Man United HAVE to make room for £52m ‘special talent’, Mason Mount is running out of chances and the one player who cannot be dropped – 5 things Ruben Amorim learned from his first defeat

When Manchester United fans allowed themselves to get swept up in the excitement of the start of the Ruben Amorim era, United’s new head coach knew to keep his feet on the ground.

Tougher tests, he knew, lay in wait and on Wednesday night so it proved.

In a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal at a rain-soaked Emirates Stadium, Manchester United had just six touches in Arsenal’s box, failed to win a single corner in 94 minutes and managed just two shots on target all game.

‘We are going to have difficult moments and we will be found out in some games, I know that,’ Amorim warned before his first defeat since taking charge.

‘I know it is really hard to be a Manchester United coach and say these things in press conferences – and we want to win all the time, no matter what – but we know we are in a different point compared to Arsenal. I would like to say different things, but I have to say again, the storm will come.’

Here are five things Mail Sport learned from Amorim’s first big test…

Amorim’s idea is obvious already – but he needs his own players

Ruben Amorim is nothing if not a man of his word.

‘I think you will see an idea,’ he said when he was appointed head coach.

‘You may not like it but you will see an idea. You will see something we want to reach, that I guarantee.’

His plan, albeit one that was too easy to play against on Wednesday night, has immediately been clear.

The shape he is using. The press he is mandating in his players. The possession-based approach he is trying to programme into his players.

‘I saw good signs today, especially in the first half,’ Micah Richards said on Match of the Day.

‘But for 90 minutes they need a little bit more. The summer can’t come soon enough for him.’

Former Chelsea Women’s ace Izzy Christiansen was another to praise Amorim in this first losing effort.

‘The build-up from goalkeeper to midfield in the first-half was excellent and you could see clear ideas of how they want to play. Amorim will be happy with that,’ she told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily podcast.

‘But in the final third there was not much going on. Rasmus Hojlund was quite isolated at times and he didn’t create any clear-cut chances.

‘That will come with time. You can’t do everything all at once and it makes sense to start at the back.’

And that was a key reason why Amorim kept his feet on the ground when United plundered seven goals across two games against Bodo/Glimt and Everton. Against better opposition, he likely suspected that United would be too easy to shackle.

On Wednesday night, United’s first attempt on goal came in the 42nd minute – their longest wait for a shot in a league match this season.

Factor in, too, that lone striker Rasmus Hojlund cut an incredibly isolated figure on the night.

He managed just 20 touches of the ball and failed to have a single shot on goal.

United were compact early on to stifle Arsenal – not a bad game-plan against a title contender on the road – but his own side struggled to find any sort of rhythm in their build-up play. They looked devoid of ideas.

‘We worked a lot on building up,’ Amorim said afterwards.

‘You can see the structure and the idea. But then in the last part, in the final third, you can see we need to improve, be more aggressive and have more ideas.’

Alejandro Garnacho, promoted back to starter as one of the No 10s, was another to fail to have a shot, while Marcus Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee struggled from the bench.

United’s ‘Expected Goals’ total per game under Amorim reads 0.8, 1.07, 0.31 in games against Ipswich, Everton and Arsenal.

Links to Viktor Gyokores won’t go away, while it’s the worst kept secret that United are after a centre forward.

Amorim’s ideas are a building block to a brighter future but United must not tie one hand behind his back by not letting him get his own players.

Do so and they are going to find this anaemic attack in the biggest games won’t get healthy.

Leny Yoro looks the real deal

Even at this early stage in the season, Wednesday night felt like a full circle moment for Leny Yoro.

The 19-year-old arrived at Manchester United from Lille in the summer to great acclaim but was forced to undergo surgery in the summer after picking up a serious foot injury against Arsenal in pre-season.

And so for the £52million defender to make his Premier League debut against the Gunners felt like, finally, he has lift-off in a Manchester United shirt.

This was a night with few real positives for United, who struggled to create in attack and looked a soft touch at set-pieces.

But Yoro’s 31-minute cameo had tongues wagging from the United bench to the away end as the French youngster left an impression in this losing effort.

‘You can feel it, the talent, the speed, the way he handled one against ones in a difficult stadium after a lot of time without playing,’ Amorim said afterwards.

In his half-hour on the pitch, when he was sent on as part of a triple switch, he made 12/14 accurate passes (86 per cent) and won 4/5 duels, losing only one of his ground duels.

‘He is a special talent, we have to be careful in the first moment,’ Amorim said on Monday.

‘He is really fast, a modern defender. He will be good when we want to press high and you leave a lot of strikers in this league one against one, he can manage that. He is very good with the ball so I am very excited.

‘We have to be careful, we have to manage the load and minute in the beginning but I am really excited to see Leny Yoro playing.’

Amorim’s excitement is well placed, too.

There was one moment where Yoro found himself backtracking as Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard scampered forward on the counter attack.

Yoro never looked out of control though, matching him stride for stride, before perfectly timing the slide tackle to clear the ball and end the opportunity.

Amorim will take great care when it comes to Yoro’s minutes early on but when any restrictions on him are lifted, United have got their right centre-back signed, sealed and delivered.

United must follow Arsenal’s lead and become a set-piece threat

In the end, as it so often does for Arsenal, it came down to set pieces.

But, truth be told, it’s a similar story for United, just at the other end.

This season United are third-worst in goals conceded from set pieces (6). Only Wolves (11) and Southampton (8) are worse. Those teams are 19th and 20th in the Premier League, respectively.

Set-piece drills have become part of the warm-up for United ever since Amorim and his coaching staff arrived.

Carlos Fernandes has taken on responsibility for set pieces from set-piece expert Andreas Georgson, who has seen his workload reduced since the change of coaching staff.

“The thinking is Carlos is responsible for set pieces, different stuff,’ Amorim explained on Wednesday night when asked of the shift.

‘Andreas is also there to help. That’s it. That’s the reason.’

Adding set-piece drills to the warm-up was an idea Amorim picked up from his time in Portugal as Sporting boss when they played Porto and he saw Sergio Conceciao’s team doing it.

Now it’s time for him to take as much as he can from Arsenal to help make United a set-piece threat in their own rate.

Since the start of last season, Arsenal have scored 27 goals from set pieces. In that same period United have managed 14.

Last season they finished the campaign 15th out of 20 teams for set-piece goals scored. Arsenal, unsurprisingly, were No 1.

In Matthjis de Ligt and Harry Maguire, United have legitimate set-piece goal threats but appear to lack variety and creativity when it comes to creating space.

There is a lot on Amorim and his coaches’ plate just a few weeks into the job but set pieces are such a big part of the game that the marginal gains, as Arsenal proved, are impossible to ignore.

Mason has a Mountain to climb

Amorim sarcastically responded last week to a question about Mason Mount and his struggles by adding the tag of ‘Mason Mount, the European champion’.

That is true, the 2020-21 final where Mount started in the 3-4-3 system that Amorim is now working with at Manchester United.

Just as he did that night in Porto, Mount was again deployed in one of the two No 10 roles off the striker, only this time, as has been the case for a while now, his influence on games is minimal.

In 59 minutes of action at the Emirates Stadium, Mount did not create a single chance, had one shot that went off target, did not touch the ball in Arsenal’s box and made just one pass into the final third.

Mount’s 15 touches was also a team low before he was hooked before the hour mark – Amorim said that the Englishman was on a minutes’ restriction – and noise at his limited output is beginning to grow louder.

Mount joined from Chelsea in the summer of 2023 for a fee in the region of £60m but he has been hampered by injury problems and poor form.

Factor in, too, that in the Premier League since the end of December 2022, Mount has played just 29 games and has one goal/assist, which came when he scored away to Brentford.

‘The first thing is he’s working really hard,’ Amorim said in defence of Mount recently.

‘Then you have to understand the human also – he wants this really badly, and that is the most important thing.

‘He has proved he is a really talented player. He was a European champion, so we believe in him a lot.

‘He has to stay fit and, like all the guys in the team, they are quality players, they have to improve and believe in themselves.

‘You see some moments and details where you can see that Mason is a proper footballer. We believe in him a lot and I especially believe a lot in Mason.’

Such passionate backing should be music to Mount’s ears. But he won’t get unlimited chances and allowing the biggest games, such as Arsenal, to wash over him and pass him by certainly won’t quieten the discontent.

Amorim HAS to stop rotating Amad – he’s now a nailed starter

One thing Amorim continues to preach is the necessity behind rotation as he manages minutes while also tinkering to find out his best team.

He made six more changes for the trip to Arsenal, dropping Joshua Zirkzee, who scored twice versus Everton, and taking out Amad Diallo, who has been United’s best player since Amorim took charge.

Amad has been tasked with the right wing-back role with United shy of orthodox options in that position and the Ivorian has been a revelation.

‘He’s the one that scares me,’ former Arsenal striker Ian Wright said on the Overlap’s live watchalong.

‘That guy [Amad] frightens me to death!’ Wright added, to which Gary Neville said, ‘Amad has been the best player at Man Utd for the last few weeks. He has been outstanding!’

Which made the decision not to start him, particularly when he wasn’t in the core of players on a minutes’ cap, puzzling.

The 22-year-old’s work-rate is often unmatched in this United team and he started both league games prior against Ipswich, where he bagged an assist, and against Everton, where he added two more assists.

He is direct and that frightens defenders. It was his mazy dribbling that turned Oleksandr Zinchenko inside out to the point where he pulled Amad down to take the unavoidable booking. The Arsenal full-back won’t be the last player to be spun by the United star.

Games are coming thick and fast for United – it’s a total of nine games in all competitions in December – but this was always the stand-out game, the toughest test, and so not starting Amad was a rare misstep from Amorim.

‘Sometimes, in that position, the way he receives the ball, if you are right-footed, you don’t always have the space to cut back,’ Amorim explained when asked about why he likes Amad at right wing-back.

‘We have, for example, [Noussair] Mazraoui and Diallo who can cut back into the axis because they are fast and good with the ball.

‘He [Amad] has that ability and, in that position, you have to have a good physique. By good physique, I don’t mean size obviously. He is able to run and that is a key point in that position. So it’s perfect for him.’

Underused by Erik ten Hag and a starter in two of Ruud van Nistelrooy’s four-game interim spell, Amad must now be seen as a lock in the XI. 

The alternatives are almost always making United worse.