Ruben Amorim's critical comment was aimed at his Manchester United players - and they took the bait
Diogo Dalot gave the game away at Anfield when he said Ruben Amorim's comment about Manchester United's squad being "starving for leaders" had struck a nerve. So it should have done. Amorim was telling a team of internationals that they lacked a quality they should all possess.
This wasn't a technical or tactical failing. It was in the head and the heart. Not everyone can have leadership skills, but in a squad with the kind of CVs that United's players possess, there should be at least a handful leading from the front. In Amorim's view, there wasn't, and he was right.
It was a barbed comment in a pre-match press conference that clearly stung. Managers and head coaches can sometimes use those media commitments to send a message, which Amorim did a week last Friday.
READ MORE: 'They are perfect' - Altay Bayindir sends message after Manchester United victory vs Arsenal
'Starving for leaders' was a wonderful line that was always going to make the back pages. It would also be unavoidable for his players, and by the time they arrived at Liverpool last week, they knew what their head coach thought of them.
They responded in the right way. A gutsy, gritty performance on Merseyside earned them an excellent point, and afterwards, the head coach and players all pointed to the change in attitude as being behind the improvement. At the Emirates, they backed it up, winning an FA Cup third-round tie full of drama on penalties, having played an hour with 10 men. They showed heart and spirit to win this tie.
There had been an expectation of another step forward under Amorim, and it came in different circumstances. There was the benefit of back-to-back free midweeks, and after improving on the training pitches a week ago, there was an expectation that United would step up again at the Emirates. This was especially true with nine of the 10 outfield players who started on Merseyside back in action at the Emirates and Amorim starting to settle on a strongest XI.
But while his team looked secure at the back, they were often pushed into a back five and against a team with an organised and strong defence, they struggled to penetrate Arsenal. United struggled to show much improvement in their in-possession game.
United looked most vulnerable when the move began with Altay Bayindir, either with the ball in hand or at his feet for a goal kick. It was in this structured phase of play that Arsenal's organisation got the better of United's build-up moves. Bayindir would either go long, which played into the hands of the likes of William Saliba or Gabriel, or he would try to get his side playing from the back.
But when he went short to either Matthijs de Ligt or Lisandro Martinez, the problem quickly became clear. The ball would go to a wing-back, then back to a centre-back, across the pitch, but rarely infield and rarely forward. Arsenal's pressing was good when they isolated De Ligt or Martinez and blocked passing lanes into Kobbie Mainoo and Manuel Ugarte.
United were better when the game became unstructured rather than starting from a specific point. They needed spaces to exploit rather than trying to find ways to play through an Arsenal team that was superbly organised when they had the time to get in shape.
It was a turnover of possession that led to United's goal. Alejandro Garnacho did well to get the better of Myles Lewis-Skelly and drove into the kind of space he hadn't had all afternoon. His pass to Bruno Fernandes was bobbling, but the finish was brilliant.
Just as United had control of the game, they lost it through a moment of madness. Dalot's heavy touch put him in trouble, but the decision to leave the ground in trying to challenge Mikel Merino was poor. There might have been no contact, but if an attacker has to hurdle a player sliding in to avoid him, the intent is obvious. Referee Andrew Madley turned in one of the worst performances of recent years, but this was one of the few decisions he didn't butcher.
That decision ended the chances of United putting any of their possession play into practice, especially when Gabriel's equaliser deflected in off De Ligt from the resulting attack.
But they did show the character and attitude that so pleased Amorim at Anfield. Those traits he felt had been missing from his side for so long, which rightly angered the head coach. They approached the game for the second week in a row with the right mentality.
Even when things weren't going well in the first half, they remained solid and focused on staying in the game. When Madley's decisions turned the contest against them, they stuck together. They kept the game tight and put everything on the line. It should be a given, but for so long, it hasn't been.
They played like a team of leaders. From famile to feast, Amorim's hunger might just be sated now.
