Ruben Amorim’s impending will dominate coverage but in the meantime, Ruud van Nistelrooy has been tasked with stabilising the ship and he started off in perfect fashion.
The 5-2 win vs Leicester to progress in the Carabao Cup was a breath of fresh air after apathy surrounding the club and if United keep this up, Ruben Amorim will come into a team with some genuine momentum.
However, if Man Utd keep this up, especially the performance vs Leicester, the Portuguese manager will also have to face an unexpected selection headache he wouldn’t have foreseen.
There were many standout Utd players vs Leicester but in the coming months, the dominating storyline might well be that this game was the start where the hierarchy in Amorim’s mind changed.
Casemiro’s world-class return to form
On the edge of the exit door in the summer, derided at the beginning of the season due to poor form, including a nightmare display vs Liverpool, Casemiro looked like a done deal at Old Trafford.
He was a distressed asset United kept only because nobody else wanted him and with Manuel Ugarte’s arrival, the window was firmly closed shut.
However, the Brazilian had been slowly wrenching that door open in recent weeks, helped by Erik ten Hag’s refusal to give Ugarte an extended run and the Uruguayan not impressing in limited chances.
Against Leicester, Van Nistelrooy rolled the dice and played them both together and it seemed to liberate Casemiro.
It has long been thought that with age, his best position is a bit further forward where he can use his instinctive finishing skills and understanding of spaces to make an impact.
With Ugarte patrolling the midfield and screening the defence, Casemiro was free to roam forward and the result was a brace. Furthermore, he took the confidence from those and it showed in his defensive game too as he snapped into tackles that became a theme during his brilliant debut season at United.
And with that, the expected has been thrown out of the window for Amorim.
Ruben Amorim’s selection headache
Amorim’s pending arrival had one major winner at the club in Manuel Ugarte, who played the best football of his career under him at Sporting.
It allowed him to earn a move to Paris Saint-Germain where he fell out of favour with Luis Enrique, leading to the United move this summer.
Therefore, when Amorim seemed set to become the new United manager, Ugarte would have been giddy.
Eriksen’s contract expires next summer, Casemiro was a gone case, and Mason Mount is more injured than not which left him and Kobbie Mainoo as the undisputed first-choice under a manager who fully understood Ugarte’s game.
Casemiro’s comeback from the ruins has made that call far from straightforward. Of course, it remains to be seen if he can keep that up for the next three games before Amorim potentially takes over after the international break.
If he can, then it’s a nice problem for Amorim to have. A distressed asset on the United books will suddenly have value.
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