Ruben Amorim has issued his verdict on three Manchester United stars after claiming a point in Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Ipswich on his managerial debut.
The 39-year-old finally got his first taste of Premier League action since replacing Erik ten Hag in the United hot-seat with a trip to Portman Road in a fixture the visitors were widely expected to win.
Marcus Rashford’s early opening strike inside two minutes gave Amorim the perfect start to his reign, only for Ipswich to force themselves back into proceedings with Omari Hutchinson scoring a stunning long-range effort before half-time.
Shared spoils helped United climb to 12th in the league standings and while it was a mixed showing, Amorim’s preferred 3-4-3 system did get some joy against Ipswich.
The attacking formation is new for United’s stars and will take time to adjust to – as Amorim admitted – with the former Sporting Lisbon boss only afforded a couple of days training to work with his squad before his first game in charge.
Amorim praised his players for trying to understand his vision after such a short period of time together, but put the spotlight on three United players when analysing his team’s performance.
Ruben Amorim has issued his verdict on three Manchester United stars after claiming a point in Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Ipswich
Marcus Rashford opened the scoring for United inside two minutes at Portman Road
Amorim salvaged a point during his first match in charge and acknowledged improvements must be made
United captain Bruno Fernandes played in United’s front three before later dropping deeper in midfield where he largely impressed Amorim but the new coach questioned the playmaker for always wanting to play long balls.
Speaking after the match, Amorim said: ‘Bruno Fernandes, I think he improved his game by playing nearer the ball, feeling the ball, so he can give us sometimes the long pass.
‘But you can not put him there all the time because he wants the long pass all the time.
‘So we try to find things about the players, we will need a lot of time to work out these things.’
Argentina winger Alejandro Garnacho continued to give a strong account of himself and was United’s most dangerous attacker throughout the second-half and was only denied a goal by some last ditch defending.
The 20-year-old burst onto the scene under former boss Ten Hag and is the club’s top scorer this season with three goals in 12 Premier League outings, with Amorim revealing he was surprised by the winger.
‘You start discovering things that you didn’t know like Garna, can hold the ball between lines,’ Amorim said about Garnacho.
‘You can understand that by seeing the games because he’s always open so you try to find these things.’
United captain Bruno Fernandes impressed in two different attacking positions against Ipswich
Amorim issued his verdict on both Joshua Zirkzee (left) and Alejandro Garnacho (right) after the game
Meanwhile, summer signing Joshua Zirkzee again failed to win over United supporters with another difficult showing after coming off the bench with just over 20 minutes remaining.
The Dutchman was wasteful in possession and struggled to play passes forward quickly when United found themselves in dangerous attacking positions as the clock ticked down.
Zirkzee is yet to replicate the form that earned him a £36.5million summer move from Bologna and Amorim identified a major ‘concern’ he has about the 23-year-old’s performance.
He said: ‘I think that [decision-making] is a concern, you don’t need to coach them at this level.
‘You have to keep the ball and know the momentum to put the ball in front. Sometimes you feel that you can’t keep the ball and you [have to] put the ball in front.
‘Then you have like we are in the end of the game, we were around the box with two strikers. Josh [Zirkzee] has to understand that he has to go to the box to have the crosses.
‘So we are doing some things that were not at the right moment, so that is something we have to address.
‘Sometimes people talk about the 3-4-3, that is not the concern, the system is the system but the understanding of the game is what we have to improve a lot in this area.’
