It was difficult to find an adult Manchester United fan outside Old Trafford who expected their team to defeat Newcastle United on Monday evening. Children, flushed with enthusiasm, predicted wins and excitement. But in over two hours of speaking to older generations before the game, not one predicted a win. Most shook their heads at the current predicament in which Manchester United find themselves: 14th in the Premier League and breaking all kinds of unwanted records.
The pessimism of these members of the sell-out crowd was justified as the visitors, who’d won only once in their previous 39 matches at Old Trafford, sliced the home team apart from the beginning.
Twenty minutes in, with their well organised team moving the ball quickly, controlling the game and leading 2-0 against Ruben Amorim’s side startled, out of shape XI, the 3,000 travelling Geordies sang: ‘Say hello to Sunderland”. That’s their neighbours and biggest rivals who play in England’s second tier – as Newcastle did following their relegations in 2009 and 2016.
Few Manchester United supporters expect to see their team share that fate but then the same was said in 1973. ‘Too good to go down,’ was the phrase bandied around for a team which contained world class footballers. But United did go down.
Hopes were for an uplift under a new coach after Erik ten Hag was dismissed, not a collapse in form, but that’s what has happened. Amorim, who looked exasperated as he watched his team, claims there will be short term pain for a long-term gain as he restructures the system previously played, has enjoyed notable victories at Manchester City last month and four goals were scored against Everton, but even those wins seem a long times ago and the team continue to make the same errors.
Man United 0 Newcastle 2 – in pictures
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Alexander Isak scores Newcastle United's opening goal in their 2-0 Premier League win over Manchester United at Old Trafford on December 30, 2024. Reuters -
Alexander Isak heads home to put Newcastle1-0 up in the fourth minute. EPA -
Ruben Amorim became the first Manchester United manager in 45 years to lose three straight home games. PA -
Striker Alexander Isak fires home for Newcastle but the goal was disallowed for offside. AFP -
Alexander Isak, left, celebrates scoring Newcastle's first goal with Joelinton, Anthony Gordon and Lewis Hall. Reuters -
Newcastle midfielder Joelinton beats Lisandro Martinez to the header and put his team 2-0 up in the 19th minute. Reuters -
Joelinton celebrates after scoring for Newcastle United. Getty Images -
Dejected Manchester United defender Harry Maguire after the loss that leaves his team seven points outside the relegation zone. Reuters -
Newcastle captain Bruno Guimaraes celebrates at the end of the win at Old Trafford that lifted Newcastle up to fifth in the table. Getty Images -
Alexander Isak scores his 13th goal of the season for Newcastle United. Getty Images
United have done gone behind in their last eight games. The home defeat to Newcastle was their fifth in six league games. United haven’t scored in the last three league games and have a goal difference of -5.
England’s biggest club lost six games in a tortuous December. You have to go back to September 1930 during the Great Depression for the last time United lost more than six matches. United have only lost six games in a month three times in the club’s history.
Amorim’s side also conceded 18 goals in all competitions in December, the most in a single month since March 1964. Monday was the fourth successive home defeat for the first time since 1979 and United sit closer to the relegation zone than the top four with repeat patterns evident: it was the seventh time they have conceded a goal in the first five minutes in a Premier League game since the start of 2023. It took ten years before that to concede seven goals in the first five minutes.
After Monday’s defeat, The National asked coach Ruben Amorim how he could end this slump. “It is really hard on everybody,” he replied. “You can feel it on the pitch. We showed some improvements in the first games, especially against City and Tottenham, even Arsenal, the first moment.
“But we are losing because of the lack of training and belief after so many losses, some difficult moments when you suffer some goals in the beginning of the games and then it's really, hard during all the games. It’s a really tough moment for everybody.
"The players are losing everything, the small things that we try to work on in training. After one goal, they lose everything because they don’t have the base. We don't have time to build the base to cope with the difficult moments.”
Amorim is sticking by his principles and he can enjoy support from the fans who sing his name even when his side and their 3-4-3 formation were losing 2-0.
“Playing with three is more or less the same thing as playing with four,” he said. “We can change the characteristics. If we play with Amad on the wing it could be a little bit different. We had some games that we were pressing 4-4-2 so I don't see it that way. Of course, I didn't choose the players specifically for that position but that I already knew.
“But I have to sell my idea if I'm going to change all the time it is going to be even worse. But I understand that they have a lot of difficulties because they spent two years playing one way and then they are playing another. With a lot of losses, it is really tough on them and you can feel it during the game. So even today when we tried to score and we are near to scoring, it was more from them then the organisation, so you can feel it, I can feel it. But I have to sell my idea. I don't have another one.”
United remain in their lowest league position at the start of a year since 1990 – and that season (and Sir Alex Ferguson’s job) was saved with an FA Cup win. United are the current FA Cup holders but the first draw of their trophy defence has not been kind – away to Arsenal on January 12th. Before that looms a daunting fixture at leaders Liverpool on Sunday.
“I just want to win games,” Amorim has repeatedly said. He enjoys support from fans and from most players who welcomed his arrival, openness and enthusiasm, but he needs wins and no manager can continue to lose every week, especially at a giant club such as United. Yet January’s fixtures are even more unforgiving than those in United’s desperate December.
