Ruben Amorim’s surprise answer reveals a new side to Man United manager | OneFootball

An encouraging new beginning in one respect was a false start in another. Ruben Amorim could declare that Manchester United were better than an Arsenal team that had finished behind the respective champions only in each of the last three seasons without being accused of bias.

Yet, after a £200m outlay, after a pre-season for a manager who was denied one last year, his opening day was not supposed to end with Amorim being asked if he should have picked Tom Heaton.

If the question was revealing, the manner of the answer was still so. Amorim is often disarmingly charming. He has smiled after many a setback and, after a 15th defeat in 28 Premier League games, has plenty of practice in explaining setbacks.

He doesn’t usually snap. He did this time. “Why?” was his immediate reply. He was similarly snippy when it came to the goal Altay Bayindir conceded, suggesting the goalkeeper was fouled, the corner he let in against Tottenham in December, which he argued would have been disallowed had VAR been in operation, the Turkey international’s performance against Arsenal in January and, seven months on, his decision not to put Andre Onana in the matchday squad.

Amorim was defending Bayindir; after seeming too critical of some of his players last season, there is a logic to that. He seemed to think his team had suffered an injustice, though the general verdict from neutrals was that there was no foul.

He is allowed to say he knows more than his inquisitors; he does, after all. “I consider everything,” he replied, about his team selection.

And in a wider sense, he can be forgiven for being grouchy for a few seconds; a manager’s life means every Premier League game is followed by a host of interviews and the thousands of other words they speak can be overshadowed by a few. A strong competitive instinct was required to propel him to the manager’s job at Old Trafford before his 40th birthday. Others have greeted blows less gracefully on many more occasions.

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Manchester United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir fails to stop Declan Rice's corner and prevent Arsenal's goal (Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Nevertheless, it felt illuminating. The timing of it could indicate a feeling that he is under more pressure. Amorim got a free pass last season. From many a United fan, who spared him much of the blame for their lowest finish in half a century. From owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who has fired around 40 percent of United’s workforce and given Amorim a fortune to spend. Losses could be attributed to Erik ten Hag, the Glazers, John Murtough, Marcus Rashford, Rasmus Hojlund; to anyone except Amorim.

Now they may reflect more on him. He will be judged on this season. And, had Bayindir dealt with Declan Rice’s corner rather better, the assessments could have been very favourable. Amorim has made three major signings and the two who started, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, suggested that they both have the quality the team required and that Amorim has a gameplan to suit both. Even as they drew a blank, United offered the impression they will score far more than the meagre tally of 44 goals they mustered last year.

But it was also a choice to make each of those three big buys an attacker. Many another would have argued that one should have been a central midfielder. Or, more pertinently, a goalkeeper. This could have been Gianluigi Donnarumma’s debut (though not Emi Martinez’s, after the Argentinian was suspended for his May red card at Old Trafford in Aston Villa’s colours). Instead, Amorim said he was “happy with the three goalkeepers” that he has. He omitted Onana – Amorim, muddying the waters, albeit in his second language, with differing explanations – but a Ten Hag buy is scarcely immune to errors. He has only been back in training for a week and Amorim preferred Bayindir. Outsiders cannot gauge Onana’s fitness. Heaton, the third choice, has not played in the Premier League since 2020. It said something that he may have seemed the safer pair of hands than Bayindir. Picking him did not work.

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Altay Bayindir had a difficult day against Arsenal (PA Wire)

Amorim surely knows as much. Seven years earlier, after another August defeat, another Portuguese manager demanded “respect, respect, respect” in the same media theatre, but was sacked three months later. Amorim is not Jose Mourinho, though each is charismatic and quotable. He produced a couple of sharp responses. Sir Alex Ferguson lost his temper more explosively and went on to win and win; for the last decade and more of his reign, he stayed out of the Old Trafford press conference room, MUTV’s friendlier questions meaning some issues went unaddressed.

Amorim was both taken aback by the scale of the media demands in the Premier League when he arrived and yet looked a character created for such a stage.

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Altay Bayindir of Manchester United reacts against Arsenal (Getty)

His employer said he can be combative in conversation. “He tells me to f*** off,” Ratcliffe said in March. Ratcliffe didn’t respond in kind when United’s results last season could have presented a case to sack him.

But, whether or not they involve Heaton, Amorim’s decisions will come under the microscope this year even more. It is judgement season for him. He surely knows as much.