Rashford ignites Amorim's United but team held at Ipswich
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This is Talk of the Devils, the athletics podcast dedicated to Manchester United. It's Monday morning and we have the start of a new Manchester United head coach to reflect on. It was a draw in the end at Portman Road. All the pieces of the puzzle didn't quite fall into place, but...

What a bloody start, eh? We're all very excited after, what, 90 seconds. We'll reflect on that, we'll reflect on exactly what went on and we'll have a look at Bodo Glimt as well as Ruben Amorim begins his time in charge of Manchester United. But first of all, I need to introduce you to our merry men, Andy Mitton, Laurie Whitwell and Karl Anka. And I need to say, how do you feel?

happy birthday of sorts Andy don't I depends whose birthday you're referring to mate well not yours but something very close to your heart right yeah it is close to my heart alright United we stand your third child first hit the street 35 years ago today

And I was just looking to see where the team were and they were 10th and now we're 12th. So we've slipped back two places in 35 years. Can't think what's happened in the meantime. Fantastic. We talked about it before we came on. You basically said 35 years could be an entire working career, working life for some people.

Been a labour of love, hasn't it? I just, I was a kid in school with my mates and it seemed exciting, sort of sticking a magazine together and standing outside Old Trafford. And I look back at the first issues and they were terrible. They looked like what they were, but it was, it was just so exciting. We go to the printers and we went from photocopying to printing and it grew pretty quickly. And I mean, eight issues in, we started selling loads of copies and we're like, whoa, this is exciting.

Red News and Red Issue were already established. And I always remember a mate saying to me after eight issues, it's absolutely flying today. And I just assumed he meant the other two. And he went, no, no, ours. I was like, really? And then it just grew and grew. And by the time I was 18, I decided to do a journalism degree and it's still going. I'm

Really proud. It survives because the readers buy it and just the energy of all the contributors. Without that, it just wouldn't exist. Print is, you know, print's doing all right in certain quarters. Yeah, it's fantastic, Andy. I think I speak for all of us when I say congratulations properly. Congratulations. It's an incredible achievement. And here's to 35 more, I guess, yeah? Yeah, I'll be nearly 60 then, won't I? Something like that.

Right, just before we get into it, Switch, actually, Carl, we've had an email from Ben. He says, Can any of you let us know whether Man United have ever lost five games in a row? No reason, I'm just wondering. Cheers, Ben. I don't know if you can help Ben out there.

Nothing, nothing. Springsteen, five in a row. No, I'm not sure about that. Who's lost five in a row? I don't know, I don't know why he's asking about that. Okay, I don't know. We do get some random emails sometimes. Speaking of random, Laurie, what a journey we had to Portman Road yesterday.

you shorty riding shotgun laurie whitwell you should have seen the state of the nodding dog for the final hour in my car you've never seen anything like it was a long journey and i don't know how you managed to drive four hours there four hours back what with you next to me i have no idea final hour as you're reflecting on there was me sort of trying to stay awake to be a good friend and a good companion but actually just making matters worse because i was talking absolute gibberish to you i'd sort of like wake up halfway for a dream whilst you were

talking to me and sort of trying to interject and you're like no no just go back to sleep you look like a live pair on an afternoon session at the house of lords mate the churchill dog yeah yeah

The football didn't put us to sleep though, did it? It wasn't perfect by any stretch, was it? And of course, I'm sure Ruben Amorim would have wanted to start with a win. But the first glimpse, trying to work out who would be on the team sheet, then when we got the team sheet, who would play where and trying to piece it all together, even in-game actually.

pieces of the puzzle were still being shifted and moved around. It was revealing, Laurie, watching that, wasn't it? Yeah, really fascinating. As we expected in the sense of it was a back three and there'd be lots of changes, but also unexpected in some of the personnel, some of the positions taken up, some of the changes made. And I think it did...

sort of speak to the scale of the task that Amarin's got ahead of him you know to try and make this work and how he's going to approach it you know he was very visible on the touchline wasn't he he admitted afterwards he was anxious he sort of wears his heart on his sleeve you know he's crouching down quite a lot you know he does that at sports he's trying to get like a I don't know grass level view of the action to kind of really sense what's going on yeah Bielsa Poch and uh

Guardiola do it sometimes, the old crouchy. Well, Bielsa's knees aren't as good as they were, so he ended up having a bucket at Leeds, didn't he, that he used to sit on to be able to sort of gaze at grass level. I mean, Andre Villas-Boas, Andy's mate, he used to do it, didn't he? He was the one that was kind of kept crouching down sort of repeatedly. In despair, though, wasn't it, for him? Or was that tactical as well? But I thought it was really fascinating. And yeah, 81 seconds, we were all like, wow, here we go.

81 seconds sorry and it was a case of the system working you know Ahmad being the wing back which I wasn't anticipating Diogo Dalo into the box on the other side to kind of create an overload for Ipswich so they weren't too sure exactly who to pick up and Rashford being able to make that near post run get the finish Garnaccio in the box as well

as the game wore on I think we saw the issues with having certain players in those kind of positions I think Ahmad was more of a fullback in the second half for example wasn't really in the box until the very final seconds when he had a brilliant dribble and shot you know Garnaccio as a number 10 is that sort of the best use of his role but these are the kind of things that Amarain

He obviously needs loads more training sessions, right? He had two with everyone all together and clearly his line-up was influenced by the people he'd had in the building for a longer period of time. Yeah, it's match one, so we do need to keep that in mind, certainly. And I think it was interesting hearing Ruben Amrim speak after the game in the tunnel to some of the international broadcasters

This stuck out to me that basically he believes, Carl, that the idea of playing 3-4-3 from the outset, trying to force players to do things initially that they may be a little bit uncomfortable with, is the right way to do it because he thinks this time next season, United will see the full benefit of having had a year of trying to do this as opposed to playing a system that the players are more familiar with to start with. Maybe you win more games, maybe you pick up more points in this initial period, but then...

getting to pre-season, changing everything around then and then trying to pick up the pieces at the start of next season means that next season's then affected even more than it would have been if you just go with 3-4-3 from the start and see how you go. What did you think? That's good. This is something he said on the Friday press conference as well. He said it's going to be our way. It's the only way. This is a manager who absolutely believes that the way he wants to set up a football team is the best way to win matches. And

The player's going to have to buy in. One thing that is good or promising is the fact the way Amarin speaks and the way he comes across, you can see him winning over the dressing room just in conversation. And then another great way to win people over is to start winning games of football, which Amarin has also said, you know, wins build time as well.

Amarin's also said he doesn't want to get too bogged down and talk about 3-4-3 because he says there's going to be times where United are going to be defending with three at the back. There'll be times where they'll be defending with four at the back and five at the back as well. So yeah, there are definitely phases where it can look a little bit more like how rude or ten-args it up during phases of play. I think that how United play out of possession is going to be huge for Amarin. He's going to be really drilling these players. But the idea that Amarin wants to do

Makes sense. I can see why he wants it to work. The amount of square pegs that are being put in round holes mean this is going to take some time. I'm going to keep saying this on this podcast between now and the end of the season at the very least, but this United squad needs more athletes.

They need more players capable to run and run and run to get it the way Amorim wants it. Yeah, I think when the changes were actually made in the second half and Agate came into midfield and Luke Shaw came in as the left centre-back, it felt like...

Some of those positional issues from the first half were solved a little bit. Obviously, again, not perfect, but you could see how that might work better than the players who started the game. I mean, when we saw the team sheet, there was some confusion over whether it would be Masraoui or Dalot, who was one of the wing-backs, whether it would be Garnaccio or Ahmad, who was one of the wing-backs. There were some suggestions I saw from some of the broadcasters that Casemiro would play in defence,

I never really thought that was likely considering the players that we had in there. But Andy, working all this out, even Kieran McKenna said quite openly that he wasn't sure who was going to play where. The Ipswich staff

until United started warming up and obviously lined up for the game, then they were certain. But even in-game, there's still players swapping over in midfield and stuff like that. There's a lot to be worked out, isn't there? There is. It was a good result for McKenna. I was told that he would have been studying the last 12 sporting games before the match to try and work it out. And it wasn't just him. We didn't mention Martin Peart, one of his assistants, who was also at Manchester United. Lee Grant as well. You could see him greeting some of the Manchester United players there.

81 seconds in, you're thinking, wow, this is just what we need. The system seemed to be working perfectly. I'm told by people who watch Ipswich that they are deficient on the left-hand side of the defence. Ahmad's run was superb. Marcus Rashford was in the perfect position. I thought it was a really good finish. Maybe the type of goal he would have got a couple of years ago. But then Manchester United were passive, defended well.

deeply and there's a lot of very good teams in this league even the teams at the bottom they're really really strong look at the results at the weekend Palace going to Villa Wolves beating Fulham Southampton going ahead against Liverpool the teams at the bottom are getting really really strong I thought the goal it was a deflection I

thought Anana played really well probably Manchester United's best player would he have got to that if it wouldn't have come off Masraoui's head I don't know but by the second half I felt just really deflated and disappointed and you're thinking just reflecting what Laurie and Karl are saying there's a huge huge job here and it's not going to be turned around overnight and I

Manchester United didn't win the game and look at the league table. I've tried not to, to be honest. It doesn't change until, unless Manchester United don't play and we go up a position on goal difference, which happened again this weekend. We were discussing it on the way back, Laurie, weren't we? And obviously it was reflected in your article on the Athletic, trying to get that midfield right. So we had Casemiro and Eriksen as the deep line players, which you're asking a lot of those two physically in those positions and

Early on, Eriksen started on the left-hand side and Mario Hutchinson was having lots of joy. It felt like Casemiro was switched over to try and help with that. That whole sort of left-hand side of Dalot left wing-back, who Amarim was shouting at constantly through that first section. Maybe he was just the nearest player to him and the only one that could hear and he was getting it more than the others. But he seemed to want him to push out more. Then Garnaccio wasn't quite working out.

the inside forward role on that left-hand side. Then he's swapping Ericsson and Casemiro around. Johnny Evans was a left-sided centre-back who on the ball was... I mean, he started okay, to be fair, until he was turned by Hutchison and had a few other moments of...

young whippersnappers doing sharp things but just trying to work all that out and then at half time then Bruno Fernandes and Garnaccio were switched over I'm struggling to remember seeing that in a game from anyone central midfielders switching sides and stuff and even when the subs were made I was watching when the subs were made it was like right what side am I on now and you know it just seems like there's so much in these players heads at the moment maybe it's understandable because there's been two training sessions like like you said before

But that whole dynamic of trying to figure it all out, it's not going to end now, is it? This is going to take quite some time. What do you think the biggest issues were for him in that system? Yeah, I love that because we were able to debate it with him. So I was up high in the stands and you were kind of just behind the dugouts, right? So we had different perspectives and could bring different viewpoints. So hopefully we got it right between us. And...

I suppose the biggest issue you're right in terms of players understanding it not one I'd say you know a collection of them what stood out to you basically

I suppose Ahmad as a wing-back is an interesting one just because I thought he was going to be a number 10. We saw him in the training footage as a number 10. I feel like that's a really good role for him in between the lines, getting the ball around the box and driving in. It did feel like he actually learned even during the game his defensive work and Amarin said afterwards that he'd improved defensively in the three sessions that he'd had with him remarkably or at least maybe in this, he must have been in this position because obviously he had more sessions with him because he wasn't on international duty but he must have been in that wing-back role.

Because for the Liam DeLapp chance, the huge chance that Onana, incredible save, we thought it hit his face, right? And then actually you see it back on reflection, it's his arm, he gets his arm up and I just thought it was a goal. What's the replay of that? Look at De Ligt's face when that chance happens. Yeah.

I genuinely recommend it. Look forward to that. Look at De Ligt's reaction as Onana is making that save. As soon as I finish this podcast, that's what I'm getting onto. But in that move, sorry, Ahmad had got done, hadn't he, by a ball in behind to Leif Davis and then he got turned and stuff. In the second half, they tried it again. Morsi, I think this time, was putting the ball into Leif Davis and Ahmad was actually attentive and ready. So he did really good defensive work there. But he basically spent the second half in that sort of

you know, in his own half, really. I don't think he got the ball too much in the areas where I think he can do a lot of damage. So that's something to be figured out. But I think you're right. I mean, Amarin said after the game, didn't he, that the players were thinking too much. I mean, they're going to be. It's a new system. He understood why they were sort of second guessing a little bit, right? Do I have got the ball as defender?

I've passed it, do I now go or do I stay? He mentioned Dallo specifically, who'd obviously been coming into midfield under Eritzen Haag in centrally, and now he's being asked to stay high and left in this role. So I asked Amarin afterwards about all those changes, you've highlighted all of them, even the ones swapping Eriksen and Casemiro, swapping Fernandes and Garnaccio to try and get something going. And in the second half, it was Fernandes, wasn't it, slipping the ball to Garnaccio for that chance?

in that sort of channel. Yeah, so he's very proactive, Amarillo. He doesn't waste time making substitutions. He makes double substitutions. He uses all of them. That's what I think he's made a trademark of his throughout his time at Sporting. So we're going to expect that, I think, throughout his career at United. But even more in this instance, he's obviously trying to figure out who goes where, what can I get from these players? And that was my question to him afterwards. And yeah, he accepted that this is going to be

a case of a little bit trial and error, I think, at times. It sounds crazy maybe to say at this level, but I feel like if you're going to try something as bold as what they're trying, then you have to have a certain element of

allowance for things not going quite right. There was benefit early on, Carl, in the build-up, I thought, from the shape. I mean, the goal obviously came from that and it felt like the way that the back three was shaped when Onana had the ball, Amorim picked out his distribution, his short distribution after the game as opposed to hitting it long. I said he was following instructions well. It felt like the players seemed more comfortable with that in that initial period.

It was like the final bit, wasn't it? First phase, second phase was okay. It was that final bit of progressing the ball into the attacking third and creating chances. Yeah, I think there's just a bit more protection now in bodies, if not necessarily in talent, in having the back three. And you are going to see a lot more of Onana

And what he can offer in terms of short build-up because there's just an extra person there. One thing I've mentioned is Lissandra Martinez didn't make the squad. And you can imagine Martinez in a back three during build-up will be interesting. I do have some doubts about how he's going to defend the wide channel in open space, but we'll cross that breach when we come to it.

The attacking stuff, one thing that was really prevalent in a lot of Amarin's interviews was he said, we have to put in their heads the structure, then we'll play so much better. We need time to do that. Just really seemed like a repeated theme in a lot of Amarin's interviews of just a lot of players didn't quite understand the

what he wanted from them and the nuances of what Amarant wants in this 3-4-3. So that'll take time. Stopping goals, in theory, should be easier than scoring goals. And I think that might be the way things work for a little bit.

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Well, the one thing I think that Ruben Amorim will get is patience from Manchester United fans. Andy, you could hear the supporters in the away section yesterday singing his name from the off, really. I guess that's what happens when you become just a second manager in Premier League history to score a goal within two minutes of taking charge of a match. But,

There is a bit of an apathy around, isn't there, to change and the way that people have felt about swapping and changing managers. So they will give him time to work this out. As Bo to five, fans are in the away end yesterday for a piece which is up on The Athletic now. And it's quite interesting to see their different takes on it. And they all said at the start, it's, as you said, people singing for Amarim. But towards the end, there was a lot of negativity about people getting on players' backs, a lot of frustration, anger.

A sense that it's going to take a long time. A realisation, basically, that this is going to take time. It's going to require patience. That a lot of these players might not be good enough because they're not good enough. And frustration. And not just because the long journey which you lads made down from Manchester. One person pointed out the conditions didn't help with the wind.

Storm Burt. Storm Burt. Did it whip up a storm at the Etihad on Saturday night, my goodness. He's just got a very, very, very difficult job. But I think United fans, he's still in the honeymoon period. Fans are having him. They'll sing his name. They'll back him. We can talk about patience and how the team might look in a year's time, but he still needs results. You can talk about the theory. The practice still has to be better than it has been.

He's entered the club when the mood is low, when the bar is low. And he will be expected to significantly improve Manchester United's league position, probably to finish in a European place this season. And that's got to start happening because for that to happen, you've got to start winning matches. And not beating Ipswich, a team who've only won one league game so far this season, is a miss.

United have won one in six away games now. This team cannot score. And you can't put this on the manager because he's been in for one game. So he gets a free pass for 10 games before people start judging him more strictly. But if you add in the game in Istanbul and the game in Porto, what's that? One win from eight away from home? That's really, really worrying because there's not going to be massive changes as far as I understand football.

in the January transfer window it just plays into the difficult job that he has it's interesting you say that because we are looking at a weekend where Liverpool picked up points Spurs picked up points other teams picked up points Newcastle are still to play on Monday in terms of Amundsen's got a big job I don't think Champions League football I don't think Champions League football was a reasonable expectation even when in the Europa League

Hey, I'd love it. But I think United fans might need to adjust to or include the possibility that they won't be playing European football next season. Because you look at the amount of work that needs to be done with this squad and the amount of tools Amarin has to change things actively. Unless he unearths however many gems from the academy and they all go supernova immediately.

I think there's just a gap between Manchester United and what they're currently able to offer and teams, even as much as Aston Villa right now. Because just trying to get that upswing is really, really, really difficult.

You're right. You're absolutely right. However, had United won, they would have had 18 points. That's only four points behind the Champions League position. These gaps are not huge. There's a lot of teams, though, between United and that top four who are also in a similar situation, though, Andy, aren't there? If you start winning, you can move up that league very quickly. There's teams in this league who've lost five games on the bounce. You know Liverpool are pulling away right at the top, but...

If United can get a run together, which hasn't looked like happening at any point this season, although, how many undefeated now? Teams have got to start scoring. This is my fear. 13 against 13, a goal difference of zero. Play 12, 1-4, drawn 4, lost 4. It's absolutely pathetic. It's average, isn't it? That was Roy Keane's word. Average. And this is my fear. Yes, it is a four-point gap.

But that four-point gap doesn't remain static because those other teams are going to pick up points as well. The things that we have to stop assuming, the things that will turn Manchester United good overnight, won't happen to the other teams. And at the moment, being in that, not even a chasing pack...

You have to catch up to get into the chasing pack for those Europa League spots. That's the concern. And I think, yes, Manchester United will get better because a left-back turned up. Hooray, Luke Shaw. And Tyrell Malassia. First time since May 2023 in a matchday squad. And Kobi Meynou back.

Cobby Maynew was back. I don't know if anyone saw him warm up. I did. But yeah, zero minutes for him was surprising considering the number of changes that were made in midfield. But yeah, having these sort of players back around is going to help. And Mason Mount, who's appeared occasionally this season on and off. But yeah, him being back too and getting on the pitch, it's a benefit, all of this. It is a benefit. But also, I'm not expecting this to be the Luke Shaw that won

player of the season or the Luke Shaw that was brilliant on that run towards the Europa League final this is a bonus Luke Shaw I don't know what's going to be and this is also Luke Shaw that has to learn what Ameren wants this is a menu that has to learn what Ameren wants so these things will take time when we talk about this will take time I'm thinking seasons not months he's got a two and a half year contract though yep

He said that was perfect length of time to figure out whether he's any good or not, wasn't it? Which I quite liked as a pretty honest rudimentary statement. Well, he's getting another contract if the two and a half years go well. Yeah. No question. But yeah, if this is a very long-term project, if we are talking about multiple seasons to get this right, then he's going to need longer than two and a half years potentially. Yeah.

What about hammering then Laurie we touched on it a little bit in that first section but what did we make of match day Ruben?

who clearly isn't afraid to show people what he's thinking, what he's feeling. Including Ed Sheeran. Very expressive. Yeah, so I've only just seen this. So he kind of just didn't really pay any attention to Ed Sheeran gate-crashing his guys. I don't know what he's supposed to do in that circumstance, to be fair. I agree. It was a strange one. It was quite frustrating. He was given a really good answer about what he's made of the team and the way some of these players were adjusting. And then Ed Sheeran just sort of

bowls along has a conversation with Jamie Redknapp and I'm just like oh no there's maybe a time the head coach is giving me good tactical information about what we have to keep an eye on and then here comes a pop star to have a ban there's a time for Ed Sheeran I'm thinking it's probably 8 o'clock on the pyramid stage at Glastonbury as opposed to 8 o'clock each side at Portman I've actually seen him there as well oh here he is at Glastonbury I left it early because it wasn't really my vibe went and saw Shaggy at the Gully stage instead

I reckon Amarin would have been with you at Shaggy rather than watching Ed Sheeran as well, to be fair. He's got tunes, don't underestimate Shaggy. Okay. But yeah, as far as... We won't. As far as the main event, as far as the headline star of Portman Road was concerned, I'm still giving that billing to Ruben Amarin. He says a lot, doesn't he? He answers every question and clearly it kind of...

It's within him. He can't help speaking about football and even getting into details that you're thinking, okay, that's unusual that you're speaking about players specifically. We obviously love that. He did obviously reflect on the fact that he's done a lot of media in his eyes compared to what he did at Sporting. He's going to have to get used to that, by the way. Exactly. Eight or nine interviews is average for a Manchester United player after any game.

And this is going to be a really interesting sort of, I don't know, challenge for him to navigate all that because it's only going to increase really. I mean, he didn't do an unveiling press conference, for example. It was just a pre-match press conference. And I know there's a lot of questions and there's a Portuguese section and maybe the interest will subside a little bit. But, you know, he's got matches thick and fast. You know, Bodo Glimpse, obviously, on Thursday, they'll have to do media around that. There'll be broadcast interviews around that. So that's going to be an interesting aspect for him to deal with.

To spell it out, he'll have a host interview to do before that game, a sit-down with TNT. He'll have his press conference to do before the game as standard. He'll have club media to do around it, I'm sure, as well, and the build-up. Then you've got the game, what we talked about there, eight or nine interviews after the game, host broadcasters, international broadcasters, radio, your press conference, club media once again. And if you've got three matches a week, you can times that by three, pretty much.

You are going to talk a lot, Reuven. This is the reality of being in the Premier League and the amount of interest there is and the amount of money that broadcasters spend to get their slice of the pie, basically.

Maybe he will ultimately decide that he needs to then just give slightly shorter answers or maybe take fewer questions. I don't know how it would work. But I really liked the fact that you've got this guy there who is clearly very impassioned about football generally and also particularly what he's doing at United. I thought it was really interesting seeing all his coaches. I think all six are now in place because I'm told that Eduardo Rossellini, who's an analyst, he's got his work

So he was up in the stands sort of next to Darren Fletcher and other analysts watching the game from their position. Carlos Fernandez, who's obviously the coach I think you referenced earlier, he's the guy that turned 30 on Thursday. He's made an impact. You also had

The fitness coach, Paulo Barrera, who's in the dugout, he had like an AP since he's communicating presumably with the guys up above. You have Adelio Candido as well, who I think he was on the fourth official at half time because Liam de Lappe kind of got away with a bit of a, was it an elbow on Evans a little bit maybe? And then obviously the barge on Masraoui, I mean, he was a physical presence, wasn't he, de Lappe? And to your point, sorry, just to go off topic a little bit here, Ian, on what you're asking about Amarin, but to your point, Andy, I think about United not scoring enough goals, you've

I'm not saying delapse the finished article by any means, but he just looks... Do United have a striker that's actually better than him? I mean, you'd say Rasmus Hoyland, right? I think he had a really good debut season...

It's a fascinating comparison between the two of them. And it was interesting that he did start Rashford up top in this game and he brought Xerxe on. And there was that element at the end of the game where he was kind of imploring Xerxe to get into the box and he even spoke about that. Back to your point, Ian, in the Sky interview, which was quite revealing, telling Joshua to get into the box and that's what I was asking him for. It's going to be fascinating to see players responding to him saying stuff about them in public and clearly...

I think his honesty will be a value to United and to the players because if they see a guy that's on their side but he's just being honest about any deficiencies they might have, that's how you connect with players, I think, and are able to convey and persuade them to do what you're trying to get them to do on the pitch.

Yeah, it was interesting watching the new dynamic. There's lots of new faces, there's lots of new names like Laurie just ran through there to learn and to learn what the roles are going to be as well. Carlos Fernandez, who seems to be his number two really, I know that's not his actual title, but...

He led in the warm-up drills. There's lots of tactical detail in there, lots of preparation that I'd not seen in the warm-up before, even lining up for set pieces and things like that, which I don't think was something that was done previously. And actually in-game, he was the one stepping forward on set pieces to give out instructions as well, whereas previously this season, under Van Nistelrooy and Ten Hag, it was Andreas Jorgsson who's remained part of the coaching staff who was doing that. He stayed seated permanently.

throughout the game. The front row now is Amarim, Fernandes, Candido and Emmanuel Ferro, who's also one of the other first-team coaches. And certainly in terms of some of the instruction that was given out, Ferro stepped forward at times, Candido stepped forward at times, Fernandes stepped forward at times. In and around the sort of tunnel area at half-time and pre-game, post-game, there was lots of different instructions being given out.

Diogo Dalo said to me afterwards, there's been a lot of information to process and you can imagine the players' heads taking on all this sort of information from different places, from different people, working out exactly how to process it. So, yeah, it's going to be fascinating to see

how this exactly works and beginning to understand more about these individuals, what they do, who they are and how they operate will be another part of it that's really interesting. Karl, before we move on and talk about Bodo Glimp, can we just give a moment to Andre Onana? The away fans were singing his name, I think, for the first time that I've heard anyway. Two absolutely fantastic saves and as Charlotte explained in her match briefing piece on The Athletic, his stats are very impressive this season as well. He

the way it feels like he's playing, the stats are backing that up. It's been a really big turnaround for him this calendar year. I think he's steadily improved since January onwards. He's very good at stopping shots directed towards sanctuaries. So if you can cover the post's

for him and limit the amount of shooting opportunities that's really useful we are seeing more of his build-up play and his passing options now we're seeing how good he is when he's throwing the ball as well when he wants to release players there were two or three counter-attacking moments where he sort of just did a quick release so you're going oh this is good but unfortunately things got a bit haywire as the ball crosses the halfway line he is

a grown-up and that's sort of the biggest compliment I can give him his post-match interview as well they were sort of praising his saves it's like yeah well we didn't win and we took we look at you I'm looking at this United squad and going okay some of these players are going to be up for it for the however long it takes and churning period to get it to become an Ameren team and I think Onana will probably be there towards the end of Ameren's first contract whereas some of those players aren't not sure

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Next up, Ruben Amrim's first home game in charge of Manchester United against Bodo Glimt in the Europa League on Thursday. Andy, you called it, switch and must win.

Same phrase? Yeah, but not for the Europa League format because you can basically win one game and still go through. But for confidence, for faith in the new manager, absolutely. After all, Amarant's supposed to be an upgrade on Eric Ten Haag and I think a decisive result for him was not winning against 20 in a previous home game. Rudra Nistelrooy beat Pauk.

And now we've got the perennial Norwegian champions from the Arctic Circle who are bringing 5,000 to 6,000 fans. And the population of Bodo is only 50,000. Their average home crowd traditionally before they came good was about 3,500. Now it's just over 5,000, 6,000 fans.

The whole town's coming. Try and get a hotel in Manchester on Thursday night. It's really difficult. It's going to be full of northern Norwegians from the Arctic. Yeah, you think you're northern from Manchester. I know, yeah. Exactly. No, this is far, far north. This time of year, it's dark up there. So they're actually coming to Manchester for a bit of sunshine.

Not often you can say that, is it? Coming to Manchester for a bit of sunshine. But anyway, let's get a rundown then on the opposition that we are facing on Thursday from a local journalist. You might know this one. Bodo Glimt have been the driving force on and off the...

football fields in Norway for some years now. It's been very impressive what they've done, especially in Europe. I remember beating, was it 6-1? They beat Rome at home. And then now, for Norwegian football fans to have the chance to go to Old Trafford is unbelievable.

I mean, the tickets were gone in a sec. They all tried to be there. So you will see a lot of black and yellow fans at Old Trafford on Thursday. This season, they have managed to take away a big lead.

And Brandt Bergen had a chance to take the championship, a big step this weekend, but Bodeglind won 2-0 away from home and Brandt Bergen lost against Molde. Meaning that Bodeglind now can only win at home against Lilleström in the last round next weekend and the championships are there again.

again. That means that we come into a bizarre situation. Does Bordeaux Glimt will go to Old Trafford and maybe do a bit of rotation? Imagine that, the Norwegian team coming to Amorim's first home game at the Theatre of Dreams and they're

And you can also imagine the squad, the players, when the manager tells them, well, the game against Lilleström this weekend is more important for us, so I put you on a bench against Manchester United. I mean, a highlight for any player playing for Bordeaux. But then again, it's all about sport, it's all about the success.

But I think that in Kjetil Knudsen, they have a manager that has organised this team very well. He came from nowhere. He was an assistant coach and then suddenly has turned around this team to be just magnificent. The way he set up his team, the way they play out from the back, the way he finds space all the time. First run, second run, third run. Of course, Manchester United will be a big favourite.

but you will get a Budeglind team that will think they can get something out of this game.

You look forward to a good football game. You will look forward to a very sympathetic, I think that's the English word, for its fans who will enjoy their day out. It will be a fantastic football game and all Norwegians, as we're snowing now, and you have snow in England as well, so I guess there will be equal for both teams and we all look forward to the game. This was your correspondent in Oslo, Norway, Jan Fjortoft.

Thank you, Jan, for doing that. Just an update on the weather. It's not snowing anymore. It's warm and windy now for November and wet, as usual. Maybe the fans arriving from Norway might be quite shocked that they may get a little bit of sunshine, possibly. I wouldn't have thought so. But yeah, brilliant to get that from you, Jan. Thank you very much. Very revealing, Andy, as well. The idea that they could rotate coming to Old Trafford, which might be music to our ears in some ways. They had a huge win at the weekend. And Bran, who...

Bodo's manager's former club, they've been leading. Bran are traditionally one of the biggest clubs in Norwegian football. That was a fantastic result because, as Jan said, Bodo Glimt have fallen away. Had fallen away. Had done, but now they're league leaders and now they can come to Old Trafford. This is the first ever game between Manchester United and a Norwegian team, which is incredible. Given the number of European games, given...

Manchester United's vast, vast support in Norway. How did United not play Rosenborg at some point in the 90s? Just a quirk of... It's before they expanded the competitions out to... Just feels like that's a game that would have happened at some point. Never happened, mate. I mean, I've been to Rosenborg twice to see friendly games 30 years apart, including this season. Rosenborg was the first game of this season. And I went up to Bodo five years ago. And it was thanks to Jan-Arge Fjortoff because...

I met him for dinner in Oslo and...

I arrived because I'm English on time and he arrived like six minutes late. Not that you were counting. And I picked up a Norwegian newspaper and I saw that Bodo Glimt were top of the league. And I said to Jan Arga, how on earth are Bodo Glimt top of the league? And he said to me, go there. It is an incredible story up in the Arctic Circle. So I did go there and I expected to see like polar bears in the streets and all that. And there was none of that. There's a massive NATO base, which is probably far busier now than it was.

Five years ago, with all the fast jets up there, three of the legendary players met me at the airport. I felt like, wow, they're thinking a journalist has come here from outside Norway and I was allowed in the dressing room. It was an incredible story. I had access all areas. I absolutely loved that trip. Stayed in touch with people who I met on that trip.

And I'm delighted that they're coming to Old Trafford this week. Yeah, fascinating. Really interesting story. They're on for their fourth title in five years. They lead the league table by one point with one game left. So one at the weekend and that's their fourth in five years. And that's the fourth ever. They'd never won the league title before this run they've had recently.

Manchester United are one point behind Bodo Glimkarl in the Europa League standings as well, up to the nosebleed status of 15th in the table.

It needs to be a win. It needs to bring some positivity. It needs to move the narrative on again for Ruben Amarin, doesn't it? What changes do you think we can expect to see in his United line-up for this game? I think Ugarte going into central midfield is probably one. The Christian Eriksen-Casemiro central midfield pair, they weren't the most active counter-pressers. You could see they were coming a fraction too slow into a lot of the challenges whenever United lost the ball. And I think Amarin really wants...

the ball to be regained quite quickly. So, Garte, Laurie touched on Ahmad maybe being more of a number 10 than right wing back. And I think that might help depending on the injury or recovery status of Shaw and or Martinez. The third of other one is Rasmus Hoyland as well. I think Hoyland, the amount of out balls around the press that Sporting used to play and that United attempted against Ipswich was

I think Hoylin should be your number nine rather than Rashford or Xerxe. So, yeah, if I was one of the many young coaches around Ameren, I'd do Hoylin as your number nine, Ahmad as one of your number tens, and Ugarte in for Eriksen in central midfield.

He will rotate, won't he? He seemed to be saying that, right, in what he was saying after the game. It's to be expected with fixtures coming every sort of three days. Gives him the chance to look at other players in different positions as well, doesn't it? Yeah, back to that point about trial and error, you know, let's see.

I would have thought Mason Mount would start just because he spoke so glowingly of him after the training sessions that they had. And he's played in this system before. He won the Champions League with Chelsea in this position. It was a back three, wasn't it, under Thomas Tuchel? Although it's sort of wider forward, I think.

But he... And he spoke really glowingly of him, Amarin. And he's had time with him as well. So that's why I was surprised about No Manu. I mean, maybe Manu sort of came back from his injury problem a little bit. So I would expect him in as well. You could see quite a lot of changes, really. And then, you know, Amarin can kind of build into, OK, this is really my best team and I need to kind of stick with this for the most important games. But, yeah, I would...

anticipate I don't know you kind of feel like they started so brightly and sharply against Ipswich you just want them to try and sustain that for longer and maybe the squad isn't equipped for that maybe there is going to be personnel changes in the transfer market as we go on but you just want a bit more

throughout the whole game because there was a period in the second half where Ipswich were passing it around the back and Amarim was just so frustrated that they weren't attacking, pressing. And I think this was even with Hoyland on the pitch, you know, so he was kind of fresh. So, I mean, maybe it's not even like a physicality thing in that regard. It's just a mentality thing. So Bodo, particularly if they're going to make changes, you know, that's a perfect kind of opposition to really try this kind of stuff out on.

Before we finish, let's just answer some emails very quickly. I'll give you one of these each and we'll go around it like that. So, Carl, this is Tom's question. What have we bought in Xerxe? It looks more than just confidence. He looks well short of Premier League level. I mean, he made a great start with a goal against Fulham, but there has been some concern about his form. But it is still early days. It is still early days, although I am now beginning to get worried for him. He had one...

incredibly speculative effort in the second half and you're going that's the sort of shot that you don't do when you're a confident forward say what you said on Twitter I think it was Twitter alright I said it was one of those efforts you do when you're at Power League and you're knackered and you just want rid speaking from experience yep when I'm in the corner I'm just like I don't know where the goal is I'm just going to hit this thing as hard as possible that prompted Amarin to take a sip of his water bottle by the way oh I need a drink after that

Now, Hoyland also had a weird moment where he sort of beat a defender, cut inside on his left foot, and then he just didn't shoot. Yeah, didn't shoot. He's on his left foot. Yeah, he's on his left foot. Now, one thing we keep saying about Hoyland is Hoyland gets into very good goal scoring opportunities. And when he does shoot, it tends to be a good quality shot. He doesn't shoot anywhere near enough. And I think both of these strikers aren't in great confidence. And I think you'll probably get...

to be a better number nine for this system quicker than you would get Xerxe to be one. Okay, this one from Lee Andy. Is it fair to suggest 70, I don't know where he's got this percentage from, but 75% of the first team squad are nowhere near good enough for United to challenge for titles, excluding Mainu, Garnaccio, Onana and Joro, based on his potential, this is obviously in Lee's opinion, who would definitely be here in three years' time if we're competing again?

It's a high figure that, isn't it? But I think you will find fans nodding along depressed by the fact that it might be accurate because you can look at the United squad and think how many of the players would get into Liverpool's team, into Manchester City's team, and that's the level you've got to be at to challenge for a title. City need some reinforcements. Yeah, you're right actually. Maybe. That was probably a bad idea. How's City been going on? Yeah.

It's not a big story. Ever since Laurie did his grand voyage to Braga, Manchester City have started losing all the games. I think Laurie is the reason why City keep losing absolutely every game. You're saying I need another trip to Portugal, Andy? Yeah. I think...

Changing 75% of the squad, it just seems alarmist. I also feel like we keep having this conversation every two or three years. I think the question is, can this manager reinvigorate these players?

whose stock has absolutely dropped since they came to Old Trafford. I think this has got to be the challenge as well, doesn't it? The manager has to improve what's there rather than forever looking for solutions elsewhere. There'll need to be some players brought in unquestionably. But this team, all right, they might not be Premier League title winning potential right now, but they're a lot better than where they are on the table. Yeah, I think it's both.

There's a way you can take this team from 12th to 6th just with coaching the absolute hell out of them. And Amarin is a fantastic coach in my opinion and everything I've heard about what he wants to do is good. I spoke to a club analyst before kickoff and he said while Amarin isn't necessarily right on the bleeding cutting edge of what he wants from a football team, the thing that works is the fact that he's got a lot of intelligent, what made sporting work,

was the players were very intelligent and the players were very, very hardworking. Now, I think that's where some of that 75% comes into in that we've watched a number of games of United recently go in

I'm not sure if these players are hardworking right now. And this, I need to have a more sensible way of saying this. There is just something about Ameren and the way he came across on Friday and the way he came across in recent press conferences while I'm going, his goal seems to be, I'm going to get these players willing to run through a brick wall for me. And then I'll figure out the rest later. And if you can do that, things will be good.

Last one. I did say to answer these quickly. It's not really worked out, has it? Sorry. This is always Carl's. And Laurie, I don't think you'll be able to answer this quickly either, but please try in some way, shape or form. One word, go on, give it to me. I don't think you can. This is from James. Bruno has been an exceptional signing. I'm a huge fan and he's obviously a massively talented player. Here comes the book.

I'm not sure that he fits into an Aaron Rees system. Could this be the beginning of the M for Bruno? That's James. I think I said it was James. It's James' email. Laurie, would you want to answer James' email? Yes. There we go. It's the beginning of the end. Could be. You're trying to get more out of me. I thought you said it was a quick end to the podcast.

I feel like there's obviously a synergy there, the sporting connection, although he didn't play for Ameren, he obviously watched sporting and he's full of praise for what Ameren's done. And I do think there's a role for him there in the number 10 position, but I do wonder if he exactly matches what Ameren wants. I mean, they've got Pedro Goncalves, I think I'm saying that right, if not butchered it, as the number 10 in Sporting's team, who's that kind of player, you know, so you've kind of got the winger,

as a number 10 in Garnaccio and then the kind of more playmaker role so that is I guess the Garnaccio and Fernandes balance but clearly Amarin's talking about giving the ball away too easily he even referenced Fernandes after the game as well saying that he likes to play those long passes so does he I mean drop back didn't he as the game wore on

I don't really think one of those two sixes, those two eights, whatever you want to call them, suits him really. I think he does need to be higher. I thought that actually the system would benefit him in that he's got more people around him, so it's not like he's having to do so much on his own. Didn't necessarily come across that way in this game, but obviously it's very early days. So is he 30 now? So it's going to be the coming of the end soon.

Carly's pointing at his watch which is obviously a direct response to being accused of taking too much time himself from Laurie and then I gave a short answer and then was asked a follow-up question sure okay this is now in danger of going on too long and that's my fault so I'm going to call it okay it is early days it is a work in progress it is just one game for Ruben Amorim so we'll see what the future holds we'll see what Bodo Glimt holds on

on Thursday. Andy, Carl and Laurie, thank you so much for being with us as always and thank you for listening along as well. We'll see you after Thursday. Take care. Bye-bye.

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