A game that was, at least on paper, only important because of its ramifications has suddenly turned into a spicy affair courtesy of Andre Onana and Nemanja Matic.
It started with Andre Onana claiming United were ‘way better’ than Lyon on paper, before Lyon legend Sidney Govou got involved.
The crescendo was reached with Nemanja Matic’s brutal response to Onana and the goalkeeper taking shots back at the Serbian again.
Ruben Amorim has now had the final word (hopefully!) on the whole affair and he channeled his inner Sir Alex Ferguson with a strong response on the whole situation.
Ruben Amorim on Nemanja Matic-Andre Onana tiff
Amorim is uniquely stationed to provide an insightful response on the whole thing because not only is Onana is player right now, but he’s also been Matic’s teammate at Benfica.
Combine that know-how with his brutal honesty, and it was always expected that he would come up with some clear response to the whole saga.
That’s exactly what happened when he spoke to the press before the Lyon game and had a response that Sir Alex Ferguson would be proud of.
He said: “It is really hard to deal with that [for Onana]. Again, if you look to all the quotes, you cannot see disrespect there, just respect. But to show confidence to his team.
“Everyone talks about bad things about Manchester United this year. Someone has to show some confidence in our team. I know Nemanja Matic really well and how good a guy he is. I think he has heard things by half.”
Sir Alex Ferguson’s influence clear in Amorim
Nobody is mistaking Amorim as the next Sir Alex Ferguson (there probably never will be another!), but this response by the Man Utd manager is straight out of the legend’s playbook.
Ferguson was famous for driving his players to do better by creating a siege mentality around the squad, an “Us vs Them” thought process that cultivated unity in the team.
By backing Onana unequivocally and saying how easy it is to talk badly about United right now, he’s rallied the troops not only around the player under fire, but the whole team to fight for each other.
Tactical acumen is all well and good, but a big part of managing a top football club is man management which was Ferguson’s biggest strength.
He’d be proud of how Amorim has handled this dicey situation and used it to bond the team closer together.
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