Only 4 Wins in 4 Months – United’s Worst Run | The Samuel Luckhurst Show
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Before we jump into this podcast, let's just have a first word from our sponsors. NordVPN, the fastest VPN in the world and an absolute essential travelling companion. You can use NordVPN on 10 devices with just one account, easily switching your virtual location to access apps and websites in other countries. But if you're out of the country, make sure that you've got NordVPN to be able to use your subscriptions and watch the live sport that you might miss.

If you're at home, use it to see if you can save money with products that might be cheaper in another region. Go to nordvpn.com slash Manchester to get four extra months on the two-year plan. The link is also in the podcast description. Hello and welcome along to the latest episode of the Samuel Luckhurst Show from the Manchester Evening News. My name is George Smith and joining me as always is our Chief United Writer Samuel Luckhurst. Samuel, how are you? Did you have a good weekend?

Yes, yeah, fine. Fine. Thank you. I didn't anticipate staying up as long as I did for the golf, but it was well worth it to see Rory McIlroy pop that win in the Masters. So that was whenever the Masters is on, everything else takes a backseat as far as I'm concerned.

Great stuff, yeah. Great night for Rory McIlroy, sealing the green jacket. But as for the football, as far as that is concerned, on today's show, myself and Samuel are going to look back on yesterday's 4-1 defeat to Newcastle United and look ahead to Thursday's Europa League tie with Lyon at Old Trafford. Samuel, starting with yesterday, we spoke on Friday about how United haven't had the best of records up at St James' Park in the last few years and we were kind of anticipating that they would come back empty-handed. That was the case, a 4-1 defeat yesterday.

I think it just about went how we all expected it, didn't it, really? It played out, certainly after the second goal for Newcastle, Harvey Barnes' first, it played out as expected. I think up until Joshua Xerxe went off, United had been

quite good in phases. There was that wonderful piece of play where Xerxe had a good chance at 0-0, would have been one of the goals of the season if he scored that. They scored a pretty good goal through Alejandro Garnaccio. The first half was almost a half of two halves in a way. I thought United were quite accomplished up until...

Tonali put Newcastle 1-0 up and then the Newcastle that you expected to see did turn up. They were far more intense. They were quite...

quite lethargic at first, which was strange. It felt like United had far too much space on the ball, which you don't normally expect them to have that luxury at Sir James' Park. But the first goal really galvanised Newcastle. And I think those three goals, the first three goals in the game, arguably all of them, the timing of them, they came against the run of play. When United equalised, they were really struggling and

not managing the game particularly well. And you thought once Newcastle went 1-0 up, they would run away with it. They did run away with it in the end. But that was partly because Ruben Amrum waved the white flag when Xerxe went off. I mean, the angle you have from the press box at St. James' Park is one of the best in the Premier League because you are just above the dugout.

And really, Newcastle by rights should turf us out and make it their equivalent of the Tunnel Club because they'd make a killing on it. It's such a great view of the game. You glean a lot of colour as well from being that close to both dugouts and seeing both managers. And Amrim seemed much more crestfallen by Xerxes' injury than any of the goals United conceded.

And it was pretty obvious that by taking Alejandro Garnaccio off at the same time, that was a reactionary substitution because he couldn't risk another forward getting injured ahead of the biggest game in the season when United have a handful of match fit forwards as it is. And the majority of them who are match fit really have not been in good form whatsoever, to put it mildly.

So that really handed the initiative to Newcastle and the final 40 minutes of that game would have been pretty torturous for the United supporters who made that trip. It was very game of some of them to continue chanting beyond full-time and showing their support. But that away end was extremely sparse at full-time and understandably so. But even with what was their heaviest defeat of the season,

you shrug your shoulders at it because United have lost 14 games now we've become so accustomed to them losing games another record tumbled yesterday saying that Newcastle did the double over United for the first time since 1930-31 which is pretty extraordinary you know it's not like Newcastle have struggled to beat United in in recent memory but that's that's another feat for them and what's been a

For Newcastle standards, it's been a great season for them so far and it could end a great season if they secure that Champions League qualification. And it's two clubs going in opposite directions at the moment, quite literally. With yesterday's game, Newcastle have moved up to fourth. They should move up to third in midweek against Crystal Palace. United actually dropped down a place yesterday because they conceded so many goals yesterday.

And as the cliche goes, the league table does not lie. United are 14th for a reason. Yeah, definitely. And I've actually looked at the numbers this morning to sort of look at where United have, how their season's gone since Ruben Amrim came in in comparison to others. And only the bottom three, West Ham and Spurs, have picked up fewer points than United since Amrim came in with six wins from 21 games. So it doesn't paint a positive picture at all.

Sammy, one of the biggest stories of the day was before you'd even arrived at St James' Park, you were one of the first to report it yesterday morning with Andre Onana being left out of the squad after what happened in France on Thursday night. Altai Bindia came in for him, probably didn't do his chances of keeping his place much good with the incident that led to the fourth goal. But yeah, I think Andre Onana probably will win his place back on Thursday night, I would imagine, after that yesterday.

And that's been the plan as well, for Inanna to take the weekend off, disconnect, rest. Those were the phrases that I was told of when I was essentially gathering the information for that story. I mean, I got wind of it on Saturday, just before Saturday tea time, maybe.

and working with a couple of colleagues, which occasionally happens with certain stories, we agreed to run it on Sunday morning.

for the logistical reasons and what have you. So, you know, it happens quite a lot in journalism, certainly at a much higher level. I mean, what we're the story we did was pretty frivolous in comparison to some of the stories that other outlets when there's that cooperation that exists between them.

But the decision, it wasn't like the decision was taken on Sunday morning or anything like that. There was advance notice given. And Arne had the sense, I mean, I did that story on Friday. He had the sense that he would not play in the next game. The vibe he felt after the Lyon defeat was that he would not be starting again.

on Sunday against Newcastle. In the end, I think the decision, although it was a big story, I'm not certainly undermining the story I did whatsoever, or we did, I should say, but the decision to take him out of the firing line was certainly softened by it being framed, from what I gathered at the time, as it not being a demotion, but

And then, of course, when you look to the other changes that were made, or certainly the majority of the changes, you had two starters who will be released in the summer and really shouldn't be starting games. Ericsson started by default because United didn't have a fit midfielder to come in and give Casemiro a breather. Toby Collier's out injured. Kobe Mayne is not fit enough to start. And Ruben Amrim is uncertain of starting him in central midfield as well. Victor Lindelof,

came in because Harry Maguire's load is being managed, where he's had a few injuries this season. He was clearly being protected for the Lyon game. There was a point in the second half quite early on where Lenny Oro was checked on. And when a member of staff did that, I just assumed that Oro would come off at some point, but he saw out the game in the end. So all these changes and all these selections...

And I mean, I should apologise to you because you made the Harry Amos call on Friday and there he was making his full debut. Also the inclusion of

a full debutant, an 18-year-old, all these picks, it just softened the decision to take Inanna out of the team and put Bayon Deer in. And as we wrote on Sunday morning, the plan was for, and still is, for Inanna to come back into the side against Lyon. And he should do because, and I'd have said that earlier,

two or three days ago, even after his gaffes against Lyon, because Altai Bayandir is not, he is the number one at Manchester United technically in terms of his squad number, but he is not a good enough goalkeeper for Manchester United. What you see is what you get, a £4.3 million signing from Fenerbahce who came in as a backup goalkeeper. He's never, ever going to be the first choice at United and he never should be.

And it was some of the things watching him yesterday, I mean, he made a good save from Izak on the follow-up, but the ball was pretty much hit at him. So I don't think it was that good a save. But his kicking, right from kick-off, just before the game started, Amrim instructed the United players to go back to Bayern Dier.

And when you do that, and it happens quite often, I don't get the thinking behind coaches doing that from a kickoff where you play the ball back to the keeper, keeper punts it into territory. Are you doing it as a positional play? I really don't know. So they did that. And Binder just pinged the ball into the opposition half. And I think it just dropped to Fabian Schaar's feet and he didn't have anybody around him. So they just gave the ball away there. And there was another point in the first half

where Amarim was instructing, he was literally instructing Bindia how to kick or where to kick the ball. And he went like that. If anyone can see on camera, I'm just narrowing my hands. Essentially, go down the middle. The problem with that is that Joshua Xerxe, for a pretty tall guy, is not, aerial prowess is not his forte. And especially against Dan Byrne and Fabian Schaar, you didn't really have a lot of confidence in him to do that. And Amarim was telling Xerxe then to withdraw.

and come deeper because that's where he's better used. And, you know, I said a bit of joy in doing that, but it got to the point at times in the first half and the second half where United couldn't get out their own third once Newcastle started pressing them intensely. And if they were trying to go long, there was not a breakdown in communication such, but they just didn't have the skillset from Bayinda to Xerxe to make that pass and keep the ball going.

So that's why they were getting penned in so often. And I'm sure everybody or a lot of people have seen the stat that Opta have put out about Bayern Deer hitting some like 50-odd passes and completing only 27 of them or something like that. The fourth goal was probably the final nail in the coffin for him and his audition because it's a goalkeeping error. It's a clear goalkeeping error.

And I think that should also banish the notion of rotating goalkeepers, which I can't imagine there are many people out there who would endorse that. And certainly in recent United history, it has not benefited anyone. It didn't benefit David De Gea and Dean Henderson.

four years ago when Oli Gunnar Solskjaer was so indecisive as to who to play, he actually altered the pattern of rotation so that De Gea would be next in line to start the Europa League final, rather than just saying to

both of them, you're starting, you're on the bench. He just altered the pattern of rotation. And Dean Henderson cottoned on so quickly that he told his family, don't travel to Gdansk for the final because I'm not going to be playing in it. And he said that to them before Solskjaer had actually told the squad what the team was going to be.

And although De Gea played two more seasons, I think that period, the dive in Carlston, people had started to look at him in a different way. And he was no longer considered among the elite goalkeepers either. OK, he went on and broke some records with United in his final couple of seasons. Most clean sheets, most appearances for Manchester United goalkeeper, won the League Cup as well.

But it was the right decision to get rid of him at that time. And it really, I think it's still, you know, although it was quite, it was what, two years before he did leave, that period where he was being rotated with Dean Henderson, it certainly must have influenced the decision making going forward. De Gea and Anders Lindegaard at the start of De Gea's United career, that didn't work either.

you know, De Gea only started to excel, properly excel in his first season at United after Lindegaard got injured and De Gea started the final 19 games that season. And he was excellent during that spell. I mean, if someone's done a comprehensive highlights reel of De Gea's saves from that period, it's well worth a watch because some of the saves he was making were extraordinary, whatever the score. I remember one game against Athletic Bilbao,

who were absolutely phenomenal at Old Trafford, one of the best visiting teams to come to Old Trafford in my lifetime. Their 3-2-1 win did not do them justice, but De Gea kept the scoreline down. He was brilliant that evening.

And so even a manager as great as Alex Ferguson got it wrong with rotating goalkeepers. There was a brief period with Roy Carroll and Tim Howard as well, a season where Carroll played some like 30-odd games. Howard played probably five or six games fewer in 2004-05. At the end of the season, Carroll was released. Howard was replaced by Edwin van der Sar.

But whenever you look for a winner in a duel between two goalkeepers that you're rotating, you just tend to end up with two losers. So any notion of rotating between now and the end of the season, whatever happens on Thursday night against Lyon, I think that's got to go out the window, just with an Arnaud.

Get this season boxed off, play him, see how it goes. I don't think whatever he does between now and the end of the season should have a bearing on what United do in the summer. They need a new goalkeeper, probably a new number one goalkeeper. But they will also probably need a backup goalkeeper as well, because I would be looking to absolutely sell Bayern Deer, who should be easy to sell. Tom Heaton will probably retire.

And so there are two vacancies there already. So you're going to need a backup goalkeeper and you're going to need a competitive goalkeeper at the very least. But I think a lot of people of United persuasion are probably of the mindset now that it's time to look for a number one. And of course, you've done the piece this morning, Samuel, of how United might have to break a longstanding tradition by selling a number one goalkeeper, which has not happened for many, many years.

I suppose the question is, are there going to be many suitors for somebody like Andre Onar if the club are actively looking to sell him? You did the piece back in January of Amarim wanting a goalkeeper to challenge Onar at the very least. But like you've just said there, it probably is now a point where a new starting goalkeeper is required. Yes. And as we've discussed before, with the PSR calculation and how much you'd required for Onar, are you looking at just under 30 million, I think?

The interesting thing is that he's joined an agency that has a history of transferring players to the Saudi Pro League. And you would think realistically that's the only market where he could end up in. And given his age profile, I mean, he's 29, isn't he, at the moment? I think he just turned 29, so he'll turn 30 next year. Younger players have gone to the Saudi Pro League than Andre Onana.

It depends if he would want to do it, of course. His preference, as far as I'm aware, his absolute preference is to stay at Manchester United. It's not even seen as a decision to make. I think the only way he would have to make a decision is if Manchester United put him in that position.

But there's a chance they'll have to do that because look at the state of play. If they're going to bring a goalkeeper in, which they will bring a goalkeeper in, they have to, just looking at how things are developing there. And then it depends on what is that profile of goalkeeper? Is he seen as, is he just going to be someone who's going to sit on the bench and muck in during training sessions? Or is he actually going to be a potential number one goalkeeper?

But as I said earlier, they need two of them, as far as I'm concerned. They need someone who is an outright backup and they need someone who is at the very least going to compete with Inanna to possibly supplant him as the new United number one. But I mean, I underestimated it. I went through...

going through the brilliant MUFCinfo.com website, which is extraordinarily comprehensive, leaves no stone unturned in terms of United statistics. But post-war, because I didn't want to go pre-war, you could accuse me of lazy journalism, what have you, but I thought post-war is fair enough. But looking through it, there's never been a point where United have just outright or proactively sold a goalkeeper who is their number one at the time. The most drastic measure they've taken is

was quite recently, and that was releasing David De Gea two years ago. And I maintain that was the right decision. De Gea had an OK final season, but I think a lot of people, they harp on about, oh, he got the Golden Glove Award. The Golden Glove is an individual award that should be handed out to the collective. It's not just down to the goalkeeper, it's down to the defence as well. And the United defence that season,

immeasurably on the previous season. You had a very good partnership with Raphael Varane and Lissandra Martinez. Diogo Dalot and Juan Bissaka both had very good spells in the team, almost divided evenly into Dalot first half of the season, Juan Bissaka second half of the season. Luke Shaw had a good season at left-back and at centre-back as well, of course. So you had a lot of defenders who were performing very well. Even Viktor Lindelof, I'd say, had his...

best run of form for United in that first season in probably the final two months. I think he started something like 12 or 13 games on the spin and lined up in the FA Cup final. And those players I've just named, they had better seasons than David De Gea in 22, 23. I don't think that's one for debate really.

So, yeah, going back to that De Gea decision, it was absolutely the right thing to do to get rid of him.

But I even thought at the time, if you're going for a goalkeeper who's played under the manager, and there was already a bit of getting all these guys from the Netherlands or who have played for Ajax or have played in the Eredivisie, why are you doing it? The fact that Inanna was available on a free in 2022 and then they spent £47.2 million a year later, you thought...

you are taking the risk of setting yourself up for a fall. We've all seen his highlights reel from the Champions League front. It's brilliant distribution. He could be a transformative signing, but he hasn't been. And so those circumstances look even worse now. And that's why I don't think United can even get away with paying half that amount for a goalkeeper this summer. I think they've just got to be really, really smart with their recruitment. I thought when...

When Brentford signed Mark Flecken, in terms of the profile of goalkeeper and his skill set, I just thought that was really sound scouting. He was a player who was brought in specifically for their needs. And he'd been playing at a high level in the Bundesliga, coming into the Premier League. You felt confident for him. And obviously the scrutiny is nowhere near on the level that it is for a new goalkeeper coming in at Manchester United.

But you could see that that would be an absolutely fine sign that nobody would have any complaints about it whatsoever. But United just have this tendency to heap untold pressure onto any player that they bring in, primarily because they've overspent on them. And Jim Ratcliffe obviously said last month how they've overpaid for players. And he mentioned Inanna among them. And they did overpay for him. Inter Milan, I mean, wow.

They've got Jan Sommer in goal, haven't they? Obviously, he's been a respect, pretty respect. He's quite an old keeper now. But I think in Italy, the shelf life of goalkeepers is a lot longer. And I mean, how much would they have paid for him? I'm just going to look at it now. Sold to Inter for 6.75 million euros. So that's how much they've paid for their current number one.

And they got pretty much 50 million euros for Inanna. And these clubs must just absolutely, like they must be on the phone to United, hit the mute button and then just burst out into fits of laughter or after they've hung up. And they're probably still there laughing. That's the way Man United have operated. They've been a laughingstock for years. And so I think you have to have a little bit of sympathy with these players, whether it's Hoyland, whether it's Mason Mount, whether it's Andre Inanna.

that they are set up for the fall because of the way Manchester United have operated in the transfer market. And in the case of those three players, that is on John Murtagh, Richard Arnold and Eric Ten Haag.

Yeah, it's certainly one thing that's got to improve this summer across the board, not obviously just in the goalkeeping department. But going back to matters on the pitch, Sammy, on Sunday, we saw a debut, a full debut for Harry Amas, which I think we'd both agree was long overdue. We both saw him in pre-season last summer and were quite impressed by what he did. You gave him a solid six out of ten in your player ratings. How did you think he got on yesterday? I didn't think he put a foot wrong, to be fair to the young man.

No, I think if United hadn't have, had he not come off earlier, he probably would have got a seven out of 10. But I was impressed by him. He showed that he should have made his full debut long ago. He should have made his first start against City in the Community Shield back in August. I mean, it was such a free hit, that one, playing in a game that...

is important and yet it's also not really that important. And he was in form after a good pre-season. He was the only left-back available and made infinite sense to play him. But we know that Eric Ten Hag had a very, I mean, he had the blindest of blind spots at left-back, didn't he? He didn't really get much right there whatsoever during his time at United.

But I really liked the way Amas acquitted himself yesterday, the second half, when he went on that charge into the Newcastle territory and he had a shot. OK, it went high and wide, but he got applause from Amram off that. And I thought, good, you deserve that. You deserve applause for that. That's showing intent. That's showing a sense of adventure, not being cowed by anything. Amram was asked about

I'm at his press conference afterwards and he highlighted the fact that he was making his debut in a stadium like that against a team of Newcastle's quality. So to perform at that level, that's a positive. And he was the only positive from yesterday, really the only out and out positive. You can't look anywhere else in that team and think,

that went well, this went well, Garnaccio scored a good goal, yes, but other than that, I don't think his performance was particularly good. So the more I think about it, I think I probably made a mistake not giving Harry Hamas a 7 out of 10. But as I said, he was a victim of the timing when he came off. I think he probably could have continued because it was still before the hour.

OK, it's a big leap going from academy football to men's football. But I think he could have done with another five or ten minutes. But at that point, Amrim was in rotational mode. It was interesting that he took him off still, though, because obviously Xerxes' removal was enforced. Garnaccio was to protect him.

Harry Amos coming off, I mean, it didn't feel like he was, I don't, nobody's expecting him to start against Leon on Thursday and Dorgou coming on. It felt a little bit too premature. I just thought it would have been worth giving Amos another 10 minutes of,

of playing time but he's again in terms of looking ahead to the summer United have got a left back coming in from Paraguay is it Diego Leon is it I think his name is and look he may turn out to be the second coming of Roberto Carlos but at the time that deal was concluded I did think well

You signed a 16-year-old left back from Watford less than two years ago and he's looked really good in the youth team and in the first team for pre-season. You might want to invest a little bit more in him. And of course, they've signed Dorgun now as well. I suppose that there could be another room, more room there, given that Tyrone Malassio has got to be sold in the summer again.

Luke Shaw, whatever happens with him, he's not going to get another contract at Manchester United when his contract expires. If he's still at the club in June 2027, I think it would be that that will be him done for at United. He'll be on his way. He may have been on his way, might have been on his way by that point.

But Amas, I really like the look of. I mean, he'll have to go on the pre-season tour, you would imagine, given how well he did on it last season. There has been, given some of the scores that the under-18s have had this season and how good they've looked at times, and they had some really good results in the FA Youth Cup until they got knocked out by Aston Villa last

Some of them at that level have been overrated by academy observers. You don't need to watch certain players regularly to overstate their impact. I think sometimes it's a case of less is more. And certainly looking at the team that played against Aston Villa, I didn't look at that team and think,

Some of these players are going to be populating the Manchester United first team in two or three years' time. I mean, from the 2022 Youth Cup winners, there have only been two, which is, I say only, it's still great going, Garnaccio and Mainu. And at the time, I did think, I thought Mainu certainly, I thought Garnaccio could go one of two ways because United had stopped hold of wingers at that point in the first team.

But he's done extremely well to be as senior player as he has been at United. But looking at the recent Youth Cup team at Villa Park, I didn't get the sense that

Many of them will be knocking on the door or kicking the door to splinters to get into the first team in the next year or two. But Amas is certainly one who, and I don't think he played in that game, did he? Because I think, was he needed for the first team the following night at Nusselton Forest? I think it might have been the case. Pretty sure it was. And that highlights his importance. But that was what was happening to him last season. He was...

He was being pulled out of junior games and Ten Hag was checking on him in the Carrington canteen, but not playing him. And then he didn't bother playing him in a competitive game. So,

It was a performance yesterday that really made up for lost time, I thought. And I was impressed with him. And hopefully he'll get a couple more opportunities in the season because as you, I mean, I was surprised by your call on Friday, but it's very prescient, George. So I've got to apologise to you yet again for that. But the fact that Amas was starting ahead of Luke Shaw as well,

You could see that as significant. I know Shaw's coming back from injury, but between now and the end of the season, Amas deserves to be starting ahead of Shaw, even when it gets to the point that Shaw is fit enough to start games. And I suspect if Luke Shaw is to survive the last couple of years of his United contract, and if Ruben Amrim is still the manager for the full duration, then it will have to be as a centre-back and a back three for Shaw.

Yeah, I was just going to say that. I think Luke Shaw's route back into the team, if he's to have a future, is going to be in that left-sided centre-back role. And I did speak to a couple of Harry Amos' youth coaches back in September, I think it was, and they both picked up on how he's a lot better going forward. And that wing-back role could really suit him. As you mentioned, Samuel, he went on that run yesterday, which ended with a shot. Yes, it went over the top, but it showed his bravery and his positivity to have a go.

But just lastly, on the theme of the Newcastle game, Samuel, one of the most positive boosts was seeing Aidan Heaven back in the squad. He made the bench, didn't get on the field, but back in the squad. And that is a timely boost ahead of, obviously, the massive game on Thursday night. Indeed, I saw the squad arrive and it's not quite as newsworthy as it used to be now in the embargo time for football.

For team news in the Premier League, it's been brought forward. So I think since the start of the season, it's been an hour and 15 before kick-off. Away teams tend to arrive about an hour and a half before kick-off for games. So there's a 15-minute window there, probably less than that. So, yeah, I put the video out and I was pretty sure that was him. I thought, oh, I'm pretty sure that's Aiden Heaven there because I remember it indicated in the week that it would just be the same squad.

So it's really, really, really positive that he's been able to come back after what would have been four weeks, five weeks ago that he had that injury against Leicester. So it's, you know, I think they've dealt reasonably well until yesterday anyway, at seven to half with some of the injuries they've had this season, of course, to let still out Leicester.

for the time being and I think it's got to the point there where we'd want more of a concrete update on that or you know the extent of it and the severity of it how long is he likely to be out for maybe he'll be back in training on Wednesday when when some must go down to Carrington for the open session ahead of the Lyon game but

And I just hope for Aidan's sake that he can regain that momentum he had before he got injured, because in all four games he played, whether he was coming on as a substitute or starting the game, he was excellent. He was getting better and better with every game. Yeah, absolutely. I thought it was faultless, to be fair to him. Well, that does conclude part one of this episode of the Samuel Lucker Show. Do rejoin us in part two, where we'll have a look ahead to that big game with Lyon on Thursday evening at Old Trafford. This episode is brought to you by San Pellegrino.

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Welcome back to part two of the Manchester is Red podcast, the Samuel Lucker show. Samuel, Lyon, as we've mentioned on Thursday night, just like the Real Sociedad game in the last round, it's the biggest game of the season. It's the biggest game of Ruben Amorim's tenure so far. It's do or die time again. We know what needs to be done. I still fancy United to get the job done. I thought they played well in Lyon, aside from the individual errors. I do think that they will progress to the semifinals. How about yourself?

I do still as well. I mean, the game yesterday, it was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. And I mean, Sky Sports have to...

They have to sugarcoat things or overhype things because they can't say that this Premier League season has been crap and it's actually, you know, the championship is more interesting, the National League is more interesting. But they are. The Football League is way more interesting because we know who's going to win the title. We knew who was going to win the title months ago and we knew who the three teams were going to get relegated months ago.

And the only jeopardy is really the Champions League places. And even before the final game or final games of the season, that could be boxed off. I mean, there's a bit of rancour at Chelsea, isn't there, at the moment. And so one or two biggish teams or big teams are going to miss out there. But when that's your final day drama, you know that it's not really been a particularly memorable season yet.

And so with yesterday, you've got Roy Keane just in Roy Keane mode moaning about this, that and the other at Manchester United. And as I said earlier, it's a defeat where you shrug your shoulders at it. Why are you so... I can't understand why anybody would be that angry about it. You've just got to be philosophical about it. Even United fans, it's not a defeat that requires counselling. This has been the way for...

well, for the best part of two years, because it included last season as well, 14 Premier League defeats. And also, I think a lot of Manchester United fans possibly feel partly responsible for it because a lot of them wanted to keep Ten Hag and they've had to reap what they sow with the outcome, even though Amrim has been in charge for a long, long time and the majority of the league defeats have come under him.

The die was cast by Gibbon Ten Haag, another Dutch-centric summon transfer window and

make going from one very different coach to another different coach who plays a completely different system there are bound to be bumps in the road but it feels like United have gone all the way down a pothole but this happened or people were talking about this months ago that the Premier League season has been a write-off since late December I think that Newcastle game particularly that first half against Newcastle at Old Trafford back on December 30th I think it was

I think from that point on, I just thought they are going to end up in the bottom half of the table. It felt a certainty at that point. And they've not won successive league games all season, which could turn out to be the most damning aspect of their season, because that is really unforgivable under Amrim or Ten Hag. But Amrim's obviously had more games. To not be able to just win successive league games is absolutely appalling.

But, you know, it's got to the point now where Amrim has gone into Mourinho mode, where he's given a teenager his full debut, where he's rotated the goalkeeper, where he's given busted flushes a start. The fact that he admitted yesterday from when Xerxe went off injured, he started looking ahead to Lyon.

And that was confirmation of this whole mantra of we go one game at a time. The most important game is the next game. It's absolute nonsense. And he made changes yesterday with Lyon in mind, because you know, against Lyon, Casemiro will come back in with Ugarte. You know, Dorku will come back in on the left.

Hoyland will have to start because Xerxe, unless he makes a Lazarus-type recovery, he'll be up front. Fernandes will be with Garnaccio as the two playmakers. Harry Maguire will come back into the defence with Lenny Oro and Masraoui. And Andre Onana will be the goalkeeper. I'll be surprised. I mean, somebody could get injured between now and Thursday, but I'll be surprised if that's not the team. And that's because Amram was looking ahead.

Which is completely logical because the Europa League has been the most important thing for United for decades.

for four months, I would say. When was the last time we talked about United possibly finishing in the top four? It probably was before Christmas. They had a dreadful December and that did it for them as far as the Premier League was concerned. And they've not had the wherewithal to even get successive league wins. And the Europa League, where the quality has been diluted by this brainless format that UEFA have brought in,

It's eminently winnable. And you look at Bodo Glimt, who could be semi-finalists. Tottenham, this is the worst Tottenham team in nearly 30 years, and they could be semi-finalists. You've got Rangers, who also runs in the Scottish Premiership.

They held Athletic Bilbao to a goalless draw last week with 10 men for 18 minutes. They could be semi-finalists as well. You've got the worst Manchester United team since they were relegated 51 years ago. And we still think they will be semi-finalists because we fancy them to get Parsley on. That is how bad the Europa League is. So it's entirely logical that...

For Amram to get to this point now where he starts to rotate, it felt reasonably drastic on Sunday, as I said, with some of the calls that he made. And it'll be different, I'm sure, for the Wolves game because they won't have a midweek game. But come that Bournemouth game, if they are indeed in the semifinals, that's between... Sorry, that would be before a semifinal against Rangers, obviously.

or Athletic Bilbao. And then that next Premier League game, I think it might be West Ham at home, or sorry, I think it's Brentford away. Another long journey in particular. If United's in the Europa League, I would be expecting to see Harry Amos line up in that game against Brentford.

Yeah, I think more changes are definitely on the cards if that comes to fruition. But while you were talking there, Samuel, I just went back and looked how you mentioned about obviously the sort of December record. It started to go downhill from there a lot steeper, if you like. Since they beat City on the 15th of December, which we all sort of felt this could be the turning point, the way that they won it. They've won four league games since then and three of them have been against the bottom three.

which shows just how staggering it has been and how right Amram is to prioritise the Europa League. And obviously he has to now. But looking at sort of the team selection for Thursday night... Was the other win against Fulham away, I want to say? Yeah, it was. It was indeed. And that was an unwatch. That was a win with one shot on target that took a deflection and the goalkeeper got a glove on it and it went off the crossbar. It's the kind of win that just typifies...

tip of fives United this season my goodness it's been good fun hasn't it it really has we'll look back on this season with fondness I'm sure comes the end of it but looking at Thursday night Samuel there is going to be changes as you've already mentioned there it's a guarantee obviously Harry Maguire, Dorghu, Hoyland probably the imminent ones that are going to come back in Onana as well

I was just wondering what you would possibly do looking at the centre of midfield, because Manuel Agarte, I would say his performances have progressed in recent weeks. I thought he was particularly poor in possession yesterday, certainly in the attacking phase of the play. The same on Thursday night. Would you bring Casemiro back in for him? Casemiro's done quite well in the Europa League. Or would you pair them up together? I think it's inevitable they'll be paired up together again, because Amrim has settled on that quite recently.

So recently, probably since the Sociedad tie in that they were, you know, that's been the start of this purported resurgence of Casemiro, which I don't buy, but watching Ugarte certainly, um,

and in Lyon, I mean, he's not been good in his recent performances. His use of the ball has been pretty dire, to say the least. And he's been so bad that it gives the illusion that United missed Casemiro. Yeah, we all knew, we said it, didn't we? We said that there was no way Casemiro was ever going to start against Newcastle. And he shouldn't have started against Newcastle because he might have ended up looking worse than Ugarte did.

But trying to look at it through, you know, from the perspective of Ruben Amarin, it's difficult to identify an alternative to Ugarte that he would seriously consider. And just looking at it now, I mean, Casemiro and Ugarte had started three games on the spin line.

until yesterday. The only time they'd started more together, funnily enough, was under Ruud van Listerooy. He picked them in all four games that he was manager, caretaker manager, I should say. So, Amrim has settled on that strategy going forward.

I think I should correct myself because obviously Ugarte was injured during the Sociedad games. It was Casemiro coming in that sparked that. So oddly, Amrim has settled on the pair of them in three games and United haven't won any of them. But clearly it's mainly Casemiro and how he has got a little bit better recently. And he is certainly better.

in European ties. I thought he played quite well against Lyon. He was very stable, didn't do a lot wrong, provided balance in midfield. Again, the pace of the game is absolutely to his liking. Premier League football is a different entity for him. It's more of a struggle unless City rock up and they play four 30-somethings in their midfield, in which case then Casemiro can keep up.

But Mason Mount's still not started a game since the Derby in December. So that was more than, I think that was four months today, was it? Or on Tuesday, I think it'll be four months on Tuesday that he's not started a game. Cobby Mayne has not started a game in more than two months and was the last to come on yesterday.

And United don't have Toby Collier, who wouldn't really come into the thinking anyway. He's only started a few games this season. And Christian Eriksen absolutely will not start, cannot start, should not start. So I don't really see a... I mean, unless you can see an option, George, I don't see an option to put in there. And they're further compromised by Xerxes' probable absence through injury, in that they'll have to play Hoyland, Fernandes...

and Garnaccio. And ideally you'd play, I mean, I've been slightly surprised how Fernandes has all of a sudden gone back forward when he was playing so well as a midfielder. And clearly there's a very good reason for that. And it's maybe a question to ask Amrou on Wednesday. That would be the only option if you were to put Fernandes in there, but then you're playing one of Mainu or Mount as one of the two tens, which in principle, I don't think is a problem.

But they've not started, as I just said, Mounts not started the game in four months. Man Utd has not started the game in two months. And Amrim has been very careful with them, clearly. So it would feel like quite a leap to put one of those two into the starting 11 for United's biggest game of the season.

I was going to actually bring up the point of Mason Mount with Xerxes' injury and sort of put the feelers out to say this could be the perfect opportunity for him to come in after four substitute appearances, a good few weeks worth of training now. Was on the bench for the Leicester game prior to the international break as well.

But like you've said there, Samuel, the chances are it will be Casemiro and Nogarte in the middle with Hoyland supported by Fernandes and Garnaccio just behind him. So maybe Mason Mount possibly might get his chance against Wolves on Sunday. When you consider just how much Amrim has bigged him up and praised him, it does seem a little bit of surprise he's not given him a start yet since he's come back from injury.

Well, he's been training for five weeks now. I think he came back into training. He ran the gauntlet the day before the Saucy Dad tie. So that must be five weeks ago, I think, this midweek. He's had, is it three or four substitute appearances now? It's four, isn't it? He's literally come on in the four games since the...

since the internationals. I mean, that Wolves game could be, it could be the flattest United game in living memory if they've gone out of the Europa League. I mean, Wolves are safe. United are safe. Wolves might actually be the ones providing the motivation because there's a chance they could actually finish United and they're on a pretty good winning run as well at the moment. So it would be a feather in their cap and Vito Pereira's cap, given the good job he's done there if they were to rock up Old Trafford and

get a win or get a positive result but that that Wolves game the that feels like you know you may see Mount Mainu maybe even Luke Shaw get get a start in that one because it's so flat Premier League level with United just as you said I mean that that is truly startling staggering stat that they have won four Premier League games in in four months since since the City um

Since the City win, which as I said earlier, that's four months on Tuesday. Pretty breathtaking that. But I'd certainly have been looking at these recent games to have started Bilt with a view to getting him into the team for the running because of, you know, just for the logical reasons of the relationship between him and Amrim, how much Amrim likes him.

And also the fact that Mount would seemingly fit into the system that United play, but it's not happened. And as I said earlier, I think it'd be a long shot for him to come into the starting 11 against Lyon. But certainly Wolves, it would be advisable to put him into the team that day.

Absolutely. And that does mark the end of this episode of the Samuel Lucker Show. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcasts from. Also, make sure to leave a like and maybe a comment as well. We'll be back again on Friday to reflect on the clash with Leon and look ahead to the Easter Sunday clash with Wolves at Old Trafford. So make sure you are subscribed when that drops and we'll catch you again later this week for another episode of the Samuel Lucker Show.