rangers on Thursday and capped off a productive week with the only goal in this Premier League victory.
His long-range strike in the 78th minute took a pivotal deflection off Sasa Lukic, which added more loop than Bernd Leno could cope with. It was Man United’s first shot on target in a match bereft of quality and entertainment. While the Red Devils were uninspiring, Fulham were even worse. They did at least have a couple of shots on goal in the first half but nothing to trouble Andre Onana – who is a goalkeeper easily troubled.
Fulham had a week to plan for their match against Amorim’s men and Marco Silva will be furious his players were unable to hurt a side there for the taking, all things considered.
Corners have been an Achilles’ heel for United and the first one of the night did not come until the 71st minute. From their third corner, Toby Collyer made an incredible clearance off the line to keep the visitors ahead. It was probably the only impressive thing any player did all evening.
The hosts could not break United down and did not have many opportunities in transition, with Amorim answering anything his fellow Portuguese head coach had to throw at him.
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It is a case of job done for Manchester United and Ruben Amorim, who made a free-flowing Fulham side look subpar. Their wins usually feel lucky and undeserved and while there was a huge slice of fortune for their goal, Amorim is making it difficult to criticise the manner of their victories and winning away to Fulham is a fantastic result. They have bounced back accordingly after an abject showing against Brighton last week, which proves smashing the dressing room to pieces works.
This allowed the Red Devils’ tremendous away record v Fulham to continue as the slow but evident progress being made under Amorim was witnessed in person by Sir Jim Ratcliffe in his marigolds.
Fulham’s last home win against United came in 2009 and Sunday’s result made it six wins out six for the Red Devils at Craven Cottage since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.
It also takes United up to the dizzy heights of 12th in the Premier League and their attention now turns to FSCB away in the Europa League, though there is a chance incoming and outgoing transfers will take priority.
Chelsea target Alejandro Garnacho started again and did nothing to prove why the Blues are reportedly willing to spend £50million on him. If United can get that out of their Premier League rivals, it will be a rare transfer market masterclass and the pure profit will allow them to reinvest accordingly, which Amorim is clearly desperate to do.
It is all about getting the right players in for Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 system and Lecce wing-back Patrick Dorgu will apparently be the 39-year-old’s first addition, but some of his current players are showing they can thrive.
Martinez is one of those players and another huge goal contribution from him shows the upside for Amorim’s wide centre-backs going forward. Defensively, they can be left exposed in one-on-one situations with opposition wingers but there was none of that against Fulham. Amorim’s players are adapting in an actual system when they couldn’t tell their arse from their elbow in Erik ten Hag’s s**t show.
Progress is most welcome and the number of rival fans tuning for comic relief each game is dropping, which is the truest sign a process should be trusted.
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