Manchester United suffered their third defeat of the season in all competitions against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, with the North London club clinching a 1-0 win in the Premier League on Sunday.
Spurs have been awful this season and yet, they have now done the league double over the Red Devils with Sunday’s win being Ange Postecoglou’s first home league victory in 105 days.
The team from Old Trafford have now lost eight of their last 12 in the league and 12 overall, the most since the 1973-74 season in which the club had got relegated.
James Maddison’s 13th minute strike proved to be the difference in the end with Alejandro Garnacho squandering multiple chances with one particularly glaring miss from 10 yards out in the first half.
United let down by big names again
Andre Onana was once again culpable for the goal as he managed to palm a relatively easy shot straight to the former Leicester City star who made no mistake.
The 20-time English league champions were struck by a major injury crisis before the game with Amad Diallo and three of their midfield regulars suffering injury while a few were also ruled out due to sickness.
As a result, United’s bench had eight academy graduates and Victor Lindelof was the only senior player among them.
Casemiro, who has hardly played under the Portuguese tactician, started alongside Bruno Fernandes and his rusty side was on full display during the game.
Despite the midfield often being easily bypassed, Amorim did not change things. In the second-half, the game got stretched and his players struggled to create and looked tired.
Lack of bravery shown by Amorim
Yet, the former Sporting Lisbon boss did not make any substitutions. With Rasmus Hojlund once again struggling, it looked clear that a change was needed to freshen things up.
Yet Amorim persisted and only brought on academy sensation Chido Obi in added time. Given the club’s poor form and with the game in the balance, some bravery could have been shown by the coach.
Throwing youngsters into the deep end might not be the right step to take but in a season where the seniors have underperformed and the club is languishing in 15th position, surely youthful energy and bravery would have helped.
United are famed for their academy and for trusting in youth and even if things would not have worked out positively in this game, it was worth the risk after picking eight of them. But clearly, Amorim did not get the memo.
Feature image Michael Regan 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
