Ruben Amorim suffers back-to-back defeats as MUFC manager just 5 games into his reign. This defeat hurts more than most considering that it was just his 5th game and the performance was seriously below par. He's had no real bounce at all, perhaps the most disappointing thing since he took over.
A deserved loss against Forest at home is not how you want things to go when just joining a new club. Conceding 3 is completely unacceptable and the manner of the concessions...
1. Set piece deficiency
This is a straightforward one but we are terrible at set pieces.
We started this game off where we left off against Arsenal as United conceded from a corner in the 2nd minute. Poor marking from the team led to a free header for Nikola Milenkovic who had the easiest of chances to score. He out-jumped Martinez who has a height deficiency to begin with. The butcher didn't even get off the ground which is not what you want to see from your centre-back (regardless of his height) when a corner comes in. That was poor player from the defender.
I spoke about how I don't like the whole zonal marking thing after the loss to Arsenal because it didn't work in that game nor does it work in any game. We obviously didn't learn from it as we did the same thing again and ended up with the same result.
However, it's not just corners that cause us problems as any time the ball comes into the box, we shit ourselves. I shit myself. United seem to panic whenever a delivery comes into the box whether it be corners, free kicks, standard crosses and even long throw ins.
Forest put a ball into the box and won two headers, the second of which hit the bar which could've seen them retake the lead earlier than they did.
Chris Wood's header to make it 3-1 came from a cross that wasn't dealt with well enough by United. Even the header itself was weak yet still managed to find it's way into the net thanks to poor defending from all three centre-backs and some indecisiveness from Onana.
There's something about United and balls into the box that just cause us so many issues. Why that is, I do not know.
The problem is, they don't appear to know as well.
2. Don't work hard
One of Amorim's first words as United manager was that we don't run enough. That has been true for such a long time and it didn't take him long to figure out.
That lack of running from the team was evident again as for some reason, nobody busts a gut to try and get back or go forward.
Whenever Forest broke on us, instead of trying their hardest to get back and help out in defence, a lot of the players looked so flat and energy-less almost as if they didn't care enough to do their defensive duties.
This allowed Forest (and every other team) the freedom of the pitch at times which meant that they would have easier opportunities at goal.
I also feel that going forward, it is the same. There were instances where United countered Forest and yet, there was only one or two players in and around the box making it difficult for the player on the ball to find an opponent.
Most of the time, it would be Hojlund and Bruno in the box surrounded by a lot of Forest defenders. How are they going to be found?
Amorim has to find a way of getting this team to improve their work rate because if you don't outwork the opposition, the chances are, you won't win.
3. Sideways and backwards
There was a lot of this, especially in the back line.
Our three centre-backs had a lot of the ball and in particular De Ligt. The problem was, he looked like he didn't know what to do with it.
I believe there are a couple of reasons for this: being that main defender to pass out from the back isn't something that De Ligt is known to do nor do I think he necessarily has the quality to play out from defence like a modern centre-back. That is something Martinez is more adept at.
The second thing is that I don't think there was as many options ahead of him as he would've liked. No one was coming to receive the ball from the defence as often as they should've which made it harder to progress it. However, there were times when De Ligt could've played the pass but took too long and ended up going sideways or backwards to everyone's frustration.
This also invited the pressure which then made us look very tentative and suspect in possession at the back. As we are still getting used to this system and want to build up from the defence, this is probably one of the bumps in the road that we'll have to overcome.
Nonetheless, we need to improve upon it pretty quickly because it is becoming a bit of a weakness of ours and considering where we are, we can't afford to be taking risks.
I still want Amorim to stick with it because that is his style but we need to be very careful.
4. IQ of team is awful
Do they have an IQ? I feel like that is the question.
Football is played with the head because that is where the brain is. If you use your brain, you will get somewhere both on the football pitch and in life.
If you don't use it, the chances are that you will fail.
This is one of the (major) reasons why I believe United are where they are in terms of performances, results and position in the league. We seem to always make the wrong choice or go for the harder option in key areas and situations. That decision-making is absolutely pathetic and it costs us so much.
We are also so sloppy with the ball as we don't take that extra care. Simple five yard passes are over-hit or under-hit, through balls that are not there get played, all of which are so frustrating because they are simple things that shouldn't be happening.
Then of course, there were the stupid mistakes by Bruno, Onana and Martinez who were a big reason as to why we lost that game. I don't even know what Onana was doing with that second goal. Even Morgan Gibbs-White himself thought the goalkeeper would save it.
These type of mistakes isn't something that you can pin on the manager. This comes from the players. These errors also came so early in each half that the game plan almost goes out the window.
Shocking from senior players.
We also didn't get the ball to Amad enough who was the one causing Forest the most problems. I would also say the opposition did a good job of keeping him quiet but even still, United should've tried to get their danger man on the ball as often as possible.
This again, comes down to lack of IQ as knowing that he is the main threat, why not try to get the ball to him every chance you get?
How can one not have that football IQ when playing for United?
Too many of our players are like this.
5. Does Amorim know his best team?
More or less?
I thought that his starting lineup on Saturday night was as close to his strongest team as possible. Other than Mazraoui for Dalot on the left in my opinion, I thought the rest of the side was very strong.
That back three of Yoro, De Ligt and Martinez is what I believe Amorim wants to go with; the pairing of Ugarte and Mainoo is the midfield duo I think he wants to play; Amad has to start on the right; with the only places being left wing-back and the left-sided number 10 where there could be changes.
With all of the rotation that was enforced on the manager and the fact that he probably wanted to rotate anyway, it allowed him to see the entire squad and who best suits Amorim ball. I believe he used this as an opportunity for just that and when he said 'more or less' in terms of knowing his strongest team after what was his first four matches, I think that the team that started against Forest is this more or less strongest team.
After that poor performance though, does he know what his best team is? Not all who started were bad but the likes of Onana, Martinez, Dalot, Bruno, Garnacho were all average to poor.
Out of those four, I think that only Garnacho is not a guaranteed starter. But if the other four are, we could have a problem.
The other issue is that while Bruno was bad despite his goal and I did agree with his substitution, we got worse without him. He needed to come off but the fact that our quality deteriorated when he was on the bench is a problem. How do we look worse when a bad player comes off?
That is an issue to solve in itself.
Speaking of substitutions, I've been very praising of Amorim and his changes since he came in. I think they've been good and brave when looking at who he's taken off and at what times.
But in the last two matches, those that he's brought on have made little to no impact. They also weren't necessarily the wrong changes but the effect they had on the game was little and less.
Only Mazraoui and Maguire looked decent when they came on whereas Mount, Zirkzee and Rashford were all a waste. They were the three that truly needed to do something because they are attackers. This was similar to what happened against Arsenal as Zirkzee, Rashford and Antony came on and did fuck all.
This comes back to the manager saying it comes down to how much the player wants it. Yes he was talking about Rashford specifically but there's no reason as to why it can't be for the rest as well.
It's back to the drawing board for Amorim.
Background Image: Manuel Ugarte, Rasmus Hojlund and Alejandro Garnacho - Man Utd 2-3 Nottingham Forest | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)