Amad celebrates against Liverpool
Amad provided one of United's moments of the year against Liverpool - but he might also be their player of the year
Is it possible to declare someone who has started less than a third of Manchester United's games in the calendar year their best player of 2024? It sounds extreme, but this might be where we are with Amad.
The 22-year-old started the year on the fringes. For the first four months of the year, he looked more likely to be sold than to emerge as one of the best players in the team. He has still only started 16 games this year, but his record is beginning to speak for itself and he is easily United's most dangerous and most consistent attacker.
The surprise is that it took him so long to earn his chance. It doesn't reflect well on Erik ten Hag, given Amad's impact on the side was immediate when he was finally promoted to the starting XI against Arsenal in May. That was his first start for the club in 887 days.
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He came off the bench in the final game of 2023 after recovering from an injury sustained in pre-season but didn't feature again until February 24. There were eight substitute appearances, including his match-winning FA Cup epic against Liverpool, before he finally got the nod in Ten Hag's team.
There have been five goals and seven assists in total, and he has shown his versatility by effortlessly switching to right wing-back under Ruben Amorim. He has been the best player of the Amorim era so far, and it is expected he will soon be fielded as one of the creative No. 10s, as well as remaining an option as an aggressive, attacking wing-back.
"I think that’s one of the great advantages of Amad," Amorim said of his versatility at the start of December. "He's very good for me. He’s very good playing in that position, but also playing between the lines, because he has a good control and he seems faster with the ball than without the ball, so it's something that he has and he’s capable of playing in both positions and he can play in different systems.
"So, in the future, we will play in a different system, maybe. So he is that kind of player that we need in the team.”
It has been his pressing that has shone under the club's new head coach. Amad has embraced the physical demands of Amorim's system quicker than any of his teammates and as well as being an electriying attacking presence, he is also setting the tone in terms of intensity.
That has thrust him on the four-man United shortlist in our Fans' Footballer of the Year vote. He is up against Andre Onana, Diogo Dalot and Alejandro Garnacho. All of them have played an awful lot more football than Amad has.
Onana has improved at United, but his error against Nottingham Forest was a reminder that those mistakes are still there. Dalot has been a reliable servant and pretty much the only first-team member not to be injured during the year, and Garnacho is a thrilling attacker when at his best but still frustratingly inconsistent at times.
Amad would certainly win the award for breakthrough of the year, but despite his relatively low number of starts, I think there's a real argument that he should be player of the year.
For a long time, his lack of involvement suggested Ten Hag didn't see enough, and at 22, that would always mean a sale. He looked a likely candidate to be sold to fund a summer spending spree for most of the early part of the year.
Now, the narrative around him has switched. His contract is up at the end of this season, and although United have the option of an extra year, they want to tie Amad down to a longer deal. That is a sign of the impact he has had in 2024.