It was bold. It was brave. And for 88 minutes it looked very foolish indeed. But this is why Ruben Amorim has been tasked with being Manchester United’s saviour. From the minute he walked in the door, he promised short-term pain for long-term game. It seemed, however, he had taken things a step too far. Whatever Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho had done to be omitted from the squad for a crucial Manchester derby, it should not have come at the cost of his team getting a result at the Etihad.
Amad Diallo, in winning an 88th minute penalty and firing a sensational winner, instead gave Amorim the ultimate justification for making the big calls, even for the biggest games. Many will say such courage has long been conspicuous by its absence around Old Trafford. Amad is already Amorim’s posterboy for this high intensity, high press game he wants to instil at United. Rashford and Garnacho, already, are anything but.
“It’s important to say why: was not a disciplinary thing,” Amorim said of the decision to leave Rashford and Garnacho training at Carrington instead of in his derby squad. “Next week, next game, new life, they are fighting for their places but for me it’s important, the performance in training, the performance in game, the way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with teammates, the way you push your teammates.
“Everything is important in our context in the beginning of something when we want to change a lot of things when people in our club are losing their jobs we have to put the standards really high and for that they have to fight for a place in the team and today the team proved we can leave anyone out of the squad and manage to win if you play together.”
Football is a game of fine margins. But making the big calls from the off - setting those standards that have missing for too long at Manchester United - is what could set Amorim apart from his predecessors.Rashford has been disciplined before, but being left out a derby, not even on the bench, is unchartered territory.
Both were fully fit, which makes Amorim’s protestations that Garnacho and Rashford were omitted purely for selection reasons hard to believe. If it was on form alone, both would have been on the bench.
To go into such a crucial clash with Joshua Zirkzee and Anthony as your best attacking options from the bench made the call all the more risky. Amad makes that call a brave one rather than foolish one.
Run, run, run – this was the simple requirement from Amorim from the off. He has been flabbergasted with regularity at a lack of energy from his players thus far. Amad being the only exception.
No cause has been deemed lost enough for the Ivorian to chase down. Against Everton in Amorim’s first home league match at United boss, two of United’s four goals came as a direct result of Amad forcing errors from defenders. Unheard of around these parts.
Even from a wing-back, Amad has remained Amorim’s greatest threat, an attacker in his mould. Rashford has enjoyable a minor resurgence in the goalscoring charts, while Garnacho looks threatening every time he gets the ball.
But both are two very dispensable figures in Amorim’s eyes. The Portuguese is wedding to the collective of the individual more than most.
All too often, Garnacho cuts inside and goes for goal, at the expense of a better pass either side. Rashford looks ready to rekindle the fire once more one week, back to his disinterested self the next. Amorim, it seems, won’t stand for either.
Amad is the antithesis of both. The pass from Matheus Nunes two minutes from time was short, but had it been Rashford faced with the faint prospect of getting there before Ederson, City would be looking at a rejuvenating victory right now.
Instead, a penalty won out of nothing, converted by Bruno Fernandes, and a winner that again Amad had no right to get to ahead of Ederson showed just what it takes to be a success under a manager who will not stand for anything but the best. Or some running at least.
