Man Utd need to ‘release the beast’ as Ruben Amorim exposed again | OneFootball

Manchester United beating Everton has some fans wondering what Ruben Amorim was doing wrong. But Michael Carrick still has things to prove.

Michael Carrick needs to show us something…

Some thoughts on the game last night.

– Relieved to get 3 points and was expecting the game we got. Everton going into a low block and us struggling to break them down. Thankfully the goal eventually came, although at the time it felt they were more likely to score from one of their 427 corners.

– Will Ford was generally on the money in his match write-up. Any manager worth their salt will sit in and give us the ball. If Carrick wants the job full-time, he needs to show us that they can work out how to open teams up consistently. Eking out one-goal victories is not sustainable.

– We did have some half-chances in the first half, and scoring one would have opened the game up earlier. However, there was a general lack of quality in our play. The ball retention and recycling in the final third needs to be better.

– I thought to myself at halftime, we have had nearly 2 weeks to prepare for this game and it isn’t showing. However, maybe the commentator was right when he said the lack of football has impacted the rhythm of both teams. Think we have a break of 3 weeks at the end of March, so it doesn’t bode well.

– Big Ben deserves a start. He has been our most reliable attacker recently, and putting him on the bench again after another important goal would be counterproductive. Release the beast.

– On Everton’s corners, and this is about the current state of the league in general (and no doubt Utd have been guilty too), the crowding of the keeper is getting ridiculous. They need more protection and I hope it gets sorted in the summer by a directive to the refs. I’d be sticking 2 or 3 players on the halfway line to give the keeper more space.

– That said, Lammens was excellent and was as much to thank for that win as the goalscorer. He exudes calmness and just goes about his job with minimal fuss. He will make mistakes (all GKs do) but he seems capable of shaking these off when they happen.

– Maguire and Yoro were excellent under pressure too.

All in all, a good 3 points but work still to be done. Garey Vance, MUFC

WTF, Ruben?

Please help me understand: Michael Carrick has the same squad, the same players, the same Ben Sesko, that Ruben Amorim had at his disposal. Yet the way they play, and the results they get, could not be more different!

They’re now winning games they would never have won under Amorim. Relegation fodder Spurs at home; stodgy Everton away; a tricky one against a West Ham with renewed fight at the London Stadium – Amorim would have got maybe 1 point out of these fixtures; Carrick has got 7!

It just begs the question: what the actual f**k Ruben? What were you doing? How were you getting this so wrong?

Because with the greatest of respect, it’s not as though Carrick is some legendary managerial mastermind. His previous resumé – struggling at Middlesbrough – does not suggest he is a Pep Guardiola clone disguised in a Geordie accent and full head of hair.

It’s not that he has magically transformed a sh*t squad into a good one. All he’s done is taken a squad that was already very good on paper and helped them play to a basic level of competence and confidence on the field. Yet such is the size of the gap that he has closed, from the utter dross Amorim was churning out with this same group, that Carrick now looks like the Yoda of football.

That said, I do now hope the Man United chiefs stick with Carrick for the longer term, or at least another season to see if and where he hits his ceiling. He seems to have made something click with this squad, and that is surely something they can all build on with further investment in the summer, backed up by a decent run in the lucrative, set-to-easy-mode Champions League format in 2026/27.

My absolute nightmare is that Wilcox and co decide they can do better than Carrick, bin him off, and replace him with yet another “up-and-coming” European manager with very stubborn ideas about ‘philosophy’, and a proven record for stroppily turning success into calamity. What I’m saying is, please, please, don’t let them take on Oliver Glasner in June. Guy

Wrestle Mania

Watching Utd edge past Everton last night and a couple of inconsistencies got me annoyed.

Outside the box, the faintest touch in the back of a defender with the ball is an easy free kick. Way too soft, minimal contact should not be punished anywhere on the pitch.

Yet, at every corner opposing players literally wrestle each other to the ground. A free-kick or penalty could be given almost every corner if a ref choose to.

Both are wrong but the corner one really irritates me. The goalkeeper should have some protection here and this wrestling should be penalised. Guaranteed it won’t be tolerated at the World Cup and England will suffer from the Premier League not having the same application of rules as other leagues. Watch us have a key goal ruled out or a penalty conceded before we wake up to it. Jon, Cape Town (glad to see Carrick making it difficult for the board to hire another manager, long may it continue)

Retrospective action? Think again…

I’m a day late to the party and usually read the weekend mailboxes on Monday so my apologies.

Ryan in Bermuda makes a great statement…”but that Gabriel dive is so shameful it makes me desperately wish for retrospective action.”

Well Ryan, good news, and bad news. The good news is that the FA have a retrospective diving panel. You may have heard about it. They were going to stamp the scourge of diving right out of the game as diving was bringing the game increasingly into disrepute. They got right on the case starting in 2017 by banning serial divers Oumar Niasse and Manuel Lanzini right out of the gate for their respective dives, Niasse against Palace, and Lanzini vs…what?…Palace again? The FA were dead serious here. If they even thought it was a dive (Niasse’s was questionable at best, and I never saw Lanzini’s) then you were getting a two or three match ban. Both of those players did. Good, cheating divers punished.

Now, that bad news I was talking about. The FA, it turns out, weren’t ever serious at all about banning diving from the game. Why? Well simply put, they quickly discovered that there were players on some “bigger clubs” who were serial divers and they’d have to ban them too when the inevitably hit the deck after minimal if any contact. That would have done a number on the TV ratings, and we can’t be having lower TV ratings so the FA quietly, and without fanfare, dismantled the FA diving panel, never to return.

Probably just as well though because this little episode reminds us that the footballing authorities are only ever concerned with enforcing the rules when it doesn’t really affect the product all that much. “Divers” in Everton’s and West Ham’s squads merit punishment while divers we won’t name on “bigger” clubs aren’t. When FFP rules are supposedly broken by Everton, Forest, and Leicester, the punishments are meted out immediately and swiftly. For other “bigger” clubs? Not so much.

Love your idea though. Retroactive banishment for clear and obvious dives. I wish we had a mechanism that would not only look at those dives, but “clear and obvious” errors in other areas of the game. Too bad we don’t. TX Bill (by the time you’re reading this, United have inflicted another home defeat to Everton with Keane getting a red for smacking Gana in retaliation…or…Nah, we’re going to lose this at home) EFC

Arsenal fans on Spurs going down…

As an Arsenal fan the prospect of a Spurs relegation is a delightful thought as it would be the most significant relegation in decades. Whilst match going fans will miss the matches they will likely be back quickly playing football the Tottenham way as they storm to the championship with ludicrous optimism. Alternatively their better players will go and the lovely new ground will be a millstone and championship glory will be elusive and a spiral will continue.

Both of these options are amusing over different time frames just as expecting a shiny new home to be a step forward rather than a drain on resources. It’s not like they are the Harry Kane team anymore. Ted Bythesea

…Graham Simons asked other Arsenal fans if they really want Spurs to be relegated. I’m an Arsenal fan and therefore, thought I’d respond.

The only problem is I don’t actually care.

This isn’t intended as a subtle dig at all, but like myself, the other Arsenal fans I know don’t spend much time thinking about Spurs. We certainly don’t spend nearly as much time thinking about them as they appear to do us.

Now the question has been posed however, I suppose I don’t really. Sure, the O’Hara meltdown would be delicious but not anymore than every other time they lose. It would be no more enjoyable than his other performative rants and my joy would last barely a few seconds.

As I don’t know many Spurs fans and have no social media presence, I wouldn’t be able to ‘enjoy’ it from that point of view either.

Nine times out of ten the NLD is fun for Arsenal fans and I’d imagine that will remain the case for next year at least, should they survive. So, sod it let them stay up and West Ham or Forest go down. James, Kent

…Completely agree Graham Simons.

Why on earth would we want to say goodbye to 6 points per season?! Suds (enjoying the see-saw ride to the title whichever way it ends)

Spurs will be fine because…

Some musings on the crisis at Spurs.

Ok, firstly, Seamus was spot on: Our second goal should not have been disallowed, Gabriel cheated, which turned the game. But it still wasn’t a good enough performance, not by a long way. I will now finally admit it: We are in serious trouble.

I read your rundown of the games, which was ok, but did feel a bit like it was trying to write us into the Championship without taking seriously a potential turnaround. There are several reasons I still don’t think we’ll go down.

1. Players returning. Richy is back. Dom is recovering from his illness. Porro, Danso, Bentancur, Udogie and Kudus are all slated to return within the next month to six weeks (I hear). Romero will eventually be unsuspended. With more fit players, we should be able to pull the results together.

2. Tudor. He was never going to beat Arsenal on his first game. But he sounds exactly the sort of no-nonsense tough guy we need, after Mr. nice guys Ange, Nuno and Frank. The worry is he may struggle to win loyalty as he’s temporary but generally I think he’s a guy who’ll give the players a much needed kick up the backside.

3. Run-in. Although there are plenty of banana skins, the fact is we should be racking up at least nine points from that run in. Six points off Forest and Wolves is entirely possible, plus one lucky break against say Fulham or Leeds.

(And for the love of God we can’t be needing to win against Chelsea! Sending us down would be Christmas, Hannukah and Ramadan all rolled into one for the blues!)

Plus Forest have a comparably fearsome run-in; City, United, Villa, Newcastle, Chelsea await them..

4. Fans. The fans must urgently get behind the team. Cheer them on. Encourage them. Stay until the end. Leave the boos at the door and support the club. We’ll worry about transfers and investment and booing the owners later. If they do, that’ll be a big lift for the players and the club.

If I had to bet every penny I had on us either staying up or going down, I would emphatically back us to stay up. I only hope I’m right.