It was plainly too good to be true. Or to last. There were 82 seconds on the stadium clock when the Ruben Amorim era at Manchester United was jumpstarted. The new manager had put his faith in Marcus Rashford in the No 9 role and it was United’s great enigma who put them in front. Rashford charged about in the early running, a point to prove.
And yet it was the prompt for a slow retreat by United for the remainder of the first half. The structure was different, United set up in Amorim’s trademark 3-4-2-1, but the players were the same, along with plenty of the frustrations and faultlines from Erik ten Hag’s tenure. Control proved elusive. As it did so often under Ten Hag.
