This kid is on his way to being world class.
Signed by Ole and his team who were said to be clueless.
Signed by Ole and his team who were said to be clueless.
16
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 19
- Goals
- 3
- Assists
- 5
- Yellow cards
- 1
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Jamie (@Vault Dweller) review both the Everton and Bodø/Glimt victories at Old Trafford. Listen to the guys discuss 2 wins and 7 goals in the last week, analyse of the Amorim formation, focus on Amad and how he is playing, and also take a look at Hojlund, Rashford & Zirkzee – who starts v Arsenal?
Clearly talented, how on earth didn't he get any chances in the last seasons?
MOTM performance today
MOTM performance today
Yes. It was clear he was a wonderkid talent, he was good enough to play over James but he didn’t. The summer budget was then wasted on Sancho instead of signing a midfielder and prioritising Amad’s development.
What about his injuries? They seem to have been forgotten about.
Amad was tiny, he needed time to physically adapt to men's football. That's why he's had multiple loans in smaller leagues before he impressed with Sunderland.
The numbers speak for themselves but the one thing they don't tell you, which I probably like most about Amad: His decision making is very strong.
There is so much to be said for someone who makes the right choice the majority of the time. It is a talent in and of itself to have two options and consistently pick the one that is best for the team.
He wasn’t injured in the half season before the summer, prior to Solskjaer being sacked. That’s the period that’s being referred to. He scored vs AC Milan and then was dropped for the rest of the season more or less, despite plenty of opportunity for him to get minutes. Amad showed quality and was shunned for it.
What a player. My MOTM today. His technique is superb, he has good vision and a real desire to apply himself. I love how he created two goals just by pressing aggressively.
Like Mazraoui, he blends brilliant technique with hard-work, unselfishness and a very high tactical IQ.
There's a reason it's so rare for either of them to have outright bad matches.
There's a reason it's so rare for either of them to have outright bad matches.
My point is mainly on the "not ready" part. He never really even got a sniff to show he "wasn't ready" and the very sparse minutes he had were at striker.
For the record I don't really blame Ole. Ten Hag deserves much more blame
He has a blend of relentless energy and technical ability that makes a footballer unplayable on their day. Like a young Salah.
As bad as each other mate.
Absolutely awesome performance, love his desire and work rate!
(Wish people would stop moaning about his lack of games in the past though, boring…)
(Wish people would stop moaning about his lack of games in the past though, boring…)
Does anyone else think he might be played in one of the AM positions against Arsenal? I think Amorim might play Mazraoui at RWB and bring in Shaw or Maguire at centre half to help solidify things. Could be well off as well obviously.
It's something I think we've sorely lacked going forward for years is enough good decision makers. It helps so much with general control of the game BUT it also gives a player room for error in his execution if he can constantly make quality decisions. Amad wasn't as sharp in the final third today as I've seen before but it didn't matter ultimately because he kept choosing the right option on and off the ball which saw him ultimately bag 2 assists and play great. If a player constantly chooses the wrong option as an attacker, his execution and ability has to be that much sharper to make up for it and still produce at a high level.
Because he was fearing for his job and Garnacho and Rashford both scored goals in the league cup game against a lower league team.
He defaulted back to what he thinks gives him the most chance of saving his own skin. It’s just like what he did last season by panic playing Scott after a few goals and the football was sheer shit.
He'd only been at the club a couple of months at that point hadn't he? Barely kicked a ball in first XI football. It's hardly outrageous to say he wasn't ready to start games for one of the world's biggest clubs. Also had Greenwood ahead of him at that stage. You'd have dropped Greenwood for him?
Unless I'm getting timelines mixed up.
He was tracked and recommended by our scouts. Managers had too much power in our club before, but we can't contribute every good/bad thing to them only because it happened during their time. It is also obvious that summer recruitment was mostly lead by Ineos as much as most people wanted to blame Eth for Zirkzee.
As for Diallo playing time people forget he played only 21 minute of senior football before his arrival here and clearly wasn't physically developed yet especially for EPL. The problem with his minutes started as soon as came back from Sunderland. It was obvious he is ready.
it’s why Garnacho needs to improve on his decision making.
ETH’s treatment of him for the 2nd part of the season is a real head scratcher . Peak was him selecting Forson over him when we had Sancho/ Garnacho and Antony unavailable on the right
I honestly don't have a clue. Shaw will certainly play LCB because Martinez is suspended, and Ugarte will start as well. But I don't have the faintest idea on the front 3. I just hope Garnacho doesn't start. Would rather see some combo of Hojlund/Zirkzee/Mount/Bruno/Rashford/Amad for those 3 spots right now.
Yeah he’s quality, I was concerned he would never get given a fair chance under ETH but he’s showing exactly why he was so hyped when he first joined from Atalanta.
Absolutely. He's not gifted enough with raw ability to be as poor of a decision maker as he often is, but in that same vein he can absolutely elevate himself to a very consistent contributor just by improving that mental side because he has enough instincts and engine to constantly get into those dangerous positions where it won't matter if he has a few bad crosses/or passes.
He was ready to help us knock out AC Milan out of Europe. It’s not about him not starting, it’s about him not getting used full stop, including off the bench. Solskjaer signing Sancho instead of prioritising Amad reinforces my original point.
We have a higher chance of winning if Dalot gets benched and Maz plays LWB.
But a big chunk of that was injuries. The length and timing of them were just unfortunate. Also we do have to give the coaching staff a bit of credit. They can generally see when a young player is ready or not. His spell at Rangers showed he wasn't.
He was injured for the first half of last season as well. It's not like ETH just shunned him.
But starting Forson ahead of him was a shocker. That was ETH just going for the player who was a bit bigger/faster. Really basic thinking.
We used to just sit off and let teams have the ball in those situations. It’s a big difference.
I watch pretty much zero football other than United games, but I'm still certain he's the best player in the world.
You realize he's only been injured twice right? The bad knee injury last summer that saw him out until close to Xmas, and then a month long thigh injury right at the beginning of that 21/22 season.
Two goals and four assists in his last four starts. Two of them in a completely new position.
Great to see.
Great to see.
I'm desperate to see Amad play as an AM but honestly I think Vs Arsenal I'd keep him at RWB. He is playing so well there at the moment I wouldn't change things around too much in such a tough game.
It was one goal, how much are you taking from that. I could point out him struggling in the Scottish League to prove he wasn't ready. All a bit reductive.
We had to buy a winger that summer. You can't go into a season with Amad, Rashford and Greenwood as your only wide options.
Yeah well I'd say that's fairly considerable given his age. But as I say it was the timing of those injuries that really knocked him back. He was featuring last pre season, doing well, it looked like his breakout season, then gets that bad knee injury. Then had to be eased back in. It's being rewritten a bit as ETH just shunning him. Half the season was gone through injury.
The earlier thigh injury scuppered his loan to Feyernord. A real shame.
Fletcher's on record saying he needed time to learn the game.
The only time you could say for sure Amad should have been getting more chances was the second half of last season but under the cosh ETH went with players who had a bit more proven end product. I didn't agree but it wasn't exactly scandalous either.
I think you are kinda missing my point. I am not disputing where Diallo was when he arrived. He could and should have been developed with a view to integration into the first team sooner. That became abundantly clear when the club blew all that money on Antony. Ole was here for 1 and a 1/2 years and brought in James and never tried to bring Diallo through. Maybe I am being harsh but it is shocking that he has been here for 4 years and is only now getting his chance. I remember James Horncastle writing at the time that United had an amazing coup in getting him.
He struggled for one game in Scotland, vs Celtic at Celtic park, where Rangers were awful as a whole. From that point they had a lot to play for, making the EL final and in a title race, Von Bronckhorst’s conservative style meant Amad wasn’t prioritised there. If you look at his per 90 stats in Scotland, he played very well when he was used.
The bolded first sentence is generous but going by that metric, we also can question/criticise when they can (aka can't in our case) see when a player is not playing well/tired (Garnacho/Rashford/Antony etc). Thus, they should then give another talented player, with the right skillset and work ethic a chance through subs and rotation. It's basically the whole crux of the 'why wasn't Amad playing more?' we find ourselves in. Except we keep seeing 'he was injured, wasn't ready, ETH sidelined because he did perform or is his style of player' etc still bandied about.
I've said this before but I have sympathy for ETH because it was evident in last year's pre-season he was hyped and ready to play both Mainoo and Amad. Unfortunately for him and them, both got injured. However, what I can't excuse is the over playing of Mainoo in the second half of the season and the lack of minutes given to Amad, when all our options were massively inconsistent (even Garnacho who was productive).
It's not 'scandalous' in the same way constantly playing McTominay (and asking him to abandon midfield) and Garnacho/Rashford despite their troubles (fatigue/form) last season was i.e all things to the detriment of our football. I can understand why ETH did it and it's because he didn't know what he was doing or couldn't achieve it. Except this cost him his job. That's pretty scandalous to me. Of course I'm not equating not playing Amad as the reason to his downfall but it was symptomatic of his reign here, a lack of adaptability and actual coaching to give the players a platform to perform.
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Amad only arrived at the club in January 2021 and Ole was sacked by November 2021. There was very little time to bed in a 19 year old Amad into the first team during that period.
I would agree with your second sentence that I've quoted, however the blame solely lies with Ten Hag for not giving him more of a chance during his last 12 months in charge. I'm not sure why you felt the need to criticise Ole for Amad's gametime given the timeline.
Notching up those assists. I didn't see the game but I was impressed from the highlights that two of our goals came from him pressing so effectively. I always assumed his size and lack of directness was why EtH preferred Rashford and Garnacho.
I just feel it's being overplayed a bit.
Last season he was available for 17 league games due to injury and then regaining fitness. 8 of those games he was on the bench, 9 of them he got minutes. He featured in the last 7 league games of the season.
Could he have featured more? Yeah I think so. But it wasn't months in the wilderness, exiled for no obvious reason. We're talking about a pretty small amount of maybe deserved but missed game time here, ETH I think it's fair to say did see his talent. That injury in pre season was just really unfortunate.
Would you have started Amad in the Cup final?
Yeah this was a Murtough signing as the alternative to Sancho.