Team Selection

Overall, the team selection was about as strong as one could make, given the current circumstances with the squad. I fully support Amorim's treatment of Rashford and trust in his judgment of how he's handling Garnacho, who at least still makes the odd cameo. De Ligt is only returning from illness, so while I would have preferred to see him start over Maguire, that's the only change I could advocate for, and that's a very scary thing.

Bruno Fernandes Red Card

Another match, another red card. That brings Bruno's red card tally to three (3) so far this season. For too long, I have spoken about Bruno's poor defending and rash challenges, this is why I criticize him in a double pivot where his defensive responsibility is exponentially more vital. However, on today's occasion, the second booking came from a sloppy late challenge in possession on the attack after a lazy, slow pass from Dalot left Bruno stretching.

I do want to make one thing perfectly clear, however, the ref today, Tony Harrington, was farcical. Nearly every challenge on the day resulted in a yellow card. Every infraction was seen as a blatant offense and there was no room for error. You could make an argument that Bruno's first yellow card was deserved, but still rather harsh, and the second one, so early into the second half, did not need to result in a red card produced. Instead, Harrington could have given Bruno a very strong caution, at which point Amorim might have decided to hook the captain. However, that was not the case and the first challenge of the second half produced a second yellow and that's all she wrote.

Performance

Regarding the overall performance of the team, we started the first half a little better, with a potential opportunity comes in the opening minute that just missed Rasmus. But as time went on, we began to slow down the tempo, with players like Bruno telling those around him to calm down and to slow down the pace. This allowed Wolves to settle in nicely and resulted in Harry Maguire spending far too long on the ball at the back - it was painful watching him walk around a few yards only to casually scoot the ball along the grass to someone to either side of him. This was broken up on occasion with the odd ball over the top 45 yards down the pitch, which ultimately resulted in not much to write home about. The second half, we came out the slower side and after the Bruno red card, heads dropped and the play was sloppier than the first half, with Wolves wrestling possession stats well out of our reach and ultimately coming out on top, just barely. On that, the Wolves performance was nothing special. There were a couple of chances here and there, but nothing too troubling or routine - one could argue they didn't "deserve" the win, but alas, they didn't implode like we did.

Individual Performances

Pros: Ugarte

Cons: Everyone else

That's largely how today felt. Ugarte was easily MOTM through his aggression and quality, despite getting harshly booked in the opening minutes, by yours truly. Everyone else looked unenthused, off the pace, and lacking the mental capacity to do their job. The cynic in me questions whether the treatment of Rashford and Garnacho are having a negative impact on the dressing room. Rashford is a senior player that has been with the club for many years and I imagine Garnacho is loved by some, maybe not all. It makes you question if the performances and results coinciding with the dropping of Rashford is purely a coincidence or if there is something more behind it all. Do I think Rashford should play at this stage? Absolutely not. I have said for many years he needs to go, along with others who are still here, but I hope for our sake that the timing is a coincidence and nothing more, otherwise the problem is much bigger than we might have initially imagined.

Individually, the players need to be doing better. This is a few matches now where we are struggling to do the basics, more than we usually do. The passes seem harder and harder to complete and the energy and effort is always second best to the opposition. The manager has to pick an 11 at the start of every match, but the way it's currently going, only a few deserve to actually start while the rest are selected out of necessity and nothing more.

Conclusion

INEOS needs to spend and spend aggressively. For all of the cost-saving measures they have taken against some of the lowest hanging fruit, they need to support Amorim aggressively in every transfer window and bring in the players he can work with. If INEOS claims the money isn't there, then they need to be examined for their budget cuts that haven't impacted the club in a positive manner to the extent they believe it would, while completely ignoring the insane contracts some of these players are on. Bruno, alone, saw a 50k/week increase to his wages over the summer. Per week. That's arguably just as much, if not more, than what many staff members were making who lost their livelihood. There are 52 weeks in the year, that's at least one quarter of the staff that could have been provided for with others' jobs saved with the sale of certain key figures who no longer play a part at this club, such as Casemiro. No more excuses. INEOS need to make it make financial sense, because without signings in January to at least get some new blood and enthusiasm in, we are going to see many of the same performances in 2025 with doubts cast on the summer transfer window depending on which clubs are willing to help trim the fat of our books.

This project will take 3-5 years, at the very least, at this rate and any decisions surrounding the manager that INEOS make between now and then would be rash. Times like these make you wonder what a life under Qatar would have looked like because we're still stuck with the Glazers at the helm and their scapegoat INEOS has made many United fans forget that fact. All of the outcries and rage towards the Glazers seemed to disappear overnight a year ago, yet the problem still exists.

Next Match

Our next match is against Newcastle which will prove to be quite the challenge. With any luck, they'll be off it on the day and we can get a lucky goal or two, but Bruno and Ugarte will be suspended, which means we will need to use the likes of Eriksen and Casemiro, or other unfavored players from the bench just to field a starting 11 while not leaving reinforcements for the later periods of the match. That is on December 30th.