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Manchester United headed into Thursday’s game against Southampton with the wind in their sails following excellent performances against Liverpool and Arsenal in the space of a week.
Southampton came into the match with six points in the Premier League and the worst goal difference in the top-flight, so everything suggested the home side were in for a straightforward night at Old Trafford.
The problem is United never win games easily and have a tendency to underperform when they are expected to win, which is what Ruben Amorim discussed in his pre-match press conference.
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Amorim spoke at Carrington just a day before facing Southampton and warned against complacency. “I think this next game will teach me more from my players than the last two. So I’m really focused to see what kind of game we will play tomorrow. We will learn more tomorrow,” he said.
“There is no expectation for us in the last two games. No one believed we could do a great performance but now they are expecting us to win and play well. So I will learn more in this game.
“I’m always concerned because we didn’t have during these [past] games the consistency in performance, in results, so always worried. It’s my job to be worried, but we have to face Southampton in the same way we faced Liverpool and Arsenal, that is the goal. Not more, not less, face that game.
“But understanding that there are different games and people expect us to win. That changes things, when you have the pressure to win that is the pressure we want.”
Amorim was aware Southampton would be a different challenge and Bruno Fernandes knew it too, saying after the draw against Liverpool that the clash against Saints would “worry” him more than Arsenal because the players deliver maximum effort against the ‘bigger’ teams.
It is worrying that Fernandes knew to be cautious of Southampton and Amorim echoed that thought when speaking to journalists, but it highlighted a dressing room weakness.
It felt like United had turned a corner but they were abysmal for most of the game against Southampton and the questionable mentality of the squad was set to be exposed again.
Southampton are relegation fodder and are destined for the Championship, so why can’t United breeze past such opponents? Unfortunately, it is a problem that has existed for a few years now and it’s clearly down to having players with the wrong mentality in the squad.
The players delivered and were fully committed against Liverpool and Arsenal because they were bigger games – but they followed those fixtures with a poor showing at home.
Southampton were the better side for most of the game and United’s players began to lose their heads as they frantically looked to claw themselves back into the contest with an equaliser.
The quality that was shown at Anfield and the Emirates was nowhere to be seen and Amorim learned more about his players, who weren’t turning up against the league’s worst team.
Thankfully for Amorim, every lesson he’s learned about Amad this season has been positive and the youngster produced a gritty equaliser for United in the 82nd minute. Amad urged Old Trafford to get behind the team as he picked up the ball for the restart and the noise increased.
The rest of the script was written and Amad completed the comeback with a minute to play after an exceptional pass from Christian Eriksen. The youngster then scored again during injury time to rub salt into Southampton’s wounds.
Some players in the dressing room have a questionable mentality but Amad isn’t one of them.