They don’t deserve him, right?
Even before this absurd one-man rescue mission turned an apparent 1-0 defeat against Southampton into a 3-1 victory, it was hard to imagine just how low United’s season would have fallen without Amad Diallo. It was possible for a long time to wonder idly if it was true.
Now I don’t have to think about how bad it was. The answer is, “This is terrible.” For 80 minutes, it looked like this would be another humiliating record for United in many seasons. The team, which could even be the worst team in Premier League history given the genuine run by a team left at the foot of the table, were disorganized and confused at the back, forcing a corner to their opponents for the 10th time this season. He conceded a goal from a kick. First time scoring like that.
But with some decent impressions of Peter Schmeichel from Andre Onana, the hole that Amad would eventually and brilliantly pull the team out of could have been even deeper. Even Amad could not have done anything about this if Kamarudeen Slemana had had any calmness in his final decisions to match the rest of his performance.
United were terrible in the first hour of this game, Southampton were great. And the most shocking thing is that it wasn’t shocking. Except for the part where Southampton is great.
There’s probably not a Manchester United fan alive who didn’t foresee performances like this, thanks to the great efforts of Liverpool and Arsenal of late. Ruben Amorim hinted at it after the Liverpool game. Bruno Fernandes said it flatly. What United showed here against the Saints will say far more about them than any heroic incident in a big game.
And really, even though what Amado did between minutes 82 and 94 was ridiculous, we still have an answer.
Bruno tried to steer United in the right direction in the first half, but simply didn’t have the numbers, effort or courage to put Southampton under sustained pressure.
For the first hour of this game, United pulled off a neat trick of playing with a boxed-in back five that left them woefully lacking in ideas and purpose going forward, but Lennie… Yolo didn’t get the help he desperately and clearly needed in his mismatch. Contest with Slemana.
The Southampton attacker found himself spinning away from Yoro many times, but once again he managed to set up a one-on-one race with only one winner. Ruben Amorim’s second-half substitution would have had a huge impact on the final result, but time continued to tick by without the United manager offering any sort of remedy for the most obvious problem imaginable. was extremely infuriating.
Southampton had heroes everywhere they looked in the first two-thirds of the game. Matheus Fernandes and Tyler Dibring were excellent behind Slemana’s rampage, Joe Aribo dominated the midfield battle with Koby Mainu and Manuel Ugarte, and Taylor Harwood-Bellis was a threat for the third goal. The night came to an end as they were unable to score the equalizer before the show – commanding in the air and composed on the ground.
For 80 minutes, Kyle Walker-Peters also appeared to have Amad’s standards, but that wasn’t quite the case until the end.
Everywhere else I looked, there were scary stories about red shirts. Alejandro Garnacho played exactly as you would expect from a man who has spent the past 48 hours with Tottenham. The very idea of jumping from this frying pan into that fire would have given anyone self-doubt, but Garnacho had plenty of it. United’s consistent movement in the first half was brilliantly converted by Rasmus Hjølund, who made glaring mistakes and had a night plagued by questionable decision-making and abysmal execution. We’ve all been there.
Neither Ugarte nor Mainu were able to make it in time, and given that second-placed United made it difficult for themselves with respect against the least-remarkable side of Southampton’s midfield, which one? I couldn’t complain at all.
Yoro’s time on the pitch was generally intense. Lisandro Martínez runs around a bit looking generally confused, Matthijs de Ligt makes some desperate last-minute interventions in the middle, while what’s happening to Yoro just to the right I spent the whole night trying hard not to see anything.
Nousser Mazraoui, one of United’s main sources of relief and consolation this season, has failed to offer any value in the ‘winger’ element of his job description in this system and is clearly United’s worst outsider. Even Amad, a fielder, failed to provide any value. During an absolutely abhorrent first half, they showed considerable defensive laxity in failing to offer any real help to Yoro, who was in a constant bind.
Amorim made one change at half-time, but honestly could have made five. There were very few people who could complain. But the question only gets tougher when Anthony answers at half-time.
Still at 1-0, he decided to somehow miss the absolute and literal sitter. The decision caused even Ally McCoist, who worked at Kyodo News, to temporarily lose his sense of humor.
By then, however, Amorim’s other changes were beginning to take effect. The fact that Hoylund and Ugarte played just eight minutes in the second half was as impressive as Mainu’s halftime goal. Both of their replacements have brought about changes, but the only caveat is that they are unlikely to fail to improve standards.
Joshua Zirkzee added some much-needed oomph and freshness to United’s attack, while Toby Collier likewise contributed to what had previously been a sleepy midfield.
However, there is only one name that sticks in the minds of those who watched this match. It’s always really thrilling to watch a young player figure out who he is and what he can become in real time, like Amad did this season. If you think about it, it is also logical that flowering often occurs in the harshest soils.
Amad made his own fortune with the first score, the ball returning to the path of Walker-Peters, who here scored an excellent first 80 and a nightmarish final 10, but quickly regained control and with his weak right foot He passed Aaron Ramsdale.
The second one was really good. It was a clever volley finish from a perfectly weighted clipped pass that broke through the defense. There was time to realize that the defense was failing, but no time to act on that information. Christian Eriksen has been known for this for over 10 years. . It was exactly the kind of goal Dele Alli would score in 2017.
The third goal is the kind of goal we’re used to seeing Southampton concede in 2024, and the less said about it, the better. It was tough for Harwood-Bellis. Harwood-Bellis was very good until the utter nonsense woke up and snuck in until Amado completed his hat trick. Some wondered if he was still thinking about the header he had sent into goal a moment earlier, when it bounced safely to team-mate Flynn Downes.
The fact that Amad was there to exploit that mistake, even in that moment when he was already dragging his team into the game kicking and screaming 94 minutes into the game, says everything about his current situation. .
And this season, whether for the first time or in doubt for the last, United were very, very desperately grateful.
