United’s functional minimalism offers glimpse of stability Amorim craves | Barney Ronay
United’s functional minimalism offers glimpse of stability Amorim craves | Barney Ronay
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It may have been an ugly win on a cold, damp night but this performance had a level of control that’s been much needed. Maybe Eminem was right. You do only get one shot. Manchester United only had one of them at Craven Cottage, or at least only one on target, 78 minutes into this exercise in minimalism.
![[Joachim Andersen challenges for the ball as Rasmus Højlund tries to hold him off]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bd676fe0afc36c0bb69d2b80e13730b92d2c866c/0_114_5614_3369/master/5614.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
They also had no corners. Nobody really knows what key passes are, but they only made one of those. Even the game’s only goal had no assist, the ball given to Lisandro Martínez after a scuffle, prelude to Martínez spanking a powerful, deflected shot that veered into the net over the palm of Bernd Leno.
As they say in cricket, it’s in the book. It also really doesn’t matter how you get them. Ruben Amorim, you feel, would love the leave in cricket, love seeing off the new ball en route to a hundred from 267 balls. At the end of this taut, mannered, arms-length 1-0 defeat of an energetic Fulham, Amorim looked as contented, relaxed and generally playful – he is always a bit playful – as at any time in during his spell in England.
Basically he really enjoyed this. A solid, orderly, un-mucked up 1-0 win. This is currency. It represents control, in an environment where there has been none. United are still 12th in the league. There have been brittle new dawns before, phoney renewals, turning points that turn in on themselves. But it is also rare to win a game like this, to win it while only just winning. There is a kind of art to it.
United had an academy-reared midfield on the pitch at the end, Kobbie Mainoo and the eager, totem-ish Toby Collyer. The away fans were boisterously happy. Even the manager’s way of pacing on his touchline, coiled for some unseen threat, like a late-night taxi driver braving the main drag on a Saturday night, had settled. This kind of night is exactly what Amorim is after right now.
