Manchester is RED | Amorim gets his first win | Hojlund the star of the show
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Hello and welcome to the Manchester is Red podcast. Myself, Tyrone Marshall in the host chair today, joined by Samuel Lockhurst, recording on Friday morning after what was an enjoyable and entertaining Thursday night at Old Trafford, Samuel. The Europa League has got its doubters, but it was an enjoyable game with an excellent atmosphere and a really good away following with Bodo Glimt fans. And I think one of those rare Thursday night games I think we enjoyed attending.

It was. I said that to some of the Norwegian journalists at Carrington on Wednesday, that it was a much more anticipated game, mainly because it was Amram's first game.

in charge at Old Trafford. But also, I think one of the underrated aspects about these Europa League games is that you get brilliant followings from the majority of away teams. That was certainly the case in the season that United won it. I remember Mourinho actually went over and applauded the Anderlecht fans at the end of the game. He was that impressed by it.

by the atmosphere they brought bodo glimpse had more than i think it was 6 700 fans last last night nearly 7 000 fans it felt like the entire population of northern norway had descended upon manchester and they go through their right of passage you know which pub they're going to go to in um in manchester it's the is it sinclair's oyster bar isn't it by exchange square i think

They all congregate there and then it's the walk to the ground. And fortunately for them, there was no rain yesterday. The south stand roof still managed to leak despite no rainfall, but that's no surprise. It is that time of year. And also there were, I

I didn't think United were going to steamroller them last night. They're a very well-organised team. They're a well-run club. They've had some pretty decent results, to say the least, in Europe in recent years. And I suppose it was as close as I thought it would be. Some of the Norwegian journalists were surprised when I said I wouldn't be surprised if Bodo Glimt got a result against United. And they certainly weren't far off from doing so.

No, they weren't. And in the end, it was probably edgier than we expected it to be after 48 seconds. A dream start again and something United are making a habit, albeit in two games, of scoring quickly under Ruben Amorim. And like I say, I think we all expected probably a closer game than some people thought. But after a start like that, you kind of want United to go and grip the game. And I guess if there's been an issue in these first two games, they've scored very early and not really built on it in the early stages of games, have they?

Yeah, I think with last night, certainly the reaction after scoring was much better than it was against Ipswich. And you'd expect it to be, given that they were playing at home and they were playing it with all due respect to...

Bodo Glimt, a weaker opponent, but they never really carved those openings. And I think as Amram said afterwards, and he certainly said on Wednesday, I know you did a piece on it, that he's quite keen to highlight teams that have a good work rate because United need to work more. And certainly on those transitions, they were very quick. They were very powerful. As Amram mentioned, the first goal, the equalising goal was a tremendous goal. I mean, sometimes you just...

You try and pinpoint weaknesses and I suppose the gap between midfield and the defence was too big and Amarim was trying to address that a few moments before. So that was why I suppose I kind of looked at it in that way. But it was still just a brilliant goal and sometimes there's not a lot you can do about a strike like that. With the second goal, I think we'll get on to Tyrone Lassie in more detail, but it was his first start in 550 days and it still came too soon.

just going off his first half performance and particularly his role in that goal. And really, I think the turning point in the game was the equaliser because of the timing of it. It was on the stroke of half-time. It ensured that team talk would be drastically different. It possibly ensured there would only be one substitution as well, because I think if they were losing at half-time, having made six changes, there would have been

a case to have made at least two changes, maybe three changes. I was looking at you, you looked at Anthony, you looked at

the midfield. I mean, it's not exactly a massive talking point, but it was peculiar that Kobimainu was completely unused again, particularly ahead of a game at the weekend where United will have at least 60% of the ball against Everton and controlling the game in a productive and proactive way is going to be pretty key, you'd think, in that game. But

They got by in the end and as I said, I think the timing of equalising just before half-time was key and they should have won more convincingly in the end. They certainly had probably three or four really good chances and Garnaccio, sometimes just when you think he's got his shooting boots on, they come off again. He could easily have 15 goals already this season and it's disappointing you look at those two chances that he had in the second half.

that he didn't even hit the target with them. And you're going to get those peaks and troughs with a 20-year-old winger, but the standards and the expectation with him are so high that one does naturally feel disappointed when he doesn't take those chances, particularly having scored as early as he did. Yeah, I mean, I think it was 23 minutes they were behind for it. And like you say, that goal at half-time or stroke at half-time,

But really, it did feel pretty seismic at the time, really, and pretty important. I think you could see how big it was that Ruben Amarim's not really been... He's a bundle of energy on the touchline. And when they score, he tends to try and keep his cool. I think the first and the third, it was just kind of a sip of his water bottle, look at the bench. The equaliser, he turned to the stands behind him and was punching the air. And you could tell that it felt like that was a big goal because...

While they were 2-1 down, United were pretty poor. They'd looked to be running out of ideas. They weren't creating anything. And it was a brilliantly well-taken goal. And it felt like it was a good night for Rasmus Hoyland as well. He took both goals pretty well. Both were from... We spoke to him in the mix zone afterwards, those stories up already. And both were kind of from that position where all three of the goals scored by strikers under Amarim now have basically been from bang in front of goal. And it's clearly where he wants...

You look at Rocares' thoughts and it's clearly where he wants his strikers to be, in the box, facing goal, in a position to score goals. And if we look at it as three contenders for that role as a number nine, Rashford, Xerxe and Hoyland, I mean, although Hoyland is still raw, he said last night, he's still learning about his game. He's got to be the starting number nine out of those three, hasn't he? And I think this probably showed that he's the most likely to produce the goals that United need from that position, isn't he?

It was certainly a good response to being benched at the weekend and certainly Amrim's rotation was vindicated there. I think what was particularly pleasing, if you're watching Hoyle and you want him to obviously develop into a dependable goal scorer, is the three goals, including the first one, which of course he pretty much made,

They showcased different skills, different assets that he has. The first one is his pressing. The second one is technique. It's not an easy chance. I mean, it's a brilliant play by Masrari, a fine cross, but he has to control it and then find the corner with a volley in specific

split-second motion, really. And the third one, I think when we saw the replay, just from the angle, it looked like he was offside, but clearly the technology found that he was onside. And so that predatory instinct of just straying close to that offside line but not going over it and putting the ball in the back of the net to put your team 3-2 up, that's what you want from a striker. And I didn't watch the interview because I think it was on the pitch and obviously we're all

clearing out the press box or we're filing or we're getting into the press room, what have you, but seeing the quotes, I think he said something like Amrim had told him to concentrate what's going on ahead of him

And there have been a lot of times where we've watched him under 10 hard, where he's had his back to goal and he's looked pretty full on. He's looked like a boy among, among men, really. He's easily bullied. And of course with, with Amrim and his system or what he wants from the striker, it's about giving depth to the striker and he's going to want the striker to stay high.

which is why Xerxe really just, he jars with that function because Xerxe likes to drop off. He also jars with it because he doesn't score goals. I mean, it's pretty obvious that Hoyland's the more competent striker. There are quite a number of reasons why United

made him the number nine in the summer and not Xerxe and and Hoyland certainly does fit the bill more and in terms of the pressing side of it as well you don't see that often enough from Rashford Rashford's work rate is something that does get thrown in his face quite a lot

Gary Neville mentioned it at the start of the month, querying whether the wingers could play on the wings in the midfield for Under Amarim. And clearly, I think we all knew that he wasn't going to do that. I think it was quite idealistic that some people were thinking you could have two attacking wingers on those sides and you can't get away with it. I mean, as we've spoken before about Marcus Alonso and Victor Moses at Chelsea, Victor Moses was a winger, but he wasn't one of those wingers who was...

particularly prolific or you wouldn't necessarily, I suppose the way of differentiating it is that I suppose the modern winger you look upon as a forward. I think yesteryear a winger was considered a midfielder probably. And I always looked at Victor Moses more of a midfielder than a forward. And that's why it was a really good balance for Chelsea having him on one side. And as you said before in the podcast, I think with Steven Alonso is just a wing back.

And United don't necessarily have one of those players, but they can. I think they've got the players to get by with them. So that's why Rashford and Garnaccio are not going to come into the thinking now. And they shouldn't either because they don't. It may come with Garnaccio because of his age, but Rashford at the age of 27, when his lack of tracking back is still an issue, you wonder if he's ever going to incorporate that into his game.

So it's completely logical to go with that approach. But in terms of those three attacking positions, I completely understood and thought it was the right call to go with Rashford up top at the weekend. There's a good chance, given the tight turnaround between games and the rotation that Amram seems pretty intent on. I mean, there were more changes last night than I thought there would be.

But there's a pretty good chance that Rashford will come back into the team against Everton on Sunday. But I don't think anybody looks at him as a long-term solution for that role. With Hoyland, he could be. My gut feeling is that he can't be the main starting striker going forward. I think the start of next season, they're going to need a new goal scorer. And it's certainly not going to be Xerxe. And I still think

maybe Hoyland's long-term role at United. And it's a strange thing to say about someone they invested 72 million pounds in, but it may be more of a rotational impact player, game-changing striker. As I've always said, his role from the get-go should have been one of Javier Hernandez, but because they didn't have another striker, he had to be the main man. So I thought he had a pretty decent season given what a

task it was and the difficulties he was bound to encounter to get 16 goals was pretty decent going. But of course, it did end with him on the bench in the FA Cup final. Last night was a step in the right direction. He's doubled his tally for the season. Yes, it was only Bodo Glimt in the Europa League and he will be judged more on what he does in the Premier League, you would imagine. And the fact that he could come out on the team for that game on Sunday was

or certainly in terms of our educated guesswork, you'd think that there's a good chance he'll come out of the team. That tells you that he's still got a way to go. And Amram even said, he said,

he said he did a great job, but he said he needs to improve. And he said he needs to take fewer touches. And that is something that I've noticed watching him. He does lead far too many touches when the ball comes. Sometimes the ball doesn't stick, but he's just at that level, you've got to be a lot prompter on the ball. It's, it's got to be two or three touches. I mean,

this is showing our tactical acumen when we were at grammar school, but even in year 10, I remember us playing games where you could only have three touches. I mean, I think my teacher, Mr. Ball must've been a tactical innovator 20 odd years ago. But that just gives you an idea of how people, how you try and finesse it, how you try and simplify it. And certainly for a striker, every touch matters because you,

And just by the flow of the game, strikers aren't going to get as many touches as teammates. And when it comes to that statistic of how many touches in the box, that is something that does get used against strikers quite often if they're not doing well.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Hoyland, when we spoke to him last night, he did make the point that he played in a 3-4-3 at Atalanta. So he does get it. And he said a similar thing to us about that. I asked him what was different from what Amarim wants compared to what Ten Hag wants. And the one thing he turned to was the press. He said, I think the press is very different. I have to focus a little bit more only on what's in front of me instead of behind me. And I think pressing is an area we've seen a bit of improvement from in these two games, which...

Brings us on to another of those attacking positions. I thought it was a pretty good night for Mason Mount. I mean, the flick to create the space for the third goal was really well worked. Very patient build-up and then kind of injected with a quality flick from Mount that really opened the game up. And I think we've all said a couple of times now that he looks a really good fit for Ruben Amarim in one of those number 10 positions. And it was interesting to see him start

And Fernandes played deeper. I know Fernandes wasn't great at Ipswich, but I did think his best spell at Ipswich came when he moved deeper and he can dictate a game there. It was interesting that Amarim said on Sunday he can look for the long pass a bit too often. But if he can coach that out of him, you do wonder whether we might see more of maybe Mank playing as a 10 and Fernandes maybe playing deeper, certainly against weaker opposition when United are set to dominate the ball.

Well, Ten Hag even was prepared to do that, but he just never got around to doing it because it was that pre-season game in Houston. We were at where he had Mount as the 10 and Fernandes on the right with Kobi Mainu and Casemiro in midfield. And Mainu got injured after about 70 seconds and that was it. And then by the time Mainu next played, Mount was injured and then Mount wasn't available again until God knows when, March or April time.

And so they've never really had the opportunity to do that. I suppose they did at the start of the season when obviously Mount started the first few games. I'm struggling to remember where Fernandes played in those games now. Was he on the wing possibly? Maybe he was such a long time ago. Or maybe he was playing as the false nine. As I said, it was such a long time ago. But they did manage to accommodate them both in that team. But it must have only happened about...

You could probably count on both on two hands how many times Mountain Fernandez have started.

each other or certainly in the same XI. But I thought it was quite telling. I mean, Amrim said last week there was a push notification from United saying Amrim loves this kid. And you think, oh, who's it going to be? Is it going to be Mainu or Garnaccio? Or is there an academy player that he's taken a shine to like Harry Amos? And the kid turned out to be 25-year-old Mason Mount. Which

which was a very avuncular term to give him. But he's an extremely experienced player. As we all know, he starts in Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, Club World Cup, European Championship finals. And he's not been a young player for a long time. I mean, he came into the Chelsea first team what...

Five years ago when they had their transfer embargo under Frank Lampard, I think, after, of course, playing for Lampard on loan at Derby the season before that. So he's played a very intense level of football for a good six years. And before the injuries started to take their toll, Gareth Southgate valued him a hell of a lot.

But last night, going back to the Amram point, Mount went off the far side, I think, because he was nearest to it when he was substituted. And when he came round, Amram was really bullishly chest bumping him, passing him on the back. You can see why Mount appeals to him, because for all his shortcomings, his work rate off the ball is probably the best of any of the players in the United squad when he's, of course, fit and playing well.

He is a workaholic in that sense. He's very good at the press. And when you've got him backing up Hoyland,

there's a reason why Hoyland shouldn't be worried about what's going on behind him, should only be worried about what's going on ahead of him. Unfortunately for Mount, I think his previous start before last night was probably away to Brighton and his first half before that day was really, really good, really encouraging but then he got injured and he came off at half-time and as I said, last night was his first start in 96 days which is an extraordinarily long time. I know he had some substitute appearances in between then but

It's been another frustrating and pretty terrible start to the season for Mount. But I think what's certainly in his favour here is that he played in that formation under Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea and he played in it in a Champions League final as well, of course, as one of the two. Was it him and Werner behind Kai Havertz? I think it might have been when they beat City in Porto.

So he's familiar with it. He played in a similar formation in the European Championship final as well. I can't quite remember what Chelsea's formations would have been in the domestic cup finals they had that Mount played in. So his experience of playing in a back three formation, he's done it at pretty much the highest levels in European club and international competitions and that he's done it in the Champions League final and the European Championship final as

There's clearly good game intelligence about him. I think my criticism of him has always been that, and it's a pretty big problem, is that you struggle to see what he does with the ball when he gets it. And last night was a much, much more encouraging performance. I certainly wouldn't be against him starting at the weekend, but that's the quandary that Amrim has. I suppose when Mainu has been unused in these two games previously,

completely, it would probably be prudent to play Fernandes with Ugarte. I suspect going back to, I suspect there's a chance that one of Casemiro or Eksson would come in, but I think you've got to try and turn the page there. But if Fernandes is to drop back, and he has played very well there before for United, I remember him having some very good games against Everton there. And of course, they're playing Everton on Sunday. So if they've done their homework,

there's a decent chance that he'll be playing in a deeper role again. And if he's playing the deeper role, logically Mount should be coming in as one of the two number 10s. And perhaps, you know, aside from just giving him a breather because it was his first start in nearly 100 days, maybe there was the method of also preserving him for Sunday when he came off last night.

Yeah, definitely. I think United look a better team at the moment with Mason Mount in it. Right, that's all for the first part. We'll be back after the break to look ahead to that Everton game.

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Welcome back to the Manchester is Red podcast. A first win for Ruben Amarim then against Bodo Glimt. A first win in his first game at Old Trafford. And he's back there in a matter of days. Everton, the visitors on Sunday. His first two games then, we've seen the same system, although it's, as he again pointed out last night, and this is very clear when you watch him, especially from the good press box position, it's a 3-4-3 in possession, very much a 4-4-2 when they set out to defend. But we've had 17 games

starters now across these two games. I mean, are there any big kind of winners and losers from these first two games? Anyone that you look at and think he's got to be in the strongest team? Anyone who's had an audition and has flopped and is probably going to be waiting a little while for their next opportunity? I think Nusum Azraoui has been a big winner, but he's been good consistently this season. When I did the usual thing,

Third of the way through the season, player ratings last week, he was an easy seven to give. He was one of the certainties for that. Since his debut, he's had a really solid start. And now I think they're starting to coax the attacking qualities out of him. It's interesting that his two assists have come under two different managers and neither of them were under the one that signed him. And that's not to say that...

he was doing badly under ten hog at all as I said I think he was performing pretty reasonably before ten hog was sacked

And it just goes to show that for all the clamour for spend big, go for the sexiest names, almost exotic names or blah, blah, blah. It's the quality, not the quantity. And Masrari costs, I think, 12.8 million rising to 17 million in the summer. I mean, that's a snip already for a 26-year-old. And watching him last night,

especially for that goal if you watch it back I think it's Patrick Berg who plays the pass out and Masraoui is almost hiding behind Anthony's he's not in Berg's line of vision so that's why the pass was cut out but he's hiding behind him and he anticipates so quickly where the ball's going to go obviously cuts the ball out intercepts it and then he has to dance past a couple of opponents and then he has to put the cross in for Hoyland to to stick the ball in the back of the net and

Just terrific, terrific play by him. And I think he wasn't quite at his usual standards before last night. Sorry, before that assist last night. But when you watch him, certainly in the second half where he's having to switch from

left sorry right sided centre back in a back three to right back in a back four depending on whether United have possession or not you can tell that he is someone who has been educated very well and of course he came through the Ajax Academy he played for Bayern Munich a couple of years so you would hope to get someone of you know a really good technician and he certainly is that so

so far so good with United in doing that deal. It wasn't necessarily a compelling pitch going after someone who West Ham were trying to sign and who Bayern Munich wanted to get rid of. But Masraoui has been one of the success stories of the season so far, definitely. Beyond him, Andre Anano is another one who's had a good season, was having a good season before Amram came in. He probably had his best performance of the season at Ipswich and

Made an important save last night. I'm sure some Bodo fans are probably, certainly analysts were thinking he made another save outside the area when the ball brushed his hand. I think it would have been extremely harsh to have penalised him for that. But I think he's kind of, he's been as expected this season in Arno. I thought he would be more dependable between the sticks and he has been. And he's starting to look like the keeper that,

that they thought they would get him when they they paid nearly 50 million pounds for him so certainly those two stand out obviously hoyland had a good night uh

last night but the others it's it's very much a work in progress I would I would like to think for United's sake that come the start of next season under Amrim that team the starting team will look quite different from what it looks like at the moment I think there's certainly room for improvement at centre-back Matthijs de Ligt has looked pretty cumbersome and

I'd certainly be looking at someone more commanding to come in for the start of next season. We're still yet to see Lenny Oro, which is a pity. Maybe that will come in. Well, it needs to come in December, really. It'd be a worry if he doesn't make his debut in December.

But beyond Nanna and Masraoui, it's difficult to see any massive, massive winners. As I said, Hoyland had a good night last night, but there's every chance he'll be back on the bench on Sunday. So, you know, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out of December because, of course, it's nine games in 30 days. It's such an intense period. And there are some really testing matches in that run as well. Big away games against Arsenal and City in the league, Spurs in the

League Cup, even Wolves on Boxing Day at half five has got the makings of a pretty thorough examination as well. Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree on Masraoui. I think he's arguably been

player of the season so far. And he's, I think, you know, I don't think I was alone when looking at a back three under Amarim and thinking Martinez, De Ligt and Joro could work pretty well. But the way United are playing with that switch to a back four and then to a three in possession, it kind of suits Masraoui down to the ground to play that right-sided centre-back role because of his intelligence, because of his quality. So,

it's maybe going to be two from three with Yoro, De Ligt and Martinez, because I think Masraoui has to stay in the team. And for me, he has to stay in the team in that position there.

The wing-backs as well then. Let's touch on the wing-backs. I think we're probably expecting it to be back to Ahmad and Dallo against Everton. I think you've got to get Ahmad in the team at the moment. He was very good in that position, that right wing-back role on Sunday. And I don't think Malassia and Anthony did enough last night. I mean, Malassia, it was a milestone moment for him.

I imagine he was only ever going to play a half or just over a half, given it was his first start in 550 days. But there were signs of rust, like we say, for that goal. And I think at the moment, looking at those wingbacks, it's going to be Ahmad and Dallo, isn't it, for the foreseeable future? You would imagine so. I mean, last night was the first time Dallo's not started this season. And last season, he starts in 48 out of 52 games. His injury record, a lack of injuries, is...

It's pretty, it's staggeringly good. He must be one of the best in Europe's top five leagues for that, given the level he's playing at. And when you talk about the scrutiny that comes with being a Man United player, I mean, Ten Hag thought maybe there's some method in it, but he certainly thought last season that because of the scrutiny and the criticism that United were getting, it did affect players. And he felt it somehow contributed to injuries, which when you hear it, you think,

Crack, is that even possible? But I suppose if a player's turning up into training, feeling downbeat and not in the right state of mind, not feeling confident, they go in for a 50-50 half-hearted, they come out of it worse. I suppose that is one way where you could see a player getting injured as a consequence of them worrying about criticism about how they're getting on.

And I think Dallow last night, in fairness to him, where he was taking out the team just for 45 minutes, it did seem to benefit him when he came on. He seemed a lot brighter. He didn't play brilliantly or particularly well at all, but it was an improvement on most of his performances this season. He has looked very, very fatigued. I think, you know,

Portugal have done United a favour I think during the international break in that Dalot has started one game and not the other and that has been happening with a lot of players because there's too much football and I think the effects of the backlog of games dating back to the pandemic more than four years ago are still being felt and then

You look how this season's going and you've got a Club World Cup at the end of it. And I know that's not going to be every team, but there are going to be some players who have just been running to the ground. And it's pretty taxing enough for a Manchester United player, as I said, with the scrutiny that comes on top of it and the criticism if things aren't going well, that it is bound to have an effect every now and then.

But Ahmad certainly, I mean, I forgot to mention him. I thought he was pretty decent at Ipswich at the weekend. And Amram again said how well he'd done in three training sessions just to improve on the defensive side. But he's had a good year overall for someone who, I mean, may not even have broken 10 matches for starts this year, or it would be in the low double digits overall.

He's had a really good year because he was having an impact as a game changer, coming off the bench. He had a good pre-season tour. He's had some really good performances this season. I thought his performance at Southampton in particular was one of the best performances, individual performances by a United player this season. And he makes things happen. He almost made something happen in added time at Ipswich.

He's clearly very durable as well now. I think his body seems to have filled out. He's still pretty young, though, really at 22. So he absolutely has to be back in the team. I think he will be at the weekend. I think the uncertainty really is what's going to happen with the two midfield roles and probably the three forwards as well. I mean, that's...

it's not like they've got a plethora of options in those areas, but in terms of actually guessing who's going to be starting, it is still pretty tricky for us. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's, those are probably the positions we're going to see the most rotation in, aren't we? Those two deep and midfield positions, those three attacking positions, we've spoken about the winners and losers there. And like I said, we've not even seen Kobi Benu yet, which in a way is a surprise. The fact he's been on the bench and not come on, I know he's coming back from an injury, but

If we presume Inugata is going to have one of those deeper roles nailed on because of his understanding of the system, his relationship with Amorim, it'd be good to see Mainu in there because it feels like, we've mentioned Amorim liking Mount, it feels like Mainu should be another player that he really likes and enjoys working with. And it's going to be interesting to see

in this new system, isn't it? Because if there was a criticism, it was that the way Tanag was playing, the openness in the midfield wasn't suiting him at times. In this structure, we really should be able to see his best qualities, which is his quality on the ball and his dribbling, come to the fore, really. It's a difficult one because I'm sure if you think about how they could...

function with Mainu and that team and you look at the midfield and there were times last night and certainly against Ipswich where they did look very exposed and as you've said before there is a lot of work for Mainu to do out of possession where he can be he is found wanting at times but again he's a 19 year old you've got to cut him some slack he will learn that and he is still learning on the job as brilliant as he's been over the past year for United apart from

couple of months of this season and I think the timing of the injury probably wasn't a bad thing for him as gutting as it would have been for him because he did need a breather he looked very very fatigued in the first few games of the season he wasn't operating at the level that he was for the six months that he was in the first team last season it was apparent some time ago that physically he has developed quite a lot from when he won the Youth Cup two and a half years ago

But I think if you have a midfield duo of Ugarte and Mainu, you've got to have very, very good control of games. So you're not being left exposed. I know Ugarte is the number six, but there is some forward thinking play about him. And we saw last night when he got the assist, bursting into the penalty area. And you wouldn't want to deter a number six from doing that. I mean, Rodri has been...

one of the best defensive midfielders we've seen in this country. And he has a knack of scoring extremely important goals for Manchester City, or he has had a knack of scoring extremely important goals. Keane got really important goals for United, even though he was purportedly the defensive midfielder. So I'll be fascinated to see how they get on when

When they are paired together again, because Ugarte and Mainu, they've only started together once. That was against Tottenham, which was obviously a dreadful day. And Ten Hag clearly had a distrust of Ugarte after that, in that he didn't start him, didn't even bring him on in either of the next two games against Tottenham.

It was Porto and Aston Villa, wasn't it? And although Ugarte got a bit of playing time towards the end against Fenerbahce, a few days later, Ten Hag took him out of the team. And it was Casemiro back in for his final game in charge against West Ham. But it just goes to show how...

You can never predict these things, but certainly post-deadline, it's right. The first 11 has to be Ugarte and Mayunu, definitely. And then here we are nearly almost three months later, and they've only started once with each other. So it's in Amrim's interests to get them together. But I think the wait is going to go on for maybe the best part of another week because it's difficult to see both of them lining up

on Sunday or against Arsenal on Wednesday. Every game is important, but Arsenal is going to be a particular test for United because they are going to be coming up against possibly one of the best midfield trios in Europe. Yeah, and there's an argument Arsenal away at the moment is almost something of a free hit, but it makes Everton...

more important and you talk about half-time last night about how Amrim's in that difficult position of trying to instill a new ethos a new game plan a new formation in the middle of the season when the games are coming thick and fast when he does also need results because at the end of the day he took over a team mid-table in the Premier League and mid-table in the Europa League and I was I was saying that half-time last night that I'd seen on social media someone had posted saying that Robbie Savage had suggested he abandons the back three by half-time of his second game in charge and

I think when results aren't going his way, he's going to have to deal with a lot of that, really. Call yourself a manager, Robbie. I know, yeah, yeah. Come on, got to stick with it at Mansfield. Although I think he's still the only unbeaten team in the country, so maybe he does know what he's doing. Yeah, he's in that difficult position where he needs to get results while bedding in this new system. And it makes games like Everton at home must-wins, really, don't they? To build up the momentum. Those games that look easy on paper, but...

such as Everton at home, you've got to take advantage of? Well, for the game on Sunday, it would be a really bad result if they don't win that because Everton...

not particularly ambitious. They're having a pretty poor season. It feels like they're just in, they're stuck in a marriage of very minor convenience with Sean Dyche. Once that takeover is sorted, you know that there's going to be a new manager in because they need that. They need a bright, shiny, ambitious, forward-thinking new era ahead of moving into the new stadium next year. And Sean Dyche, as good a manager as he's been in England, he's

I don't think he's ever going to manage outside England. I don't know why I said in England, but it's pretty, it's a means to an end. I think they had to appoint him at the time because they had to stay up and they've managed to stay up and I suspect they'll stay up again this season. But in terms of ambition, I,

he's not going to get a club that were champions in the 80s, that won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1985, I think, and won the FA Cup in 1984, who do have some... Certainly, until the late 90s, really, they had some cachet, and it was not unusual for Everton to win a trophy in a decade whatsoever. They're going to need someone more forward-thinking. And you look at how Everton will probably line up this weekend, and it's going to be...

Is it going to be pretty methodical? They've still got some pretty handy players on their day. Dwight McNeil seems to be having a good season. Calvert-Lewin, when he's on it, can cause some real misery for defenders, as he has done against United in the past. And I wouldn't be surprised if, looking at De Ligt this season, there are very few duels that he dominates in those defender-striker duels. And I wouldn't be surprised if Calvert-Lewin got the better of him.

So that they, they're not exactly lacking quality on the pitch at times Everton, but it does feel they are lacking quality in the dugout and the way they go about games. And one of my good, good mates is, is a, is an Evertonian. And he just says it's, it's pretty joyless watching them at the moment. And obviously we, we've worked with Dave Hughes who can't quite be as open on his views of Everton because he's, he's an employee of Everton football club these days, but he,

For them this season, it would be great for them to have a grand and great and successful farewell to Goodison Park. But I wouldn't be surprised if they're bidding goodbye to that grand old ground with them 16th or 17th on the table.

Yeah, it looks possible. And like you say, it certainly appears to be a joyless experience following at the moment, but hopefully it will be joyful for the rest of the crowd at Old Trafford on Sunday. Samuel, you'll be there with Stephen. I am off to Liverpool City at the weekend, which I'm sure will be intriguing ahead of the derby. I've just got my voice back after spending...

15 hours with Steve and on Sunday he talks that much that I literally lost my voice so I'm just getting it back but I might lose it again on Sunday we'll have to wait absolutely yeah well we'll find out on Monday because we will be back on Monday two of the three of us will be back to record a podcast we'll see how Samuel's voice is

But yeah, do check back in on Monday. Remember to subscribe to podcasts wherever you get your podcasts to get the latest in our feed. Leave us a like as well. Give us a review if you've enjoyed the podcast. That's all for now and we'll speak to you all on Sunday.