Dismal Manchester United have been out-thought and outplayed again - and Ruben Amorim is culpable
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Manchester United 0-2 Newcastle United: Alexander Isak and Joelinton secured three points for the Magpies. Ruben Amorim was crouching, shaking his head in disbelief. Even a brief time in charge of Manchester United has acquainted him with disappointment but nothing he had witnessed to date had seemed this disastrous. As Newcastle United powered to a victory where their regret should be that it wasn’t a thrashing, Amorim’s ideas were unravelling before his eyes.
Having warned his job could be in danger if United carried on losing, his team produced a first 35 minutes so abject that it suggested perilous times may await. In that context, an eventual 2-0 defeat was relatively respectable. This promised to be five or six, the sort of scoreline that would echo through the ages.
It was still a fifth league defeat in a month, something United had not suffered since 1962. It was another historic low for a club who seem to specialise in plummeting to new depths. No manager has made such a bad start at the club for nine decades. No United team had lost three consecutive home league games for 45 years. This one were beaten inside 20 minutes.
It threatened to be humiliation for Manchester United. It arguably still was jubilation for Newcastle United. Eddie Howe’s side had won 3-0 at Old Trafford in the Carabao Cup last season but Newcastle had only one league win at Old Trafford in half a century; since Frank O’Farrell was in charge at Old Trafford, only Yohan Cabaye knew what it was like to score in a league victory for the Magpies here. Now Alexander Isak and Joelinton can testify from personal experience. Each scorer told a tale, of a superior striker and midfield supremacy that proved the pillars of a triumph that could have consequences for them.
