WOLVES 1-4 MANCHESTER UNITED | MASON MOUNT IS ON 🔥 | AMORIM INTERVIEW & POST MATCH ANALYSIS

 

MAN UNITED COMES BACK TO BEAT CRYSTAL PALACE AS ZIRKZEE STUNNER ENDS GOAL DROUGHT

Glyn KIRK

Joshua Zirkzee scored in the Premier League for the first time in almost a year to spark a comeback 2-1 win for Manchester United at Crystal Palace on Sunday.

The Dutch forward hadn’t scored in England’s top flight since a double against Everton on Dec. 1 last year. But he ended his drought with a stunning strike in the 54th minute at Selhurst Park to level the game after Jean-Philippe Mateta put Palace ahead from the penalty spot in the first half.

Mason Mount struck the winner nine minutes later as United ended Palace’s 12-game unbeaten home run in the league.

Zirkzee produced a moment of individual brilliance to fire United back into the game when collecting the ball in the box, spinning and scoring from a tight angle. It was only his eighth goal in all for United since joining from Bologna last year and his first this season.

He was in United’s starting XI following injuries to forwards Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha and delivered one of his best moments in his time at the club.

Mount scored the decisive goal following a free kick - firing low from the edge of the area after a layoff from Bruno Fernandes.

Mateta had given Palace the lead with a twice-taken penalty in the 36th. The France international was adjudged to have double-kicked his original spot kick and was directed to retake as per the rule clarification that came in after Julian Alvarez’s accidental double touch in a shootout against Real Madrid last season helped to eliminate Atletico Madrid from the Champions League.

- James Robson

GARY NEVILLE TAKES AIM AT RUBÉN AMORIM FOR MAKING 'ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS' MAN UNITED DECISION

Gary Neville has questioned whether Ruben Amorim knows how to get the best out of Mason Mount following Manchester United's defeat to Brentford at the weekend

Gary Neville reflects on the weekend's action from St. James' Park on his podcast(Image: The Gary Neville Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kczh3yjiE8w)

Gary Neville has questioned why Ruben Amorim keeps playing Mason Mount at left wing-back. The 26-year-old midfielder, who Manchester United signed from Chelsea for £60m in July 2023, came on for Luke Shaw during Saturday afternoon's 3-1 defeat to Brentford.

Mount had started each of United's first three games of the new Premier League season before picking up a knock in the 3-2 win over Burnley. The England international missed the Manchester Derby, and he made his return off the bench in the 2-1 victory against Chelsea.

Mount appeared again at the weekend, but he couldn't claw back a point for Amorim's side. Shortly after coming on, Mathias Jensen put the third and final nail in United's coffin after a quick break.

Speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast at St. James' Park on Sunday evening, Neville reflected on the result at the G-Tech Community Stadium. The United legend described the decision to play Mount at left wing-back again as 'absolutely ridiculous'.

"There was something that happened in that game that I mentioned on my podcast two or three weeks ago that I said we couldn't see again," said Neville. "I said that Mason Mount ended up at left wing-back.

"There's sticking to your plan, and then there's your coach that's got an idea and making sure that he delivers that idea and not flip-flopping with his idea with players, which can sometimes undermine what you're trying to achieve.

“But then when you're putting Mason Mount at left wing-back – and he's ended up at left wing-back again at Brentford in the last five minutes of the game – it starts to look awful."

Ruben Amorim oversaw another disappointing afternoon for Manchester United as they lost at Brentford on Saturday (Image: Getty Images)

He added: "You can't put Mason Mount at left wing-back. I'm sorry, it just can't happen. I can't watch Mason Mount play left wing-back in a football team.

"I struggled at times to watch him in his natural position, but actually putting him out there on the left wing, is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous."

On United, Neville said: I'm very worried. The performance that we saw and the result at Brentford means that you feel the Chelsea game was skewed by the sending off.

Mason Mount playing for Manchester United against Chelsea(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

"You start to look at the Chelsea win less positively. That's just football. I think there are a lot of United fans coming out of that ground last Saturday, including me, thinking, 'Brentford away, Sunderland at home next week has a real opportunity to get nine points on the board, on the bounce, and then you'll be well up in the top six or eight'.

"But the Brentford game was a really poor performance and a real worry. I felt for the first time, just through instinct, watching it on the television, seeing players' faces and body language, that there might be an element of players really doubting the system and what's going on."

- Jake Stokes

RUBEN AMORIM PRAISES MANCHESTER UNITED UNSUNG HERO 'WHO NEEDED 10 MINUTES' TO SHINE IN ATHLETIC CLUB WIN

Ruben Amorim piled the praise on his Manchester United substitutes after they inspired a comeback victory over Athletic Club in the Europa League semi-final second leg. Mikel Jauregizar gave the visitors a deserved lead at Old Trafford but the Basque club failed to capitalise on their dominance as United staged an impressive second-half performance.

Mason Mount drew the second leg level with a stunning effort from the edge of the box, before Casemiro headed in a second to put his side ahead on the night. Rasmus Hojlund poked in a third to seal the victory and Mount grabbed a spectacular brace with an effort from close to the halfway line.

Mount and fellow substitute Amad Diallo drew most of the praise for their contribution from the bench, though Amorim was also full of praise for Kobbie Mainoo, who helped United control the midfield battle in the closing stages of the match.

Mainoo the unsung hero

Speaking after the 4-1 victory over Athletic Club on Thursday night, Ruben Amorim made sure to praise the Manchester United substitutes for their impact. Most of the praise was for Mason Mount, though the United head coach also drew attention to the role Kobbie Mainoo played from the bench.

"I'm so happy for him. He is such a player. He works really hard, he has quality," Amorim told TNT Sports. "I really like Kobbie Mainoo, just 10 minutes but everything he did was really good and sometimes you're on the bench and can change the game.

“When you see that kind of guy like Mason working hard every day, eating well, having ice baths, when you have this kind of player you just want to help him. He is perfect for this position as he can be a midfielder, but also runs like a winger so I'm really happy for him.

"When you have a full squad you can think about the game. Sometimes we're surviving with people in different positions, but with more options you can change the game and push forwards and these things can help you win games."

- Rich Fay

'MY JOB IS SO HARD' - ADMITS MANCHESTER UNITED ISSUES MOUNTAIN AMID INJURIES

Ruben Amorim was forced to name a depleted squad against Tottenham (John Walton/PA)

Ruben Amorim bemoaned how hard his Manchester United job was after his injury-hit team lost 1-0 at Tottenham on a day where Amad Diallo was ruled out for the rest of the season.

Diallo sustained an innocuous ankle ligament injury in training this week but was not the only absentee in north London with Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte and Toby Collyer unavailable with knocks, while Leny Yoro and Christian Eriksen were ill.

The aforementioned six joined the likes of Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw and Mason Mount on the treatment table, which left Amorim with limited options at Spurs as he largely named a bench full of teenagers and watched his team lose for a 12th time in the Premier League this term to drop to 15th.

Amad Diallo has been ruled out for the rest of the season (Martin Rickett/PA)

“I have a lot of problems. My job is so hard but I’m here to continue my job to the next week with my beliefs. I will try to do it, I will try to win again,” Amorim told Sky Sports, with a trip to in-form Everton up next.

“In this moment it is more than the idea or system. In this moment it is like survive and to think the small things, improve the small things for the next game, to not even look at the table or the schedule or nothing.

“Of course I have to because we have a lot of games and we have three competitions with a small squad at the moment.

“That part is my part but the players, everyone in Carrington, just focus on the next game, the next training and that is our goal.

United are down to 15th after defeat at Tottenham (John Walton/PA)

“Just focus on the next game and let’s do everything to win some games to finish the season and then think in the big picture.

“In this moment it is to try to keep the players healthy, recover some players and to focus on what we have to in the next game. That is our goal.”

However, former United defender Gary Neville was critical of Amorim’s tactics and in particular his deployment of midfielders Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes, during Sky’s commentary on the game.

Neville said: “United may win today and may score goals, but I have to say that the structure of the team is awful.

“The gaps in that midfield between Fernandes and Casemiro. That’s a tactic, they’ve been asked to do that, Bruno’s been asked to come out to this side and it isn’t right.

“Bruno Fernandes is playing right-wing, the two of them in midfield are split, it’s embarrassing. You wouldn’t see this in under-9s or under-10s football.”

Amorim expressed hope that Yoro and Eriksen would return for Saturday’s clash at Goodison Park but does not expect Mainoo to be available.

He added: “It’s hard to know. Let’s wait a few more days. I think Leny and Chris were sick so they will recover.

“Of course Chris has the heart situation and we have to be really careful with that. It’s nothing about the heart. I am just saying the heart rate has to be controlled because he has a fever. I think he will recover.

“The rest we will see. Kobbie is out. Amad is out for sure until the end of the season.”

Quizzed on what the injuries are down to, Amorim insisted: “I think it is everything together.

“Amad was alone. He was doing a tackle. The feet were sticking in the grass and some players felt during training sickness so it is everything.

“Sometimes in moments, everything goes wrong but we have to face the challenge and to focus on the next game. That’s all.”

- George Sessions

HOW MAN UNITED IMPROVED THEIR STILL-FLAWED TRANSFER STRATEGY

Does the signing of Joshua Zirkzee signal a shift in Manchester United's transfer strategy? Yes, but it's not a big enough one to compete in the Premier League. Manchester United via Getty Images

There was at least one head-scratcher every summer.

Last year, it was €64 million for an out-of-form and one-year-left-on-his-contract Mason Mount. Prior to that? €71 million for a 30-year-old Casemiro. And one year before that: The disaster that was the second Cristiano Ronaldo era.

Among the many reasons why Manchester United have underperformed their resources over the past decade, the biggest might be they waste so much money in the transfer market.

The decision-makers at Man United seemed to be totally unaware of things such as age curves, negotiating leverage, contract lengths and positional value. Year after year, they'd pay premium fees for stars who were on the downswing of their careers, guys who no one else was interested in for similar prices, ones with limited time left on their contracts, or players who didn't do the things needed in that position.

Each move further decayed United's financial advantage over their rivals and ultimately created what we saw last season: an eighth-place finish and a team that conceded more goals than it scored.

But with new minority owners Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos overseeing the club's soccer operations, and Dan Ashworth appointed as the club's sporting director, that was all supposed to change. Early signs suggest that it has: Their first two signings this summer are a combined 41 years old, and their other reported targets are early-prime players with Champions League pedigrees.

So, is that it? Are Manchester United simply going to function like a normal soccer club now and see their results rise up to meet their resources? Not quite. Or at least, not yet.

It's a free season at Old Trafford

I've written approximately 600 articles about this over the past 10 months, but it bears repeating as a bit of table-setting: Manchester United were one of the worst teams in the Premier League last season.

They were eighth in the table, both by points (60) and goal differential (minus-1). But it was even worse than that. Their expected-goal differential of minus-12.5 was just the 15th-best mark in the league.

Ben Torvaney -- formerly an analyst with AC Milan and now employed at the consultancy helmed by Ian Graham, Liverpool's former head of research -- has done a bunch of publicly available research on the predictiveness of various metrics from one season to the next. When comparing goals to expected goals, he found that "the increase in predictive accuracy we get from using xG over goals is in the same ballpark as the difference between using goals scored/conceded vs. no team strength information at all."

That's a start; however, he later realized that a blend of xG and goals was even better -- a mixture of about 70% xG and 30% G being the sweet spot. "This suggests that teams with large differences between their xG tallies and actual goals are doing good/bad things that the xG models aren't picking up on," he wrote.

So, we can take a simplified version of this and create a goal rating that is an average of a team's xG differential and goal differential, weighted 70% to the former and 30% to the latter. Here's how those numbers look from this past Premier League season:.

Based on this, Man United head into next season with a predicted team strength of about the 14th-best team in the league. But let's be generous and bump that up to 10th. I'm not sure we should, but they're in a tier with about six other teams, ranging from Crystal Palace in 10th and Fulham in 16th. We'll say without so many injuries, United leap up to 10th, at the top of that tier.

So, even with that generous reading, United are way off from being a Champions League contender. Although a club of this size should not only be contending for Champions League qualification but contending to win the whole thing, United likely are not in either category. This means two things: (1) The roster is terrible, so you can sign nearly anyone at any position and assume it's an upgrade, and (2) They can target players who are more likely to help them in a couple seasons, rather than right now.

Failure has become a kind of freedom.

Why Leny Yoro and Joshua Zirkzee signify something new

Manchester United's first signing this summer was Joshua Zirkzee, a 23-year-old forward from Serie A upstarts Bologna.

I don't love the signing mainly because he's a center-forward who doesn't score goals: nine non-penalty goals from 7.4 non-penalty xG across 32 league starts. Per 90 minutes, he averaged 0.24 npxG -- or, just one one-hundredth ahead of what definitely-not-a-terrible-signing and Man United winger Antony averaged last season.

However, he's big, moves well, and is proficient at almost everything else. More often than not, these are the kinds of players coaches mistakenly fall in love with -- the ones who look good on highlight reels and in little moments of buildup play but who ultimately never do the one thing that really matters. But there's also a world where he develops a little more in front of goal, while maintaining all of his other in-possession skills.

The specifics aren't really all that important for now anyway. Per the site Transfermarkt, United paid €42.5 million to acquire Zirkzee. Top young prospects usually require about 10-15% of a club's revenue, but Zirkzee's fee makes up 6% of United's most recently reported revenue. This fee suggests a squad player, rather than a star.

That, however, is not the case for Leny Yoro, the 18-year-old center-back from Lille whom United acquired for €62 million -- the highest fee paid for a player so far this summer. Yoro doesn't turn 19 until November, and he's already played nearly 3,500 minutes in Ligue 1. Among pure center-backs 18 and under, only three others have played more minutes in a "Big Five" top European league this century: Rio Ferdinand, Kurt Zouma, and Malang Sarr.

Those names, I think, are a pretty good representation of the possible outcomes for Yoro. Ferdinand is an all-time-great world-class player. Zouma was a borderline Champions League-level player, and Sarr just moved back to France after a failed few years with Chelsea.

For all the talk of Yoro as the next great French center-back, there's still a ton of projection for a player of his age. And while it's still quite hard to quantify center-back performance, there isn't a ton of statistical signal to Yoro's performance thus far. He wins a slightly above average number of aerial duels and a below average number of tackles, while attempting few of each.

On the ball, he completes more than 90% of his passes, but he ranked 29th among Ligue 1 center-backs for the value he provided with his passes -- and second among center-backs on his own team. These are all of his passes that increased Lille's likelihood of scoring a goal by at least half of a percentage point:

But even with the question marks, this still feels like a gamble United can afford to make. The fee is about 8% of their most recent revenues, and that still falls slightly below the 10-15% range that it usually requires for a team to acquire a top prospect in their economic bracket.

Using the formula from a piece I wrote last week, we can apply a projection to both of these transfers. Looking at the 100 biggest transfers of the past four seasons, we can see which factors most predicted future success, as defined by the player's market value, one year after the transfer, being higher than the initial transfer fee.

Zirkzee is 23, and his crowd-sourced market value on Transfermarkt is €50 million, while Yoro is 18, with the same market value. Add in Zirkzee's €42.5 million fee and Yoro's €62 million acquisition cost, and the former is expected to see a 20.3% increase in value, while the latter is projected for a 27.8% increase.

While there are concerns with both players, they've paid not-far-off-market value fees for a pair of young players who still haven't hit their primes. For United, that's a large step in the right direction.

But there's always a 'but' with Man United

The results are sound enough, but the process isn't as inspiring.

We'll start with the manager. We all assumed Erik ten Hag would be gone as manager by now, but maybe the FA Cup win saved him -- or perhaps Dan Ashworth just wants to wait until Gareth Southgate is ready to return to the club game. Whatever the reason, the club activated the one-year option on his deal, extending the Dutchman's contract through the end of the 2025-26 season.

I don't think this is necessarily a ringing endorsement of Ten Hag. A ringing endorsement would've been an immediate contract extension at the end of the season -- rather than an announcement on July 4. The club didn't want to go into the season with a so-called "lame duck manager" with just a year left on his deal, so they added another one on to the end. Given that logic, "two years left on his contract" is the new "one year left on his contract."

And so, United, the club, have a freeroll of a season where immediate results shouldn't matter too much. But they also have a manager who probably feels the need to produce short-term results so he can get another contract extension so he doesn't go into next season with a year left on his deal. Put simply, United's front office needs to have a long-term vision for the club and they've given their manager the bare-minimum length of commitment. This seems like it could be a problem.

As our Rob Dawson wrote when United announced Ten Hag's one-year extension: "Ten Hag will remain on the existing terms of his contract, meaning he will keep the transfer veto which formed part of the agreement when he arrived from Ajax in 2022."

The dysfunction of the Ten Hag era at United can be summed up by just how many acquired players have some kind of previous connection to Ten Hag. Before this summer, four of the 16 players signed under the current manager previously played for the current manager. Three more are either Dutch or played in the Dutch league. And a further one, Rasmus Højlund, is represented by the same agency as the United manager.

For a club like United, who can pay competitive wages with every other team in the world, there's no universe where their optimal targets all just so happen to have these direct connections to the guy coaching the team. As I wrote a few months ago, it means either (1) Man United have limited their scouting to players in the current manager's orbit, or (2) Man United have a manager whose past success hinged on a specific set of talent. Neither instills confidence.

In Zirkzee, it's another Dutch player. And two of United's other reported targets this summer are center-back Matthijs de Ligt and fullback Noussair Mazraoui, both of whom played for Ten Hag at Ajax. Their other reported connection is to PSG defensive midfielder Manuel Ugarte, who is represented by Portuguese super-agent Jorge Mendes, who also represents Yoro.

The only target who falls outside of this group is Everton's center-back Jarrad Branthwaite, but he couldn't be much different from De Ligt. In 3,000-plus minutes last year, Branthwaite completed 74 progressive passes. In fewer than 1,500 minutes for Bayern, De Ligt completed 98. Why are these your two targets for the same position?

But even with all of the inefficiencies laid over these moves, it still is better than what came before.

Mazraoui is 26 -- not young in soccer years -- but De Ligt is 24, Ugarte 23, and Branthwaite 22. The reported fees for almost all of them would project well based on their ages and consensus market values. Only the €70 million-plus that Everton want for Branthwaite seems like it would not age well.

So, with United's new football leadership, there has been a pretty clear shift in approach. It's just that it's an improved version of the way things were already being done.

If United fans were hoping for a complete break from the past, a new and innovative approach to building a soccer team on a big budget that clearly puts the club back on track to challenging for the league and the Champions League, they're going to have to wait. If that's ever going to happen, it won't be for at least another summer.

- Ryan O'Hanlon, ESPN.com writer

AFTER TEPID MAN UNITED DISPLAY, IS TEN HAG'S SACKING LOOMING?

Getty 

 LONDON, England -- Erik ten Hag says he "doesn't care" about speculation surrounding his future as Manchester United manager, but it's days like this that will only strengthen the argument that he should lose his job this summer.

The 1-1 draw with Brentford hurts United's bid to claw their way back into the race to qualify for the Champions League, but it was the manner of the performance at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday which does most damage to Ten Hag's bid to stay in his current role. Second best for most the night, United looked like they had somehow earned a smash-and-grab victory when Mason Mount scored in the 96th minute.

Ten Hag and his staff celebrated like they knew they'd got out of jail, but just as assistant Steve McClaren was pointing to his head to tell United's defenders to show the match intelligence to see out the game, Brentford threw a hopeful ball into the box and Ivan Toney cut back his pass for Kristoffer Ajer to grab a deserved equalizer.

After Tottenham and Aston Villa both won their games earlier in the day, a point does little for United's hopes of playing in next season's Champions League, but in reality they were lucky to return to Manchester with anything at all. Ten Hag is already on thin ice as new co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS team plot a way forward and Brentford, a team battling relegation, made another significant crack.

"We didn't deserve to win but if you're winning you have to take this," Ten Hag said afterwards. "I would say normally we are good in such circumstances if we score before time.

"We showed resilience all through the game, but in points of aggressiveness Brentford were better. We should show more passion and desire in many moments in the game but when you are winning [so late in the game] you should bring it over the line."

After the dramatic extra time FA Cup win over Liverpool before the international break, Ten Hag spoke about using the high to make sure they finish the season strongly. But any momentum carried over lasted all of 15 minutes and from then on it became a question of whether or not Brentford would score.

Toney, fresh from his first England goal against Belgium, hit the inside of the post and Mathias Jørgensen saw a header skim the top of the crossbar. André Onana made a double save from Yehor Yarmoliuk and Keane Lewis-Potter. Yoane Wissa, who caused United problems all night in the gaping hole between defence and midfield, flashed a shot wide and Toney sent a volley over the top.

Toney finally thought he had given Brentford the lead only for the goal to be ruled out for offside. Moments later, substitute Bryan Mbeumo smashed an effort off the crossbar with Onana beaten. For Brentford, it was that kind of night and if you didn't know any better, you certainly wouldn't have guessed it was the home side who are on a run of just two wins from their last 18 games.

"There should have been only one winner in the game, that could only be us," said Brentford manager Thomas Frank. "Then you go 1-0 down in the 96th minute and you think football is brutal. I almost lost faith in the football god but he gave a bit back. What a performance.

"We had the most shots ever in the Premier League. How we didn't win is incredible. It was more or less the perfect performance," added Frank.

Along with Anfield and the Etihad Stadium, the Gtech was already the site of one of Ten Hag's worst days as United manager. The Dutchman lost his first Premier League away game here 4-0 in August last season and while this was a better result, it was another horror show of a performance.

Brentford, bottom of the Premier League form table, had 31 shots and an xG of 3.19, but at the other end, Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken was barely troubled until he had to pick Mount's left-footed shot out of the net in stoppage time. It's now nine times in their last 11 games that United have conceded 20 or more shots.

Mount's first United goal and first his scoring for Chelsea in Dec. 2022, coupled with Lisandro Martínez's return from injury as a second-half substitute, were the only positives for Ten Hag, who is again under immense pressure ahead of games against Chelsea and Liverpool next week.

Already 11 points behind Aston Villa and eight points behind Spurs, two more performances like this and any hope of salvaging Champions League football will be all but over and Ten Hag's hopes of saving his job may well disappear with it.

- Rob Dawson, Correspondent

CHELSEA REJECT £40M MANCHESTER UNITED BID FOR MASON MOUNT

Manchester United have had a £40m bid for Chelsea's Mason Mount turned down.

United manager Erik ten Hag has identified Mount, 24, as someone who can bolster his attacking options.

FRANK LAMPARD BELIEVES THAT MASON MOUNT IS A 'HUGE PLAYER' FOR CHELSEA

 

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