Amorim change brings glorious Man Utd chaos as Heaven nearly loses game Cunha failed to win | OneFootball

A wonderful, brilliantly bonkers game of football featured eight goals, outstanding attacking football, some poor finishing, more very good finishing, horrible defending, goalkeeping blunders, two excellent free-kicks and a very welcome and long overdue formation change from Ruben Amorim to give rise to the beautiful chaos at Old Trafford.

“The front four have been excellent for United, they really have,” Gary Neville said towards the end of the first half in a game in which the Old Trafford fans were treated to the most dynamic and fluent attacking display of the Ruben Amorim era while also enduring one of the weakest defensive performances, as four at the back brought out the best and worst of them.

Mason Mount, Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Amad Diallo were indeed brilliant, zipping passes into each other and creating chances seemingly at will with the ball on a string between them against a horribly shaky Bournemouth defence that had conceded 13 goals in five games before stopping the rot with a clean sheet against Chelsea.

And yet, had it not been for a pretty horrific goalkeeping blunder from Djordje Petrovic, who would have saved Casemiro’s tame back-post header on the stroke of half-time had he merely stood still rather than collapsing into his own net and allowing the ball to bounce over his gloves, Manchester United would have gone into the break level with a side they had almost entirely dominated after those forwards didn’t quite deliver “everything you want”, as Neville claimed was the case on commentary.

Amad Diallo’s header from roughly half a yard into an open goal contributed 0.99 to a first-half xG of 2.62 compared to Bournemouth’s 0.99. The hosts’ 17 shots was more than any other Premier League side in a half of football this season.

Those ‘underlying numbers’ are typically used to offer hope of a better future. “If they could only finish their chances” – that sort of thing. But we would contend with the suggestion that United being 18th in the Premier League for goals minus expected goals (G-xG) with a score of -2.8 – above only Wolves (-5.6) and Crystal Palace (-7.2) – is a good thing, particularly when joined on negative scores by Brentford, Liverpool, Leeds, Brighton, Everton and Nottingham Forest. That doesn’t feel like a gang you want to be a part of.

Bruno Fernandes’ sublime free-kick, which kissed off the bar to draw United level at 3-3, and Cunha’s relatively simple finish to make it 4-3 means they actually finished the game with a positive score having accrued an xG of 3.27, but that pair were 459th and 465th respectively among 468 players for G-xG before this game and played their part in failing to get this game won in the first half before their defensive teammates ensured they didn’t claim all three points in the second. Cunha had eight shots and just two on target.

Luke Shaw was horribly weak before the break in being brushed off the ball before Antoine Semenyo bore down on goal as Ayden Heaven watched on. We know he’s young, but you need only know that the currency of football is scoring goals to come across and close Semenyo down in that situation. It was bizarre.

The cobbled-together defence were ripped open within 40 seconds of the second half as Evanilson gulped down the medicine prescribed by Dr Manchester United to score his first goal since August after Semenyo netted for the first time since early October.

Familiar problems in playing Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes at the base of midfield were exposed by Marcus Tavernier five minutes later as he tore through the centre of the pitch before being brought down by Casemiro and firing in the resulting free-kick past Senne Lammens as the United goalkeeper mistimed his jump to give himself little chance of making the save.

And after Fernandes and Cunha got Manchester United back in front, Junior Kroupi came off the bench to again take advantage of the Red Devils’ soft centre with a brilliant touch and finish past Lammens to make it 4-4 after Bournemouth swarmed United from a throw-in. David Brooks could so easily have made it 5-4 but was denied twice by Lammens.

All United fans should, and we suspect the vast majority will, vote for Amorim to persevere with four at the back. It made for a performance of stunning attacking verve and while Bournemouth’s typically intense style of play poked at gaps in the rearguard, Heaven and Shaw won’t ever be paired at centre-back together again and teething problems are to be expected.

Please, Mr Amorim, don’t make us beg. More of that. Much, much more of that.