Advertisement

Isak and Joelinton help Newcastle overwhelm feeble Manchester United

<span>Alexander Isak heads home Newcastle’s opening goal with four minutes on the clock.</span><span>Photograph: Lee Smith/Action Images/Reuters</span>
Alexander Isak heads home Newcastle’s opening goal with four minutes on the clock.Photograph: Lee Smith/Action Images/Reuters

Manchester United are dipping towards the drop zone under Ruben Amorim, a head coach who took over on 11 November and forgot to pack the “bounce” often gifted to an employer after sacking the last guy.

This was United’s fourth straight defeat in all competitions and the first time three consecutive home league matches have been lost since 1978-79. After 11 games, the Portuguese coach’s record reads six defeats, four wins and one draw. Peer at the table and United are 14th on 22 points. No ­wonder, afterwards, Amorim admitted rele­gation is a threat and “our club needs a shock”.

Related: Hutchinson haunts his former club as Ipswich make Chelsea pay for rotation

Once more the 3-4-3 formation failed, and Joshua Zirkzee being yanked off after half an hour is a glaring emblem of United’s ­disarray. Another was the reinstatement of Marcus Rashford to the squad after the forward said he wanted a “new challenge”; make sense of the head coach’s thinking on that one, if you can. Amorim keeps on saying he has to follow his “idea” to the end but it will prove pure folly if the side ­repeatedly lose and players become more disenchanted.

There is a good reason why ­Antonio Conte’s Chelsea of 2016-17 are the sole three-centre-back champions of the Premier League era and it is because the system is not proactive and can be overrun in midfield, as United were here. Three minutes and 30 seconds was all it took for Amorim to bow his head. Fluid from Newcastle, amateurish by United who, despite having Matthijs de Ligt, Harry ­Maguire and Lisandro Martínez lined up, still allowed Alexander Isak to rise before André Onana’s goal and head in.

Maguire and Martínez were the prime culprits as the in-form Swede split them to score an eighth goal in his past seven outings. Already, Amorim’s men looked like a pub XI who had staggered on to the local park midway through an enjoyable festive season. Noussair Mazraoui was their next chump as Anthony Gordon’s dazzling speed left the right wing-back trailing before the Newcastle winger teed up Joelinton, whose radar failed.

Amorim, again, felt even more disgust when, again, Eddie Howe’s side scored with ease. It came thanks to a United midfield that was warm butter to Newcastle’s red-hot knife. Possession was worked to Gordon, he stood the ball up and Joelinton made the hapless Martínez look like a schoolboy by rising and heading the second.

Amorim was to blame for the gaping holes as, with Manuel Ugarte and Bruno Fernandes unavailable, he eschewed the 19-year-old legs of Kobbie Mainoo to send Casemiro and Christian Eriksen – at a combined age of 64– into combat against Newcastle’s muscular trio of Joelinton, ­Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães.

The visiting fans were delighted, taunting their hosts with the killer line from the Beach Boys’ Sloop John B – “this is the best trip I’ve ever been on” – and, soon, were in louder raptures. A Tonali effort provoked a corner and Kieran Trippier’s delivery went close to beating Onana, as he had been from the set piece in the 2-0 defeat by Wolves on Boxing Day. The follow-up threatened, too, but not as much as Tonali, who hit a post moments after.

How could Amorim and his side feel even worse? By the 39-year-old deciding, 32 minutes in, that his selection was so dismal that Zirkzee should be removed for Mainoo. He dropped in alongside Casemiro, Eriksen ­taking the humiliated Dutchman’s berth. After Zirkzee trotted straight down the tunnel (he returned), United’s only hope was Newcastle giving this away: Fabian Schär tried, looping the ball straight to Mainoo, whose pass found Casemiro but his chip-cross found no one. United had returned the poorest 45 minutes of Amorim’s brief tenure, and the second half was a test for each manager: could Howe maintain his team’s excellence or might Amorim engineer a revival?

Related: Manchester United face ‘really clear’ threat of relegation, admits Amorim

Rasmus Højlund earned a corner, United’s first, on 51 minutes, but Eriksen’s execution was as effective as Casemiro’s outside-of-the-boot cross, after it broke. Still, brighter from the hosts. An Amad Diallo attempt was repelled and United tapped the ball about, exerting control, in a phase culminating in ­Maguire’s diving header, which rapped Martin Dubravka’s right post.

Suddenly Old Trafford was a cauldron, United’s vigour giving the faithful something to believe in. Amorim introduced Leny Yoro and Alejandro Garnacho for Martínez and Casemiro, leaving Rashford a spectator still, with Maguire taking the armband. Yoro flashed a header wide and on jogged Antony for De Ligt. But, bottom line: there is no thrust or menace about United. Amorim is overseeing a plunge.

This was Newcastle’s second league win here since 1972 and a first in 11 years. Isak said: “It feels great, we haven’t won in a long time here: the perfect way to end this year.”