Manchester United succumbed to a disappointing 1-4 defeat at the hands of Newcastle United in their Premier League game at St James’ Park.
Keeping in mind Thursday’s season-defining Europa League fixture, Ruben Amorim decided to make a few bold changes and not all of them worked out.
Altay Bayindir, handed his first start in the English top-flight following Andre Onana’s horror show in France, was equally poor against the Magpies and was culpable for the fourth goal scored by the home side.
Christian Eriksen got a rare start and was run ragged by the hosts and it is no wonder that the club are not offering him a contract extension as he does not have the legs to play in the big games.
Garnacho goal
Up front Joshua Zirkzee got a chance to start in place of the woefully out-of-form Rasmus Hojlund and ended up picking up an injury which might mean the end of his season.
There was hardly anything positive to come out from the game but the head coach was pleased with Luke Shaw’s return from injury, Harry Amass’ performance on his first start for the club and the team performance in the first-half.
The visitors fell behind as Sandro Tonali got on the scoresheet but against the run of play, Alejandro Garnacho got his team right back in it with a calm finish from a brilliant counter-attack.
“We’ll learn”
Alejandro Garnacho has his say on yesterday’s mauling up at Newcastle over on Instagram #mufc pic.twitter.com/9mmpMoDo35
— Nathan Salt (@NathSalt1) April 14, 2025
The Argentine has not been in the best of form recently which has seen him get linked with a summer exit with Napoli leading the race for his signature.
Message for the fans
But the 20-year-old is not allowing such talk to get the better of him and he is fully focussed on Thursday’s quarter-final second leg tie against Olympique Lyonnais.
Taking to Instagram, the Carrington graduate apologised to the fans for the team’s poor showing at Tyneside and urged them to get behind the team for Thursday’s game.
“It’s not enough. We know you all expect better from us, we’ll learn. We need you all at Old Trafford on Thursday. It’s a big day for all of us.”
With Zirkzee definitely out, Amorim will be expecting more from the Argentina international against the French side. Hopefully, he can take confidence from Sunday’s goal and deliver on the pitch in Europe.
Feature image Stu Forster via Getty Images
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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
