The coach's plea for a new forward has gone unanswered, so now he must try and lift his two No.9s back up after his insulting selection call
Even withstanding their pitiful efforts in front of goal this season and the fact that only four Premier League teams have scored fewer times than them, Manchester United went into Sunday's game against Crystal Palace having netted 61 times in all competitions. Yet the players who started against the Eagles had just 31 goals between them.
Marcus Rashford, with seven goals to his name despite last starting a game on December 1, was absent from the squad as usual, though this time for very good reason as underwent a medical ahead of his loan move to Aston Villa. Rasmus Hojlund, joint-fourth top scorer alongside Rashford with seven strikes, was on the bench after a lacklustre performance against FCSB in the Europa League, and joining him was the only other centre-forward in the squad, Joshua Zirzkee, who has four goals this season.
And so despite United having spent more than £100m ($124m) on Hojlund and Zirkzee within the last two years while handing Rashford a £325,000-per-week ($405k) contract 18 months previously, it fell upon Kobbie Mainoo to lead the line. Mainoo had been a holding midfielder up until three days previously, when he had played as a No.10 to great effect in Bucharest, and had only scored one goal all season, which had come on that Thursday. So it was perhaps unsurprising that United failed to score for the ninth time this season and the fifth occasion in Amorim's 13 Premier League matches.
What was surprising is that it took 70 minutes for the coach to make an attacking change, going from having no natural strikers on the pitch to having two. Even more baffling was the fact that United finished their January business without bringing in any more forwards. They still have four months left of this wretched season to go, but they appear to have no strikers that their manager has any faith in.
Getty No belief
Amorim said in his very first press conference as United boss that, unlike the critical media, he backed the players he had just been tasked with working with. He said: "I truly believe in the players, I know you don't believe a lot but I do. I want to try new things."
On Sunday, the Portuguese certainly lived up to his latter promise of being experimental, but if playing a holding midfielder up front ticked the box of trying new things it also unchecked the one in which he was supposed to believe in his players. What must Hojlund, a leading international striker, have thought when he was told that he would not be starting and that Mainoo would be taking his place?
The Dane seems to be a confidence player, and last season he only hit form between January and February when given a regular run of games. His self-belief has looked shot within the last two months, his five goals in Amorim's first five games fading away to none in his last 13. In those matches he has totalled just 10 shots.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportAnother blow to Zirkzee
Zirkzee, meanwhile, has only started four times since he last found the net against Tottenham, with his best performances coming off the bench at Arsenal in the FA Cup and against Southampton in the Premier League. He had already faced humiliation when he was hauled off by Amorim 33 minutes into the defeat at Newcastle, although the coach was well within his rights to substitute him that day.
Since then, Amorim and the United fans – many of whom cheered that substitution – have been showing their support to the Dutchman in an almost patronising way. But effectively saying that Mainoo was a better option than Zirkzee will be another huge blow to his self-esteem.
It is no secret that Zirkzee is more of a facilitator than a goal-scorer, and United were aware of that when they signed him. Yet he is also capable of scoring goals, as he proved by netting 13 times for Bologna in Serie A – nine times more than Hojlund with Atalanta the previous season – and with his finishes against Fulham, Tottenham and Everton. But he cannot contribute when he is repeatedly left out and placed behind a holding midfielder in the pecking order.
Getty Images SportNo focal point
Amorim's explanation for picking Mainoo over Hojlund and Zirkzee was that he wanted to improve the team's build-up play. "We have had games without connections and with difficulties to transfer the ball in the final third," he said. "We did that today, created chances. Kobbie gave us connections and they found it hard to find the player to press. The idea worked in that moment."
It's true that Mainoo helped United fashion two chances in the opening 10 minutes, hitting the post on one occasion after good play by Amad Diallo while he teed up an Alejandro Garnacho shot that was blocked. He also managed to complete 14 passes in his 70 minutes on the pitch, more than Hojlund has managed in every game he has played this season, bar two.
Mainoo, however, lacked the awareness in the box and ability to sniff out potential goals that Hojlund and Zirkzee have developed throughout their youth and professional careers. The England international didn't gamble and make runs towards goal to give Garnacho and Amad more crossing options, meaning United severely lacked a focal point. Palace, on the other hand, had the polar opposite player leading the the line in Jean-Philippe Mateta, who proved an absolute handful for the Red Devils' defenders before getting both goals.
AFP'Doesn't like his strikers'
Gary Neville had an alternate explanation for Amorim’s tactics. He said on his podcast: "Maybe it’s experimenting to the point whereby he’s just trying to find a solution that works and he likes and a system he wants to play. Or he doesn’t like the strikers he’s got."
It is tempting to side with the latter view. Picking Mainoo looked like a desperate call for help from Amorim on the day before the transfer window shut. If that was the case, then United's board did not answer it as they turned away from potential moves for Mathys Tel and Christopher Nkunku.
Their reasoning made sense, with a club source explaining that United were not prepared to be reckless or take expensive risks. That meant not paying high loan fees for unproven young players with no buy option and effectively developing players for competitors, or harming their chances of signing higher value players further down the line by throwing away money with expensive short-term deals. Like most clubs, with the exception this season of Manchester City, United prefer to do most of their business in the summer and any money spent in January would have eaten into their summer budget.
