Man Utd 3-2 Burnley (Cullen OG 27′, Mbeumo 57′, Fernandes 90+7 | Foster 55′, Anthony 66′)
Let’s start by saying the bar is very much on the floor. When you get knocked out of a cup by a fourth division side, with £600m worth of players on the pitch, the only way is up.
What happened in Cleethorpes in midweek had Ruben Amorim thinking about quitting. It had him hating his players.
As he nervously paced up and down his technical area like he was awaiting his exam results in what was already a must-win game against newly promoted Burnley, Amorim looked every inch a manager teetering on the edge.
He needed a saviour, someone to instigate a spark in his talented group, to rouse them from their perennial ineptitude. Step forward Bryan Mbeumo.
Mbeumo represents something on a throwback signing for United. During the Sir Alex Ferguson era, United’s transfer policy was pretty simple – buy the best the Premier League has to offer, by asserting their position of power.
Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke. Just let the players make names for themselves elsewhere, then swoop in, send Ferguson in to speak to the family. Then the results, and trophies, would follow.
In recent years, with the draw of United less appealing, the club has shopped overseas, bringing in the Angel Di Marias, Rasmus Hojlunds and Antonys of this world. And look how that went.
Mbeumo and fellow new boy Matheus Cunha hark back to the glory days. Both are proven Premier League goalscorers before joining United, with only four players scoring more than Mbeumo’s 20 – more than double that of any United forward – last term.
Against Burnley, in a match that, on paper, looks like United scraped home by the skin of their teeth in, Mbeumo led an attack that could, and certainly should, have wrapped up a rare comfortable victory by half time.
What Mbeumo and Cunha – before he went off injured in the first half – brings is a dynamism conspicuous by its absence last season.
Through simply chasing down lost causes and pressurising opponents, he takes the attack to the opposition, while possessing the quality to pose a threat to anyone.
Nobody had more touches in the opposition box at Old Trafford than Mbeumo’s nine, or put in more crosses. Only Bruno Fernandes, who takes all set pieces, created more chances.
This is what United have been missing as the goals have dried up in recent years. Just someone with the confidence and, more pertinently, willing to put opponents on the back foot.
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“It was impressive, the way he [Mbeumo] stretched the team,” Amorim said after the match. “The quality he has in the first touch.
“You can feel that we are a different team, because when we win the ball, we have one guy stretching the team. Last season we struggled a little bit with that.
“The sound of the fans when we are pressing and winning balls and corners, and you sprint to get a corner, you sprint to get a throw in, it’s nothing to do with the tactical and technical aspects. So today, I just need to watch sometimes the first minutes from Bryan to understand the mindset of the team.”
Two goals in two games represent a goalscoring streak by United standards. Mbeumo’s finish to put United back in front on Saturday was as clinical as we have seen for some time.
More of the same, and some, from the old school capture will be needed to ensure the dramatic Burnley success is capitalised upon and more attacking verve returns with regularity to Old Trafford.
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