Rarely has a Manchester United XI that finished a Premier League match looked so shorn of quality, even recognisability.
Yet one patched-up warrior stood tall, steering a nerve-shattered team through to a vital victory.
Oh how United have missed Lisandro Martinez. Despite hundreds of millions spent on the best Europe has to offer, talent supposed to rouse this fallen giant from its perennial slumber, nobody has the effect, in attack and defence, of El Carnicero.
Had Martinez stayed even remotely fit, Ruben Amorim could be viewed in a very different light altogether. In the beleaguered manager’s blueprint, Martinez instigates attacks, gets on the ball more than anyone else, while adding some steel that is all too often missing when he is absent.
As he trudged off late on, every ounce of energy spent on his first league start of the season, bandages literally falling off his legs like a resurrected Tutankhamun, the raucous standing ovation he received told you all you need to know about just how much it means to have Martinez back in the fold.
Thirteen months in, Amorim has at last shown some tactical flexibility, deploying four at the back against Newcastle and for the very first time moving away from his favoured 3-4-3.
Something needed to be done to arrest a wretched run of one clean sheet all season, a fallibility that has neutralised the vast improvement down the other end of the pitch.
With skipper Bruno Fernandes a concerned bystander from the sidelines – United had not won in seven when without their captain – the hosts did look more secure with two defensive-minded midfielders, Casemiro and Manuel Ugarte, in front of their backline.
The Newcastle analysts in the press box look dumbfounded. Coming to Old Trafford normally represents one of the few trips you can prepare for without the fear of the unknown. In and out of possession, Amorim’s fluid 4-2-3-1 still posed an attacking threat, without looking porous in the extreme as a byproduct.
A large slice of luck, and Newcastle profligacy, was needed to secure the nervous three points. United had just 33.4 per cent possession, their lowest in a league match that they won since January 2023 against Manchester City, while Newcastle attempted 16 shots – their second-most on record in a Premier League game at Old Trafford.
Yet, for a team with one clean sheet all season, this was as resolute as Amorim’s team have seemed over the last 13 turbulent months.
It is no coincidence such a showing presented itself upon Martinez’s return. Nobody passes the ball like him – his sublime pass to Diogo Dalot for the moment that should have made United’s victory secure in the second half was one that only he could conjure. More pertinently for this battling victory, nobody puts their body on the line, time and again, like him either.
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While Ayden Heaven took further giant strides forward with a defensive display that belied his fledgling years, it was Martinez’s return that has given Amorim the confidence to let go of everything he so firmly believes in, for the greater good.
“He is a guy with a lot of character,” Amorim said of Martinez’s showing. “He is really good on the ball. He won the World Cup, he is used to that stress [of the second half against Newcastle] but he showed today he is a top player. He is a small guy but today he did well against a team with tall players.”
Staying fit for Martinez is something else entirely. It is not, however, churlish to suggest something as bold as keeping him fit will make or break Amorim, and United’s hopes of finding their way once more.
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