Amorim’s Manchester United find themselves in a dilemma: by rotating away their strengths, they’ve dented the team’s morale

Amorim’s Manchester United find themselves in a dilemma: by rotating away their strengths, they’ve dented the team’s morale

11 May,2025

Man Utd 0 -  2 West Ham

After sealing a spot in the Europa League final, United’s season now has one clear aim. To lift that trophy, Amorim briefed the squad on a new plan: despite a few tough Premier League tests ahead, the team is officially in final-prep mode. Rotation is coming—fringe and academy players will get minutes—and training loads will ease as everyone recharges. It’s the right call, but it drags United’s league form back into uncertainty. Their upcoming opponents won’t mind one bit.

United shuffled the deck for this one. Only Yoro, Mazraoui, Ugarte, Bruno Fernandes and Højlund survived from the recent first-choice XI. Yoro anchored a back line flanked by Luke Shaw and Mazraoui, with Amass and Amad Diallo pushed on as wing-backs. Mount and Mainoo formed the diagonal midfield pair ahead of them.

The setup made the side small and agile—great for relentless movement and tight combinations—but it sacrificed raw power and top-end sprinting, qualities that have underpinned United’s surge in recent weeks.

With both teams already free of league pressure, the early tempo stayed low. United kept the ball at Old Trafford and, true to type, looked to funnel play toward both flanks:

On West Ham’s side, Potter dusted off the back-three he once toyed with at Chelsea and pushed the towering Souček right up the pitch; in the press, Souček’s line was no deeper than Kudus or Bowen.
Much like Potter’s old Havertz-as-striker gambit, Souček’s tidy feet let him make the forward role work in unexpected ways. As a result, West Ham’s attacks hang almost entirely on their two keynote outlets—Kudus and Bowen—who line up straight against United’s wide centre-backs. In the seventh minute Kudus pulled Mazraoui out, Wan-Bissaka forced Ugarte into a foul just behind him, and the set piece that followed produced the visitors’ first genuine threat.
With the score still 0-0, United were the side in charge—of the ball, if not yet the scoreboard. They could stitch together moves like this:
More often, though, United’s link-up play on either wing felt awkward:
Mount and Amass never synced on the left—neither is a one-on-one threat, so that flank was always flat. The bigger let-down came on the right. Amad Diallo could still find edges against West Ham’s defenders, but Mainoo offered little support—or maybe he just didn’t feel he needed to:
On that flank the roles never settled and the urge to back each other up was absent. The larger issue sat with Mainoo: at 22 minutes he slid into the left half-space to jump-start the attack, but ended up on a completely different wavelength from the rest.
That left Mainoo in no-man’s-land, unsure of his role or whereabouts. And it wasn’t only in possession—United’s off-ball flaws were plain, too. In this press, for example, Mount was stationed in the wrong spot:
The flaw was straightforward. Mainoo tucked inside, so the outside lane was empty. Mazraoui could have stepped out, or Ugarte could have shuffled over—either fix would do—but both reacted late. Wan-Bissaka therefore strolled in on his strong foot, unpressured, and fed Kudus running off the back of the wandering Mazraoui.

United fell 0-2. Throwing everything at the Europa League was always a roll of the dice—silverware still hinges on luck, and Amorim’s pre-match caveats don’t soften a domestic loss.

They never looked ready for a scrap. It was their second game in four days, half the XI was rotated, and the tweaked setup smothered their usual strengths. Even at 0-0 the pattern was clear: plenty of the ball, zero bite. Once West Ham’s match-winners clicked and the tempo climbed, United lagged behind. Their on-ball edge evaporated in minutes.

Viewed that way, the defeat was no shock. Once the players started groping for chemistry and couldn’t reproduce the direct patterns that drove the last few wins, United’s uphill night was set. Their finishing is rarely ruthless; add a downgraded chance-creation engine and the result writes itself.

Amorim should remember: staking the season on the Europa League is like heading for penalties after extra time—technically a 50-50, but the extra-time performance still molds morale and, with it, the quality of every spot-kick. Rotate and tinker, sure, yet a baseline of bite has to remain. Otherwise, trying to fire the team back up on final day won’t be so simple.

 

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