Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim has started his reign with a point after drawing 1-1 at Ipswich Town on Sunday afternoon.
More than three weeks after officially being appointed as Manchester United boss, Ruben Amorim finally made his bow on Sunday.
United travelled to Suffolk to take on Ipswich Town and Amorim could hardly have wished for a better start.
Marcus Rashford scored from close range inside two minutes, converting Amad Diallo’s cross to put United ahead.
United just couldn’t kick on from that point though and saw Omari Hutchinson level the game with a deflected long-range strike.
Ipswich could have easily won this game if not for Andre Onana’s heroics and Amorim certainly has plenty of work ahead of him at Old Trafford.
Ruben Amorim on Noussair Mazraoui
Amorim was expected to play a 3-4-3 formation and he duly obliged as Amorim’s first United XI featured a major shift.
That saw Amad Diallo feature as a wing back whilst Bruno Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho supported Marcus Rashford in attack.
The switch also meant Noussair Mazraoui fulfilling a slightly different role at the back.
We are used to seeing Mazraoui as a right back or left back, but he was deployed as a right-sided centre back in Amorim’s three-man defence.
Mazraoui turned in a strong display and has now been praised by new boss Amorim.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Amorim noted that United are missing a number of centre backs.
Harry Maguire, Leny Yoro, Victor Lindelof and Lisandro Martinez were all missing for the trip to Ipswich.
Amorim deployed Mazraoui there and felt that he ‘did very well’ before taking a longer-term view on his importance to United.
Amorim believes that Mazraoui is ’so smart’ and will be ‘crucial’ moving forward because of his incredible versatility.
“We don’t have too many centre-backs so we have to adapt some players. I thought Noussair Mazraoui did very well,” said Amorim.
“He is so smart and is so important for us. He can play anywhere and that kind of player is crucial for our future,” he added.
Mazraoui has nothing to fear after Erik ten Hag exit
Mazraoui has arguably been the pick of United’s summer signings so far.
United paid just £12.8million to sign Mazraoui from Bayern Munich and he has equipped himself at left back and right back.
Mazraoui may have had some fears about his future though, given that he was an Erik ten Hag signing.
Ten Hag reunited with Mazraoui having coached him at Ajax and some concerns about the next manager having the same admiration for his game would have been reasonable.
Amorim has made it clear that Mazraoui will be vital to his plans though and we will likely see him in numerous positions under Amorim – though probably not number 10 again.
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