The Ruben Amorim era is now finally underway at Manchester United and it was far from a comfortable outing.
Manchester United have drawn the first game of the new era against Ipswich.
Ruben Amorim could not have dreamt of a quicker start to life in the dugout for United as Marcus Rashford put the Red Devils 1-0 up in the second minute.
Ipswich came back though, as Omari Hutchinson – with the help of Noussair Mazraoui’s head – beat Andre Onana from outside the box.
Neither side was able to find a winner, as United drew 1-1 on the night. A disappointing result but this is only the start of the new era.
How Manchester United played in Ruben Amorim’s first game
When the United line-up was announced at 3.15 pm, there was quite a lot of confusion with Amad Diallo as a right wing-back and Noussair Mazraoui as a right centre-back the most surprising of the decisions.
However, Amad showed exactly why he was chosen within minutes when he beat the entire left side of Ipswich’s team to set up Rashford for the opener.
The performance was far from perfect, but it was never going to be with just a handful of training sessions.
All in all, with the players available the system looked to have already been adopted by the players and the vision and idea were crystal clear, exactly what Amorim told fans he hoped we would see.
Now, fans have been reacting to the first game of Amorim’s reign.
United fans react to Amorim’s first game
United fans were reacting on X throughout the game on Sunday evening, with a range of emotions throughout the 90 minutes.
After United took the lead, fans as expected, celebrated jubilantly.
One fan reacted to the goal by simply commenting: “WE ARE BACK!”
Meanwhile, another had high praise for the new head coach: “Amorim is a genius.”
While another saw the promise in Amorim’s ideas: “Ruben Amorim promised fans would see ‘an idea’ and wasn’t lying. This new system is exciting”.
“I must say, I’m loving the Amorim era so far”, added another fan.
However, after the early euphoria in the game, fans were reminded that the team are miles off what Amorim’s final vision will look like – with this point being made clear.
Another added: “You have to look at that United XI and understand that Ruben Amorim is just working with what he has for now. This won’t be close to his final vision – so you can’t read too much into today’s result regardless.”
“This is a mishmash XI, it’s clear quite a few players don’t fit the system, these early days will be growing pains and will be a period where Amorim will be identifying who can ‘sink or swim’ to eventually find the best lineup because it definitely won’t be this”, another said.
A final fan admitted, “Fans need to realise that this is a long road, this isn’t changing overnight. Patience, rebuilding, and supporting the manager is vital. Amorim has a massive job on his hands.”
Amorim won’t be pleased with the result, but we should not expect miracles overnight.
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