Man United beat Sunderland 2-0 to reduce pressure on Ruben Amorim

Because, listen, every time we talk about Manchester United, it does feel like deja vu, because after an awful, awful performance a week ago in Sprenford, which we much discussed at the start of the programme, they're back to winning ways at home. How good a performance was it from you, honestly, this afternoon? Really good. I'm just pleased to give them a bit of credit for once, you know. It's always, like we said at the beginning of the show today, it's Groundhog Day. You know, keep criticising them for bad performances, but we're only saying what we see. And what we saw today was a very good performance from Manchester United. I don't think he would have to fend off any questions about his system today. The players... So why did it work today? Did someone help them to make it work, or was it just the player performance? I mean, let's give them credit. Let's give them credit. It just worked. It worked today. They played more direct. That's the difference. Lammons makes his debut... How did he look overall? Fine. He's got a clean sheet. It's another positive for him on his debut. Was he tested much? I mean, three shots on target from Sunderland overall. Yeah, but he'd done everything. He took a few crosses. You know, when they're under a little bit of pressure, he'd come. He's a big guy. You know, he'd come and took the crosses. And his distribution was decent, but they never asked him to tippy-tappy around the penalty area and decided to be, you know, little stupid passes in around the area, you know, to make a rod for his own back and put pressure on himself by making a mistake. They asked him to get the ball up the field to Cesco. That's what they did. Cesco was the man of the match today. You know, he flicked things on. He took defenders under the ball and the likes of Mason Mount and then Boehmer was just narrowing up off the sides. The width was coming from the wing backs. And they were giving him a load of support. You know, he was holding the ball up. He was laying things off to Bruno Fernandes, who was breaking forward. Casemiro was just playing as a six, just a little bit of protection. That's all they needed today, just that one in there. And they dominated from start to finish. And put into context, listen, it was in a losing cause a week ago, but Cesco gets his first goal. He's got another one today. The opening six games didn't get a goal. He began to look about like that United shirt we talked about earlier, being in a way already heavy on his shoulders. These last two games for him personally have been massive, haven't they? I think Rubens left him in the team. And that's absolutely what you have to do. Get your confidence up. Should have played him at home to Burnley, a newly promoted side. In that game, I thought he should have bloodied him. You know, it's difficult when you're playing like Man City, you know, when you're getting thrown in and it's hard to get the kick of the ball when you're coming off the field, you know, and he's making changes and your confidence just gets drained. Yes, he scored in defeat last week. And his first goal at Stretford End today will be massive for him. Celebrated it like it was the best goal he's ever scored. And rightly so, because he needs to score goals. They brought him to score goals. But his all-round play today was very good. He's not someone who's going to burst away from defenders and run in on goal. But what he puts himself about, he brings others into the game. And his goal today was a long throw, just got flicked on. He was in the right pace at the right time, just got across the defender and tapped it into the back of the net. So, you know, it was really good for Man United today. And I was saying to Clinton after the game, they're clapping the fans. They're walking around the pitch. These Man United fans are so good. I mean, they're standing, they're largely still in the ground and they're clapping them off the pitch. It's been them. Them guys have seen them be brilliant. We talked about how they was great. Largely, a lot of these fans have been there. They've seen the good times and they've seen some terrible times recently. But they want their team to do well and they want them so badly to do well. They give them the support. Well, they they deserve today, deserve the support today. And they got it from them. Great fans. And listen, it's important for Ruben Amri. He goes into an international break off the back of his 50th game in charge of United, and he gets a much, much needed win. But you sense with United, listen, we've spoken so often when Ten Hag was was in charge about how they turn the corner. You simply cannot say that about this United side, even after a really positive performance and a good win against Sunderland this afternoon. They go to Liverpool next. And then after that, it's Brighton, then it's Nottingham Forest away. Tottenham away as well. We're a long, long way, even after today, for even suggesting United are turning a corner. Of course, of course. But we have to give them credit for today and what they did. Yeah. The next game, at least they can go into an international break now. All right. A lot of them are going to be away. There's mostly international players. 90% of them, I would suggest, or even more. They're all they're all very good players. They'll be away, but they can get a break. The manager can, you know, get get some life back into itself, knowing that he that when we talk about a manager who needs to be a coach and needs to teach him how he wants them to play, it's quite sophisticated how he wants them to play. But he more than any other manager is going to have the time to be able to do that. They're out of the Carabao Cup. They're not got to worry about Europe. He has got the most time on the training pitch out of any manager in the Premier League. And he's got to make advantage of that and take advantage of that. And I think. But are you confident he's got time in the dugout, though? If things go wrong against Liverpool, if they struggle against Brighton and beyond that, well, has he got to talk about that training time? All right. Has he got the time in the dugout long term? Well, he's had time up to now. I mean, if they haven't sacked him up to now, I mean, surely he's bombproof. I mean, it's just he's incredible how they haven't decided to make a change. And they must trust him. And and you have to give him the benefit of the doubt. Today, they performed very, very well. And I don't want to say, yeah, but it was just Sunderland because Sunderland have been excellent this season. They've been really good. Yeah. So let's give him the credit. Let's hope he's turned the corner. And, you know, what did he say? Five consecutive games and he'll get his hair cut. He might be Grizzly Adams by the time he has it cut. He already is.