Old Trafford has not seen anything like this before.
Pressing from the front is nothing new to these shores – gegenpressing was even added to the Oxford Dictionary two years ago – but for the red half of Manchester, this very much new phenomenon is sweeping through Stretford like wildfire.
During the latter months of Erik ten Hag’s time in Manchester, as the goals dried up, so did the enthusiasm, from those in the stands as well as the disinterested stars on the pitch.
A new manager always brings that bounce, but what Ruben Amorim has already done in less than a month is completely revolutionise not just how his team is set up but how big-name players, of vast experience, approach any match.
With their cheerleader-cum-puppet master glued to the touchline, banging his hands together whenever he wants his team to up the ante on the pressing front, United have, in the space of two matches, scored four times as a direct result of forcing errors from below par defenders, high up the pitch.
Everton, as they often are, were masters of their own downfall, but had Amad Diallo, already very much Amorim’s chief agitator, not been there snarling in his opponents’ faces like a scrapyard guard dog, they would have had all the time in the world, as would normally be the case around M16, to pick their passes.
The consequences of such an ethos revamp can be life-altering for this ailing giant. Adopting such a front-foot, full-throttle approach will be severely tested by better-calibre opposition in the next few weeks, but the new boss is adamant he will stick to his principles. And why not? It is just what Manchester United and their long-suffering supporters needed.
One of the most pointed takeaways from Amorim’s first month in charge is just how willing the new boss is to highlight where United have been going wrong.
Whereas Ten Hag searched for any excuse he could conjure in his refusal to admit any wrongdoing, Amorim, when not even prompted, fires warnings to his underperforming charges with regularity, their lack of running his biggest bugbear.
Even in his programme notes ahead of his Old Trafford Premier League bow, Amorim wrote, at length, about how these opening games are as much about writing the wrongs of previous years as getting results, insisting any compromise on his demands of the players would “only postpone our problems”.
So with Amad as a flying wing-back once more – a position he has never before fulfilled in his career – Amorim is all about the collective. Amad may be operating in an unfamiliar role, but having him in a position to press full-backs into mistakes is fundamental to what he is trying to do.
After Marcus Rashford again opened the scoring for Amorim in the Premier League, aided by an almighty deflection from a potential future United defender, Jarrad Branthwaite, Joshua Zirkzee netted a much-needed confidence boost in front of the Stretford End to effectively end the match as a contest before half time.
Bruno Fernandes gets the assist, but it was all about Amad and his harrying in the build-up, his first of four tackles won in the match – more than any other player on the pitch and all in the opposition half.
Amorim was not letting up on the touchline. When Zirkzee dared not press the defender, the United boss went into overdrive, flailing his arms so much he threatened to take off.
Amad’s brilliant assist for United’s third just after the break should have appeased the demanding boss, but if he stops now, the retreat that would inevitably follow would set him back to square one.
That is what will please Amorim most about United’s fourth. Having covered every blade of grass twice over already, Amad had no right to win possession again high up the pitch before squaring for Zirkzee to complete the job.
The tone has been set, and Amorim knows it must stay that way. The knock-on effects are endless if the system behind it remains this structured. Two goals each for players in need of a boost in Rashford and Zirkzee is just one of the many positive byproducts.
The early signs are promising as Amorim’s experimenting starts to yield results. Now to see whether Gabriel and William Saliba are quite so error-prone under pressure.
