Match report and talking points from the Red Devils’ lucky escape

Manchester United avoided a humiliating defeat at Premier League strugglers Southampton on Thursday night thanks to a hat-trick from Amad Diallo.

The 20th-ranked visitors held a deserved lead in the first half until Amad launched his final burst of goals from the 82nd minute. However, the underwhelming display that preceded the striker’s dramatic intervention will have been a concern for grace for Ruben Amorim.

“My job is to be worried,” the United manager warned before the game. If the Portuguese coach thinks about the performance of his team during the first 82 minutes, he will go to extra time.

How the game developed

Despite his team’s terrible record: lowest number of points after 20 games Premier League story – Southampton manager Ivan Juric had a hopeful glint in his eye ahead of the trip to Manchester. “We’ll have chances,” predicted the new coach, “so I’m optimistic.” This confidence was not misplaced.

Southampton entered Thursday’s contest with just 12 league goals between them (a total of six individual players can improve this season) but seemed to score every time they ventured. Tyler Dibling got the better of an over-eager Lisandro Martinez just before the half-hour mark, driving into the box before being broken down. Onana got a meaty leg to the low shot and got to his feet to smother Mateus Fernandes’ attempted rebound.

unitedThe number one had rejected those in yellow, but he couldn’t deny his own mate. A devilish corner from Mateus Fernandes bounced off Manuel Ugarte’s shoulder and curled into Onana’s hands to give Southampton a deserved lead in the 43rd minute.

Staring down from one of the club’s most embarrassing defeats in modern history, Amorim were in desperate need of goals – enter… Antony.

Even after the introduction of a winger hoping for his first league goal since April 2024 and two other changes, United held firm at the back. Sulemana continued to have his way with an increasingly hapless Leny Yoro without capping his penetrating darts with a goal.

As well as playing, this was still a Southampton team that had single-digit points after 21 games. Garnacho managed to get away from James Bree on the hour, drilling the ball across the box for Antony to slide over. However, with an open goal, super substitute Amorim somehow conspired to deflect the ball away from Aaron Ramsdale’s unguarded net.

Fernandes was denied from a tight angle by the former Arsenal keeper before Amad finally equalized for the home side in the 82nd minute. Fortunately, United’s surprise star of the season slotted the ball underneath from Ramsdale.

Christian Eriksen came on late from the bench and soon joined Bruno Fernandes as the only player in red capable of producing a pass with any craft. The veteran Dane looped the second half of a delicious two over the depleted Southampton backline and onto Amad’s run, who held off Kyle Walker-Peters to fire United in front with 50 seconds left normal weather

Amad completed the contest with a loose touch from Taylor Harwood-Bellis in stoppage time. It may have been a night to remember for Amad, but it was one Amorim might want to forget.

Check out Man Utd vs Southampton player ratings here.

It’s easy to forget how quickly Amad has turned a United career around that was in danger of stalling. A player who arrived at United in January 2021, during Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign, for a fee that could rise to £37m, had never played the full 90 minutes in back-to-back Premier League games until that Amorim took over in November. United were very happy to have seen Thursday’s contest.

Amad has certainly been unhinged by the Portuguese boss, who oversaw his star man make a new long-term agreement earlier this month, but only came on for the game against Southampton in the closing stages. Targeted by high pressure from the visitors in the opening hour, the United full-back spent more time at the back than on the wing.

However, as the Saints started to tire, particularly those of his opposite Kyle Walker-Peters, Amad finally moved up the pitch and into his favorite stage of the game. Half of his dozen goals for United have come in the last ten minutes, including three in midweek.

Amorim’s challenge to its players heading into Thursday’s game was simple: show you can handle the pressure of playing in a game everyone expects you to win. A late isolation earned them mixed marks at best.

Possible in possession whenever anyone other than Bruno Fernandes had the ball and utterly inept at the back, the only impressive aspect of United’s display was how effectively it undermined all the good work put in by their spirited performances against Liverpool and Arsenal.

The Portuguese manager made three changes within ten minutes of the restart, removing the midfield duo of Kobbie Mainoo and Manuel Ugarte, who had impressed so much at Anfield and at the Emirates after a couple of lackluster displays.

Amorim warned his players “must deliver” ahead of the game. Amad eventually did, but the rest was found wanting.

Not so long ago, Manchester United fans would only have actively craved Harry Maguire if they wanted help moving a sofa or something off the top shelf. But at the center of a back three, the wiry defender becomes dominant, no longer with feet of lead but with fingers of steel.

Matthijs de Ligt took Maguire’s position as anchor back against Southampton. A former prodigy who still plays with the wild-eyed enthusiasm of a Labrador puppy, that sense of reckless enthusiasm permeated his fellow centre-backs.

Kamaldeen Sulemana turned Leny Yoro around until Amorim mercifully took him off in the final ten minutes, while Lisandro Martinez had a punishing evening against an even trickier client.

When then Southampton manager Russell Martin was told the Red Devils were mulling a bid for their star striker Tyler Dibling earlier this season, he couldn’t help but laugh. “I was told a few rumors about Man Utd, one was a £21m offer,” he reflected. “I’m not sure you’ll get his left foot for that.”

Dibling justified his former coach’s high rating with an hour-long torment of Martinez.

United’s Argentina centre-back had been clearly briefed to stay in touch with Dibling whenever Southampton had the ball, theoretically free to follow the wandering waiver with the safety of two more centre-backs behind him. However, the man nicknamed “the butcher” constantly waved his smart in the air.

Not only did Dibling turn away Martinez in open play, but he got his head on the ball for the corner that put Southampton ahead in the first half.

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