Manchester is red for the time being after Ruben Amorim’s men scripted a memorable 2-1 win vs Manchester City in their own backyard.
Amad was the hero of the game for his goal contributions but the United squad was full of heroes on the day as multiple players impressed.
Amorim’s big call of dropping Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford paid off handsomely as the team ran themselves into the ground to secure a statement victory.
Rashford sent his teammates a message after the win and while that will undoubtedly generate headlines, former Red David de Gea had a deja vu moment too.
David de Gea’s message after Man Utd’s derby win
David de Gea has been in his fair share of Manchester Derbies, both when United used to be the favourites or when the scales tipped to the other side.
He has seen the extreme highs and difficult lows that follow this game, depending upon this result so this comeback win would have been sweet for him.
After the game, he instantly sent a message that will resonate with most Man Utd fans as he had a deja vu moment watching the manner of the win unfold.
The Spaniard went on X, formerly known as Twitter, and wrote: “I’ve seen this movie before”, with two red circle emojis.
Now, De Gea could be talking about United’s famous ability to stage late comebacks under Sir Alex Ferguson or the way Amad scored a late winner against a famous rival.
The latter is particularly pertinent because the Ivorian did the same in the memorable FA Cup win against Liverpool last season when he scored the fourth goal in a 4-3 victory.
Ruben Amorim bringing Man Utd’s DNA back?
One game is too small a sample size to declare everything perfect and firing but even if United had lost this game, there was enough to be encouraged about.
United controlled the game with the ball, not panicking against City’s press and opting to keep it instead of making it a basketball game.
They shackled a mobile City attack by working hard and closing off spaces between the lines, perfectly balancing between rushing the attacker or holding in a deep block.
While these were the tangible improvements brought on tactically, the fact that United have come from behind to win three games under Amorim speaks to a culture building.
A team that was marked out as being mentally fragile is being instilled with a new sense of spirit and resilience and it’s starting to bear fruit.
Bodo and Plzen were seeds of the tree that shot up in spectacular fashion against Manchester City and like De Gea said, this movie has been seen before with United.
The frequency had just become rarer but Amorim seems determined to bring it back.
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