Well, something to work on there then, Ruben. It would be tempting at the end of this decelerating game of semi-football to talk about Ruben Amorim at least realising the scale of the job he faces. Except, given Amorim almost certainly possesses a TV set and is interested in football, he already knows the scale of the job. And the scale is: really very big indeed.
It's not the scale though. It's the tone, the texture, the deathly spirit of this United team that really needs to be digested in the flesh, the sheer joyless incoherence, a Manchester United team that is all trapped energy and broken patterns, the football equivalent of a chipped gravy boat handed down unhappily through the generations.
It was there in the hilariously ambling patterns of Joshua Zirkzee, who just seems always to be floating around quite close to the spectacle, like a man listening to a podcast while strolling on the local rec, tactfully avoiding the dogwalkers.
This story is from the November 25, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the November 25, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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