NEVER mind running around like mad dogs – it’s the defending like headless chickens Ruben Amorim needs to worry about.
The Manchester United gaffer has demanded his side put in the hard yards if they want to be part of his Red revolution.
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But it won’t matter how far, how long and how much effort he gets, if the boys at the back drop the schoolboy clangers that gifted Nottingham Forest a win.
Andre Onana was the chief culprit, the Cameroon keeper coming up with TWO absolute howlers early in the second half.
Yet Bruno Fernandes had a hand in one of the away-day goals, while Matthijs de Ligt didn’t exactly cover himself in glory for another.
Throw in the fact that Lisandro Martinez was comprehensively outmuscled and outjumped for Forest’s quickfire opener, and it really was a rude awakening for Amorim.
If last week’s loss at Arsenal was a reality check, this was a boot in the you-know-whats. For all Forest have gone to Anfield and won this season, United gift-wrapped this for them.
Nikola Milenkovic is admittedly a man mountain of a centre back, but the challenge on him to meet Elliot Anderson’s early corner was non-existent, never mind powder puff.
The Fernandes pass behind team-mate Leny Yoro that gave Forest possession and began the move for their second was shocking as well.
Yet nowhere near as bad as Onana’s cock-up in letting Morgan Gibbs-White’s fizzing strike scoot past him.
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FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS
And worse still was the keeper’s laughable effort in watching Chris Wood’s looping header float past him for the third.
If at first you don’t succeed, cock it up again and again and again, clearly, as far as the clowns in United shirts were concerned on Saturday.
Barely a minute had gone when they were joining Wolves by leaking a seventh goal from a corner this season, the joint worst record in the Premier League.
Milenkovic couldn’t believe the space he had in thumping home his header. Well Amorim DID admit United were no longer a massive team.
They certainly looked like small fry when the giant Serbian centre back leapt to thud Forest ahead.
It was a lead which should have been cancelled out within a couple of minutes, as Alejandro Garnacho curled in such a gift-wrapped cross it should have come wrapped in a bow.
Yet inexplicably Rasmus Hojlund had over-run the ball and failed to make a connection from six yards. You could see fans all around Old Trafford scratching their heads at that.
They did draw level on 18 minutes through the Danish striker, although it WAS pretty impossible to miss, mind you.
Manuel Ugarte slid a perfect pass through to Alejandro Garnacho, and when Matz Sels blocked his point blank effort, Hojlund tapped into an unguarded net from ten yards.
Now United would cut loose, you thought. Now they would make the most of their monopoly of possession. But then again…because it was Forest who went closest.
First Jota headed across the crossbar from Ryan Yates’ nod back, before de Ligt deflected a shot from the same player over the top.
And when another corner caused yet more chaos – will United ever learn? – Milenkovic was a foot away from bagging his second goal in a Forest shirt with a snapped sidefooter.
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Not that United didn’t have moments of their own, mind, like the Fernandes free kick that clipped the crossbar.
But really it doesn‘t matter how good you are at one end, if you’re a laughing stock at the other. And on Saturday, frankly, United were on too many occasions.
It’s why they were chasing the game again two minutes after the break, when another flying Forest start brought another Forest goal.
This time it ended with the Gibbs-White shot that totally bamboozled Onana, even though it was only a foot away from him.
The way he reacted suggested the low strike had bent like a Roberto Carlos free kick, but in truth moved no more than six inches. It was a shocker.
There have been plenty of them in the Cameroon keeper’s time at Old Trafford. Yesterday we got two for the price of one – the only debate was which was worse.
For barely three minutes after coughing up one goal to Forest, Onana was handing them another – quite literally.
Wood’s looping header at the far post was decent, but really should have posed little threat. Not to a keeper of any standing, anyway.
De Ligt watched it arc past, no doubt expecting Onana to scoop it out of the air. Instead the United stopper watched it float just inside the opposite post. It was genuinely unbelievable.
Oh, and just for good measure, Onana also fluffed a clearing kick so badly that really should have led to yet another goal.
It was like a throwback to the days of Massimo Taibi, the Italian who was a byword for joke goalkeeping at one stage of the Fergie era.
Thank Heavens, then, for the right boot of Fernandes, whose sweeping strike from the edge of the box gave United half an hour to find an equaliser.
The fact they never looked like doing so tells you everything. Amorim is indeed painfully spot on…United really aren‘t a massive team any more.
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