Man United 0-2 Newcastle: Ruben Amorim's men extend losing streak to four games as Magpies first-half dominance secures all three points at Old Trafford
- Man United continued their losing slump at Old Trafford on Monday evening
- Newcastle are up to fifth as they maintained their superb festive form
- LISTEN NOW: It's All Kicking Off! New formation, some new faces, but the optimism has gone at Old Trafford
The bad news for Manchester United was not so much that they were outclassed by Newcastle United and fell to a third successive home defeat in the league for the first time since 1979.
The bad news for Ruben Amorim and his team was not so much that they embarrassed themselves in a first half where Newcastle made the game look like men against boys and should have put the contest out of reach.
The bad news was not even that United looked clueless, hopeless and witless in that opening 45 minutes and that they fell, deservedly, to their fifth league defeat in the last six games with a 2-0 scoreline that flattered them.
No, the bad news for Amorim and United was that Ipswich Town won on Monday night. The bad news was that Ipswich shocked the league by beating Chelsea at Portman Road and, in the process, moved to within seven points of United.
That is United’s reality now. Any hopes of Champions League qualification are long, long gone. They are in 14th place and falling fast. They play Liverpool away on Sunday and, on this evidence, they haven’t got a prayer of getting anything out of that.
They are in a relegation fight. That’s the truth. The results they need to look out for now are Ipswich and Wolves and Crystal Palace and Everton. Because that is their level now. That is the company they are keeping. ‘Say hello to Sunderland,’ the Geordie fans sang. If United do not start winning soon, that could yet be their fate.
Ruben Amorim's side suffered their third Premier League defeat in a row on Monday evening
Man United are down in 14th place, seven points ahead of Ipswich in the relegation zone
The Red Devils have kept just one clean sheet in the 11 games Amorim has taken charge of
United rallied a little in the second half against Newcastle but it was not enough to dim the memory of the shambles of the first half. Without the suspended Bruno Fernandes in midfield, they looked even worse than they did in recent defeats to Bournemouth and Wolves.
Amorim, a manager who has brought a dead cat bounce to United’s fortunes since he arrived from Sporting Lisbon two months ago, has made the team even worse as he tries to juggle the sparse resources left him by Erik ten Hag and the cowboys who have been running recruitment at Old Trafford.
‘Sacked in the morning,’ the Newcastle fans sang at him as the match slipped away from his side in the latter stages. Even Amorim’s stand-off with Marcus Rashford has started to seem tiresome now.
Amorim brought him back into the squad after a four-game exile but left him sitting on the bench while other substitutions were made. This United team is so bad that even an out-of-sorts Rashford could only improve it.
Instead, we were left with this dirge from United with the moribund partnership of Casemiro and Christian Eriksen outplayed and outrun in midfield. Newcastle, for whom Alexander Isak scored his 11th goal in his last 11 league games, were excellent in the first half but there was a macabre fascination in seeing just how far Amorim’s team has fallen.
These are hugely uncertain times for United. The club appears to be in chaos on and off the pitch. Sir Jim Ratcliffe is trimming a few thousand off United’s running costs here and there with a series of unpopular cuts while sanctioning spending £52m on a player like Manuel Ugarte.
The suggestion is that United’s recruitment has been so poor and so wasteful and so extravagant for so long that even the biggest club in English football can’t spend its way out of trouble this time.
Let’s not forget that critics of Profit and Sustainability Rules say that they build in the supremacy of the big clubs. United’s cocktail of profligacy and incompetence has exploded that argument, too. If PSR is clipping United’s wings as they lie marooned in mid-table, it is a sign it is working.
Newcastle move up to fifth place in the table, three points off Chelsea in the final top four spot
United have scored just 21 goals in the league this season - the fifth-fewest of any other team
It is, though, yet another problem for Amorim to deal with as he tries to get to grips with his new job. He has been searingly honest about the scale of the task he is facing and he did not change his stance when he spoke before the match.
‘We know with bad results, it's really difficult to sell an idea,’ Amorim said. ‘I won’t change my ideas because for me it would be the end. You have to be really focused on your idea. If you start changing because of the results, it's the end for any coach and I know that really clear.’
Brave words but they could not change the fact that United began the game emanating all the nerves of a team in freefall. Their defence was torn to ribbons by a fine Newcastle move when there were less than four minutes on the clock.
Some clever interplay on the right worked the ball to Bruno Guimaraes and he lofted a pass wide to the left for Lewis Hall. Hall clipped a cross into the middle and Isak rose utterly unchallenged six yards out to nod the ball down and past Andre Onana.
Lisandro Martinez, captain in the absence of the suspended Bruno Fernandes, was one of the United centre backs who stood and watched as Isak rose to meet the cross. Harry Maguire was the other. It was defending straight from the circus playbook.
United were embarrassingly poor in those opening stages. The third of their three stooges at the back, Matthijs de Ligt, was made to look like a mug by Isak, Gordon knocked the ball past Noussair Mazraoui as if he wasn’t there. Newcastle were quicker and sharper and hungrier.
Newcastle should have doubled their lead after 16 minutes. Guimaraes dispossessed Christian Eriksen on the edge of the Newcastle and lashed the ball forward towards Isak. One long ball was enough to take out the entire United defence.
Martinez was culpable again. He looks more like an impostor with every game. Isak left him for dust and bore down on Onana. This time, his confidence was his undoing. He tried to dink the ball over the goalkeeper but only succeeded in lifting it straight into his hands.
Lisandro Martinez was arguably at fault for both of the headed goals that Newcastle scored
United wantaway Marcus Rashford made a return to the squad but was an unused substitute
It was only a short reprieve for Amorim’s men. Two minutes later, Guimaraes worked the ball wide to Gordon, Gordon teased his marker and lifted a cross into the box and Joelinton rose above the hapless Martinez and bundled the ball over the line.
Newcastle nearly made it three after half an hour. It could quite easily have been four or five by then. The visitors passed their way through the United defence and Sandro Tonali poked his shot against the face of a post when he should have scored.
Amorim had to do something. He chose to sacrifice Joshua Zirkzee, who looked, once again, out of his depths. Thirteen minutes before half time, Zirkzee’s number 11 appeared on the board and a huge cheer echoed round the ground. It was a horrible moment. It must have felt like a long, long way for Zirkzee to jog to the touchline as Kobbie Mainoo waited to replace him.
United glimpsed their first moment of hope almost immediately. Martinez clipped a ball forward for Rasmus Hoijlund but when Hoijlund lifted the ball over Martin Dubravka, he also dragged it just wide of the far post.
Newcastle were so comfortable they even tried to give United a goal. Fabian Schar played the ball out of defence with the outside of his right foot but sent it straight to Mainoo. Mainoo played it straight to Casemiro, who only had Dubravka to beat, but curled a tame first-time shot well wide. It was no surprise that United were booed off at half-time.
United began the second half more positively. They could hardly have got any worse. Maguire nearly pulled a goal back but his diving header cannoned off the post with Dubravka beaten and Hall blocked De Ligt’s goal-bound follow-up.
United huffed and puffed after that but could not make any real inroads. Newcastle thoroughly deserved their win, Eddie Howe’s first league victory at Old Trafford. His team looked well coached and beautifully drilled. Amorim’s did not.
