Before the match against Bournemouth, as usual, Man United players gathered in the penalty area to practice against set pieces. However, this tactic failed after only 29 minutes when Dean Huijsen headed the ball back to open the score for Bournemouth from a free kick. Joshua Zirkzee was at fault for lacking initiative and determination in marking the opposing centre-back.
This was the 7th time in just 6 matches that Amorim's defense had conceded a goal from set pieces. In the Premier League this season alone, Man United have conceded nine goals from similar moves. Not only that, in 2024 alone, the Old Trafford team had to concede 17 goals conceded from set pieces - the largest 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 Erik ten Hag's time.
Despite conceding the first goal, the situation Man United created in the first half made fans always feel that the equalizer was very close. However, conceding 2 goals in just 2 minutes was the turning point that completely collapsed the Old Trafford team.
The situation happened from 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 away team. Less than 2 minutes later, Bournemouth had a chance to counterattack after Kobbie Mainoo lost the ball in midfield. From a pass from his teammate, Semenyo coolly finished to increase the score to 3-0 for the away team.
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 scoring an honorary goal at home. In fact, Amorim's army created many dangerous situations in the away team's goal. However, while the attack line had not yet had time to do it, the defense had broken.
The Telegraph described that after nine games since taking charge of Man United, Amorim's three-man defence has continued to lack cohesion like "strangers". On the day Mazraoui, the most reliable factor in the defense, made mistakes, other names had even more disappointing performances.
As usual, Harry Maguire has always handled unsafely and rotated poorly when being approached, or situations where the opponent received the ball behind his back. Meanwhile, Lisandro Martinez was passive in the third goal and could not adapt to Ruben Amorim's new tactical system.
According to statistics, the loss to 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 he does not want to end the 2024-2025 season with the worst record in history.
