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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Simon Burnton

Manchester United in a funk after coastal sojourn to Grimsby turns Super Bad

Matthijs de Ligt in the rain
Matthijs de Ligt enjoys the Grimsby weather. Photograph: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Getty Images

HIT IT AND QUIT IT?

Fifty-five years have passed since James Brown, singer, songwriter and minister of new super-heavy funk, released a song about people who “like a dull knife [that] just ain’t cutting”, were “talking loud and saying nothing”. Manchester United would probably have preferred to prompt thoughts of Brown’s I Feel Good but they are where they are – and if they ever do shake their money-makers they could probably then benefit from dropping a few of them. Sometimes we don’t get to choose which 70s deep funk classic we unwittingly call to mind, and Ruben Amorim left no doubt when after Wednesday night’s ineffably miserable defeat by Grimsby he opined about feeling “my players spoke really loud today … At half-time I told them that they were speaking really loud to me. I understand what you are doing, what I am seeing.” Like a dull knife, they just weren’t cutting.

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