Marc Cucurella celebrates after scoring vs Manchester United
IMAGO / Pro Sports Images
Despite all the focus being on one of the most important games in the post-Ferguson era next Wednesday, Man Utd did have a game to play and 90 minutes to distract us from being nervous wrecks away to Chelsea.
The game meant a lot more to the Blues but for the most part the performance by the Red Devils had a familiar feeling, a good performance with a good foot on the ball and completely abject and incompetent in attack.
If this happens, Premier League teams will punish you as Marc Cucurella did with a header.
United seemed to lack bite in midfield and attack as soon as Casemiro was subbed and ended up losing the game in preparation for the Europa League final in Bilbao.
Here are five things we learnt from United’s final away game of the 24/25 Premier League season:
1) Poor Rasmus Hojlund Performance
It’s difficult being a young leading striker for the Red Devils, the many legendary goal scorers of the past weigh heavy on your shoulders and they appear to be weighing heavy on Rasmus Hojlund’s at the moment.
The biggest worry is that United don’t have another striker and Hojlund appears to be crucial to the build-up. The ginormous problem with this is that he’s extremely poor in holding the ball up and gets bullied by centre-backs.
The amount of times we’ve seen the defence be pressed and have no out ball but a long pass to Hojlund before the attack breaks down as it reaches him or he loses a duel showcases it’s clearly a tactic from Amorim.
It isn’t working and heading into the final with Hojlund the only recognised striker won’t fill United fans with confidence.
2) Horrible in Attack for the umpteenth time
If it isn’t Bruno Fernandes providing the final pass or cross on a plate, it’s likely the attack will come to nothing.
It’s a long term worry because on the occasions United are able to find gaps in the middle and wield a smooth move together and carve out a crossing opportunity, the cross is poor.
It’s an attack that lacks confidence, doesn’t score goals and you tend to wonder where on earth the goals are going to come from but for the momentous moments where the Red Devils are desperate for a goal in the Europa League.
Playing against the centre-back pairing of Micky van der ven and Cristian Romero with this United attack?
The Tottenham pairing will fancy their chances.
3) A post-Casemiro collapse
Maybe collapse is a harsh word, but it isn’t a coincidence that when Casemiro who has had a stunning return to form was subbed off Chelsea scored.
In recent games he’s looked back to his brilliant best, marshalling in front of the back four and breaking attacks up, often at times by simply knowing where to be.
Amorim should be applauded for learning how to get the best out of the former Real Madrid player and at the very least, he was able to come off before the end of the game so he’ll hopefully be refreshed for the final.
4) Worrying Onana Parry
In the first half as a tame shot headed Andre Onana’s way, instead of pushing the ball out he parried it right back into danger.
Luckily a Chelsea player was adjudged to be offside and Enzo Fernandez missed the rebound anyways, but not for the first time this season Onana’s strange parrying is a source of distress.
There has been one too many mistakes from the Cameroonian this season and his form has fallen off a cliff.
You hope that whatever happens in the final, god forbid if United lose it isn’t through a goalkeeping error.
But going off this season it’s plausible it has a chance to be.
5) Bad Preparation for Bilbao
The Premier League hasn’t mattered for weeks, not for United and not for club who aren’t competing for Champions League spots, but it still means there are some pretty historic records being made in a negative manner.
Amorim came in mid-season and has had to deal with injuries whilst dealing with a squad assembled by the previous manager which didn’t have a default style of play.
Coaching them to play the way he wants whilst United lose game after game means the confidence is on the floor, but it probably couldn’t have gone worse since Ten Hag was sacked.
There is so much riding on the final it feels like Amorim cannot lose it at any cost.
Amorim’s points per game astoundingly are at 0.92, 24 points in 26 games.
That is crushingly low, though his side has a massive opportunity to win the cup next week the league form is an incredible concern win or lose Europa.
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