While Manchester United came from behind to defeat a stubborn Crystal Palace side last weekend, Ruben Amorim’s side could not follow that up with another victory.
This time, they dropped points at the hands of lowly West Ham. Diogo Dalot scored a rare goal but Soungoutou Magassa scored from a corner late on to rescue a share of the points for Nuno Santo’s men.
Unsurprisingly, the 1-1 result did not go down well with Amorim.
Amorim speaks out following West Ham draw
Amorim made his anger and frustration clear after his team drew with the Hammers on Thursday evening.
“It’s frustrating, it’s angry, that’s it,” he said.
“It’s not going backwards. The results are going backwards. We had some moments. That can happen. You were talking about when we had that run that team was really perfect and saying we are not that far from being in the perfect moment. We are really inconsistent. But if you look at the goal, 83 minutes, we have a long ball, we have everything under control and we need to do better.”
Amorim plans to debrief his players on Friday when he has cooled down, rather than hit a giant television in the dressing room like he did after the 3-1 loss to Brighton in January.
The Portuguese mentioned that incident after this latest setback. “In that regard, I’m almost always consistent,” he said. “I had one [outburst] and you know. Brighton last year. I will talk to them tomorrow. I always have the feeling – I think everyone has the feeling – that we need to score more goals. Even with Brighton (in October) we were 3-0 (up) and then suddenly (we conceded twice). We suffer with that, we are inconsistent and we need to improve.”
United return to action against a winless Wolves side next Monday but cannot take things for granted after failing to beat the team 18th at Old Trafford.
For that game, it’s likely that young central defender Ayden Heaven won’t be in the team again
Heaven disappoints in first half cameo
Signed from Arsenal nearly ago, the centre-back has made a promising start to life in United colours but this was perhaps his worst senior performance to date.
The 19-year-old was handed his first Premier League start of the campaign and sadly did not do too much to warrant being given a role in the team.
Heaven’s performance lasted just 45 minutes before Amorim decided to withdraw him at the break.
Despite being so young, it was a performance that took criticism, chiefly from journalist Samuel Luckhurst who took to social media in the first half to say that the Englishman had a “pretty torrid opening 11 minutes” at the back.
Luckhurst said in full: “Pretty torrid opening 11 minutes from Heaven. Got too tight against Wilson, booked and even that back pass did Lammens no favours. Big call pitting him against Wilson.”
The teenager’s numbers did not make for pretty reading either. He failed to make a single tackle, make an interception or win any of his duels. He also completed just six passes and had fewer touches (17) and Senne Lammens.
While Heaven is still young, he clearly has a lot of improving and maturing to do before he’s ready to start regular games at his level.
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