Robin Bairner
Kobbie Mainoo, Lisandro Martinez, Manchester United, 2024/25
© IMAGO
Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe knew that appointing Ruben Amorim was not a silver bullet to his club’s problems, yet that was made evident as Nottingham Forest visited Old Trafford and claimed a 3-2 victory.
Prior to the match, a bombshell interview in which Ratcliffe branded Man Utd as “mediocre” shook social media, yet on the field Amorim’s charges did little to shake that impression.
It took Forest only two minutes to lead through Nikola Milenkovic and though United levelled by the break via Rasmus Hojlund, they crumbled in a 10-minute spell reminiscent of the Erik ten Hag era.
It was fitting, then, that the two catastrophic goals they conceded during this spell came courtesy of errors from Ten Hag signings.
First, Andre Onana inexplicably allowed a Morgan Gibbs-White shot virtually straight down the centre of the goal to defy him, while minutes later Lisandro Martinez allowed Chris Wood’s header to drift past him into the corner. Onana had hardly covered himself in glory for this effort either while Matthijs de Ligt also looked a little stilted.
Bruno Fernandes got one back, but it was too late.
The early days of the Amorim era have not been easy, yet it promises to be months before the new manager can be suitably judged.
The positive news for the Portuguese is that Ratcliffe is under no illusions as to where United are.
"There is major change to come to achieve elite status. But already there has been huge change at this club. Until were are as good as anyone in the world, then it's not good enough for Manchester United. We must have the best recruitment in the world,” he told the United We Stand fanzine.
“We’re still in the last century on data analysis here. There’s an immense amount of useful data that we can get from data analysis and we're in the 'very poor' bracket with data analysis here.
“These things don't happen overnight. You can't just flick a light switch and sort out recruitment. It's all about people and we need to find the right people.”
Amorim is just one piece of a complicated puzzle.
The defeat to Forest was simply a reminder there is a long way to go.