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Manchester United secured a 2-1 win over Viktoria Plzeň in the Europa League this evening, but it was far from an impressive performance.
United would have been severely punished against better teams, having made more defensive errors than they can count on the fingers of both hands.
The same disastrous decisions that plagued Erik Ten Hag’s reign were on display once again tonight under new manager Ruben Amorim.
Noussair Mazraou, Matthijs de Ligt, Mason Mount, Diogo Dalot and Andre Onana were all among the stars whose stray passes in and around the United box fell to the Victoria forward, with only the latter receiving a penalty.
There were also familiar stories when golden opportunities were squandered, including that of Mason Mount and Amad.
A third familiar sight from the Ten Hag era is the lack of composure when taking the lead. Instead of maintaining possession and calming the game down, United went into counter-attacking mode, applying pressure and giving the Czech Republic one chance after another to come back, but fortunately they were unable to take advantage.
Deja vu was also present in Marcus Rashford’s inexplicably poor performance, discussed elsewhere.
Andre Onana also had his worst performance for a while after joining the general regression.
This was the sixth game of the Amorim era, and by now you’ll be hoping to start seeing some progress on Ten Hag’s Balls of Chaos.
But this was the performance that most closely resembled the performance that led to the Dutchman’s sacking last October, much better than the two defeats against Arsenal and Nottingham Forest.
Thanks to outstanding performances from the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Ahmad and substitute Rasmus Hoslund, United ended the evening with a win and took a big step towards qualifying for the competition.
But Amorim must have been shocked by what they saw and must now find a way to regroup and attack the flanks in time for the Manchester derby.
Although they are battling their own demons at the moment, City will not miss their chance tonight if Victoria gives them a chance on Sunday.
Featured image Gabriel Kuchta (Getty Images)
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