Before the match against Bournemouth, as usual, Man United players gathered in the penalty area to practice defending against set pieces. However, this tactic was ruined after only 29 minutes when Dean Huijsen headed Bournemouth in from a free kick to open the scoring. Joshua Zirkzee was at fault for not being proactive and aggressive in marking the opposing centre-back.
This is the 7th time in just 6 matches that Amorim's defense has conceded a goal from a set piece. In the Premier League this season alone, Man United have conceded 9 goals from similar situations. Not only that, in 2024 alone, the Old Trafford team has conceded 17 goals from set pieces - the highest number in Premier League history. This statistic shows that Ruben Amorim has not been able to overcome the lack of organization in personnel arrangement and arrangement - a weakness that has appeared since the time of Erik ten Hag.
Despite conceding the first goal, the game Man United created in the first half made fans always feel like an equalizer was very close. However, conceding 2 goals in just 2 minutes was the turning point that completely collapsed the Old Trafford team.
The incident happened in the 61st minute, Noussair Mazraoui - the most outstanding and stable player under Ruben Amorim made a mistake when blocking Justin Kluivert in the penalty area. The Dutch striker made no mistake to double the gap for the visitors. Less than 2 minutes later, Bournemouth had a chance to counterattack after Kobbie Mainoo lost the ball in the middle of the field. From the pass back from his teammate, Semenyo coolly finished to increase the score to 3-0 for the visitors.
The remaining minutes witnessed a strong rise of Man United with a series of dangerous opportunities created. However, as usual, the lack of luck of Alejandro Garnacho or Rasmus Hojlund prevented M.U from having an honorary goal at home. In fact, Amorim's army created many dangerous situations in front of the away team's goal. However, while the attackers had not yet had time to do so, the defenders had already broken through.
The Telegraph described that, after 9 matches since leading Man United, Amorim's 3-man defense still showed a lack of cohesion like "strangers". On the day Mazraoui, the most reliable factor in the defense, made a mistake, other names had even more disappointing performances.
As usual, Harry Maguire was still unsafe and had poor handling when being pressed, or when the opponent received the ball behind. Meanwhile, Lisandro Martinez was passive in the third goal and could not adapt to Ruben Amorim's new tactical system.
According to statistics, the defeat against Bournemouth was the 4th defeat in 9 matches since the Portuguese strategist led Man United. Not only that, for the first time, the "Red Devils" had to rank 13th on the rankings on Christmas Day - the worst achievement in the team's history.
Ruben Amorim still has a lot of work to do to improve the performance of the Old Trafford team, if they do not want to end the 2024-2025 season with the worst performance in history.
