Amorim kicks-off United role with lacklustre draw

Ruben Amorim can at least remind himself that Manchester United’s best managers have had worse starts.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

An underwhelming 1-1 draw at Ipswich Town otherwise made the size of the job even clearer.

It said much that he immediately began to talk about getting the players to understand a structure and how they will be back at the same spot in a year if they aren’t willing to risk short-term cost. “We are going to suffer for a long period,” Amorim asserted. “There is a lot to change.”

If the Premier League was supposed to be a step up for a manager who has only ever worked in Portugal, this was sometimes like a Championship game. “We have the best league in the world,” Amorim said in reference to the atmosphere, but it didn’t always feel like that in terms of the football.

That is a little uncharitable on Ipswich, who enjoyed a fine result in the context of their recent history and again acquitted themselves well this season. They are never outplayed. Duly, this occasionally felt like their day rather than Amorim’s, the Portman Road announcer even proudly talking about how the eyes of the world were on their stadium. Ed Sheeran’s certainly were. His brief appearance at Amorim’s post-match interview lent the feel of a big day out.

Sheeran still watched his team outplay United for most of the first half, with Omart Hutchinson so outstandingly influential as the best player on the pitch – his fine deflected strike brought the equaliser – that Amorim felt he had to bring on Luke Shaw to man-mark him.

Ipswich just didn’t have the quality to sustain that, with their better players burning themselves out by half-time. The problem for Amorim was that United were similar, and it all turned the second half into a tedious affair.