Ruben's Reds crashed out of the FA Cup in a pretty limp manner after Marco Silva's Cottagers finally got their revenge over United by defeating them in the 5th Round of football's oldest cup competition, a trophy held by the Red Devils.
This was the third time the sides faced off this season with United having won the other two both 1-0, and both far from convincing. Fulham have always been a tough nut to crack and these two games proved just that so it was no surprise that this third encounter the same.
In saying that though, the away side were probably the favorites going into this one given the position of United in the league and as a club overall so in a way, the fact that Fulham won shouldn't be too surprising.
Amorim fielded as strong a side as possible considering the difficult hand he's been dealt with with all the injuries. This team seemed capable enough to get the job done (at least on paper) but as ever with United, we can never truly rely on them even in a competition that is one of only two salvation points for the season. And one that is our trophy besides.
Much like every other game for what seems like eternity, the home team began things in a flat manner which continued throughout the match until the dying stages of normal time. This was the only period where it felt like United were truly on top.
It was quite a chaotic and open game at times but neither outfit showing the required quality to punish the other.
However, having seen how United can shoot themselves in the foot out of nowhere, so that came to pass once more as our ever-present weakness of corners came back to haunt us as on the stroke of halftime, Calvin Bassey finds himself free at the back post to make it 1-0 to Fulham just before the break.
A truly terrible goal to concede (not that we haven't been used to this for a while) and at a terrible time.
The United boss will have obviously had to change his team talk but it's not as if he wouldn't have had much different to say because his players were dire once again with little effort to display any semblance of fight.
The second half went more or less the same as the first with the Red Devils showing slight signs of improvement but still not enough to suggest they were going to come back into it.
However, as has been the case for quite some time now, up steps captain magnifico at a time when he was desperately needed, again.
Perhaps some of the best and simplest football played by United resulted in this lovely finish with his left-foot by the skipper. This desire from Bruno is not something we can say the rest of the team has and if they did, perhaps we would be in a better position and not having to rely on him to produce the goods time and time again.
With 20 minutes to go, you would've fancied the home team to go on and win the game.
Amorim had also played his hand by bringing on the likes of Garnacho, Lindelof, Casemiro as well as youngster Chido Obi to try and make a difference before game's end.
These changes looked to be making a er, change, as Obi looked livelier than Hojlund has done for the last few months even though he came on just before Bruno's 71st minute strike.
In his time on the field, the youngster had 3 big chances whereas Hojlund, United's main striker, has had 3 big chance in 22 Premier League games (Statman Dave).
Absolutely shocking,
that it wasn't more matches because it feels like forever since he had a big chance.
Try as they might through the likes of Bruno, Garnacho, Zirkzee and Chido Obi - who truly impressed in his cameo appearance - United could not find the breakthrough and as has been an unwanted habit of ours over the last two FA Cup campaigns, we go to extra-time.
In this period, there wasn't enough being done again to warrant a winner and it headed to the dreaded penalty shootout, of which, MUFC haven't had too bad a record at in recent times.
This time however, their luck ran out as rather than the United's 'keeper being the hero, it was the opposition's as Bernd Leno saved two spot kicks from Lindelof and Zirkzee to see Fulham through to the quarter final.
No more heroics for United as Onana was nowhere near any of the Cottager's penalties and was the opposite of Bayindir from our last shootout against Arsenal.
And so ended our crazy run in this competition over the past two seasons in which we've had far too many of these type of games that test your nerves and heart rate but I suppose that that is over now thanks to us being knocked out although we would of course prefer to still be in the competition.
I'm not exactly sure how Ruben Amorim would've been feeling. This wasn't the worst performance we've seen from us but it was still nowhere near what he would've wanted.
The same errors were still present, the same neglecting of the basics were clear to see and we didn't create enough going forward which is something the manager complained about quite recently.
There was no real improvement from this game to the others.
But that is a big blow for Amorim and his time at United as the FA Cup provided us with a good opportunity to win something, get into Europe and salvage the season. While that would've been great and pretty much the same as last year, it would've been something and at the moment we would take it.
This defeat now means that it really is all on the Europa League as failure in that competition and we are in deep shit. Well, deeper shit.
Possibly NO Europe next season, worst-ever points tally in the PL, worst-ever finish in the PL, no trophy.
This season can't end quick enough.
Ratings
Onana - 6
Yoro - 6.5
Maguire - 6.5
De Ligt - 7.5 MOTM
Mazraoui - 6
Ugarte - 6
Bruno - 7
Dalot - 6
Eriksen - 6
Zirkzee - 6
Hojlund - 4
Garnacho - 5
Lindelof - 5
Chido Obi - 6.5
Heaven - 6
Ruben Amorim - 6
Final Thoughts
I didn't actually watch the game (thank God 🙌) as I was away but listening to people online and reading what was going on, it felt like just another one of those games where we've seen a lifeless performance.
As I said, this wasn't as bad as some matches but we still didn't do enough to say we deserved to go through.
Fulham are a good side and we know how tough it is to beat them so if we did want to progress, we surely had to play a hell of a lot better to get past them as you may get away with it once or twice, but three times?
Eventually, we were also going to get found out because doing this whole extra-time and penalties or having some drama to help get us through was only going to work for so long.
Someone was going to beat us and it was Fulham. Fair play to them 👏.
This defeat was deserved because we are categorically poor in all facets as a football club. It's only tough for the fans because we actually show more passion and energy than any of those on the field and indeed, club overall.
WE don't deserve this.
Background Image: Man Utd crash out of FA Cup to Fulham on penalties | Creator: Carl Recine | Credit: Getty Images Copyright: 2025 Getty Images via Man Utd News