Tenacious Diallo the key to Amorim pressing machine

Old Trafford has not seen anything like this before.

- PETE HALL

Pressing from the front is nothing new to these shores – gegenpressing was even added to the Oxford Dictionary two years ago – but for the red half of Manchester, this very much new phenomenon is sweeping through Stretford like wildfire.

During the latter months of Erik ten Hag’s time in Manchester, as the goals dried up, so did the enthusiasm, from those in the stands as well as the disinterested stars on the pitch.

A new manager always brings that bounce, but what Ruben Amorim has already done in less than a month is completely revolutionise not just how his team is set up but how big-name players, of vast experience, approach any match.

With their cheerleader-cum-puppet master glued to the touchline, banging his hands together whenever he wants his team to up the ante on the pressing front, United have, in the space of two matches, scored four times as a direct result of forcing errors from below par defenders, high up the pitch.

Everton, as they often are, were masters of their own downfall, but had Amad Diallo, already very much Amorim’s chief agitator, not been there snarling in his opponents’ faces like a scrapyard guard dog, they would have had all the time in the world, as would normally be the case around M16, to pick their passes.