Casemiro started against Arsenal last week
Casemiro started against Arsenal last week
There are plenty of wrenches for Manchester United in this season devoid of European football and one new normal they will have to adjust to is the wait to right the wrongs.
August is always a sparse month in the football calendar and United's anoraks will lap up the opportunity to visit Blundell Park, a ground United have not played at since 1948. Clement Attlee was the prime minister.
Before the novelty of a second-round League Cup tie at Grimsby Town on Wednesday, United head to Fulham. By the time their coach pulls into Stevenage Road on Sunday afternoon, they will have gone a full week without playing.
The scoreline against Arsenal was familiar but the performance wasn't. United were watchable. That would have accounted for the appreciative applause at full-time and throng of fans waiting outside the Stretford End tunnel.
United served up some soulless performances at home last season but there are signs they are stirring the soul. Hardly anyone left before full-time.
They outperformed Arsenal in just about every metric apart from the most relevant one on the scoreboard. Altay Bayindir was as responsible for that as much as Arsenal's goalscorer, Riccardo Calafiori.
In the new £50million building at United's Carrington training complex, the analysts sit at one of the bank of desks in the open-space office on the upper floor, just outside a room reserved for the first team coaches. Ruben Amorim and his staff will have liked the look of the numbers on the analysts' laptops.
"You can see that is a fact because you can see with the data," Amorim said when asked whether United were a more physical side. "Then with confidence, sometimes you react a little bit sooner and you are near the ball.
"Against Arsenal, we were sometimes building up but we had to kick the ball and you can see the reaction of our players in the second ball, the duels, we are stronger, we are recovering position faster.
"And I remember at least two times in the corner, one time with (Martin) Odegaard running with the ball and you can look at our players and we are sprinting full power - even Casemiro! He’s at a different pace.
"All these things, I can watch the games since we start the season, we are consistent in that and that is really important.
Casemiro keeps up with Odegaard
Casemiro keeps up with Odegaard
"It’s more time to train, to prepare the games, they know what I should do in this game and you have more time to train your base and then in the last two days you have time to prepare the game in the strategic part. I think it’s simple."
United were fitter in pre-season, the 3-4-2-1 system looks fluid when it was once rigid, they displayed tactical innovation against Arsenal and were creative. New recruits Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo had their best goalscoring opportunities.
Amorim knows he will be judged on wins and they remain hard to come by. United have won only seven times in the Premier League since Amorim stood in the dugout at Portman Road on November 24 and he has incurred 15 defeats in 28 league games.
Amorim watches on during his first game in charge
Amorim watches on during his first game in charge
"In the end, we cannot control the results," Amorim protested. "We need to try to see the game in the small things that we can do better, we need to work during the week and we need to score goals.
"Every game has its history. Sometimes we are not going to play so well, like we did in the last game, but the consistency of the movements, the intensity, the opportunities, the runs in behind, all these small things, we need to be consistent.
"If you look at the last games - pre-season is pre-season - but the pre-season, in the first game of the league we are maintaining more or less the level. I think you can see when we are playing we are more confident.
"I feel the team is more free playing the game and that is something I watched during all the games since we start the season. That is a good thing.
Amorim at Carrington
Amorim at Carrington
"But every week is a test and we need to be there. But, in the end, the result we cannot control. But we need to do everything to win the games. But we need to be consistent in the small things and important things."
United won the Premier League Summer Series with two impressive wins against West Ham United and Bournemouth before a 2-2 draw with Everton. That fuelled the confidence in a happy camp whose harmony was protected by the omission of the 'bomb squad' members, with five of them still on the club's books.
Both of United's wins in the United States came with Rasmus Hojlund in the starting XI. In the three matches since, United have started without an out-and-out striker and none of their starters have scored from open play. Benjamin Sesko has to make his full debut at Craven Cottage.
"Maybe when you have a good performance, even in pre-season, you get confidence," Amorim opined, "then you have more time to train, you have more time to understand the way we play, you don’t need to think all the time, 'what do I do in these situations?' It’s already in their minds.
"It’s a lot of things and hard to pinpoint one reason."
Fulham are one of only two teams that lost both of their league fixtures against United last season. Winning regularly would be a more welcome new normal at United.