MANCHESTER, England — If Ruben Amorim managed to get any sleep ahead of Sunderland’s visit to Old Trafford — such is the pressure on Manchester United head coach — then this is the type of day he would have dreamt about.
In desperate need of a result in his 50th game in charge to dampen the noise around whether he remains the right man for the job at United, everything went his way on Saturday.
His changes to the team worked, there were goals from Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko, Sunderland missed chances and United won 2-0. The visitors even had a penalty overturned by VAR. After his complaints of being on the wrong end of fine margins this season, Amorim will perhaps feel he was due.
The first question of his post-match news conference summed it up: it was put to him that it must have been nice to finally oversee a routine Premier League win. “Yeah,” replied Amorim, with the look of a man who needed it.
“We didn’t play well during all of the game but we had our moments,” he said. “But if you look at our performance, it was a team, with focus, defending well and trying to kill the game in the second half.”
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Amorim spent his Friday news conference fiercely defending his system after criticism from Gary Neville and Wayne Rooney. He resisted any temptation there might have been to switch his tactical set-up against Sunderland, but he did change his goalkeeper.
Senne Lammens was handed his first start since his £18.2 million deadline day move from Royal Antwerp in place of Altay Bayindir. It was a decision many United fans have been demanding for weeks.
And when Lammens made his first save — diving to his left to turn Granit Xhaka’s shot round the post — it prompted a huge cheer from the stands. The 23-year-old Belgian youth international got an even bigger ovation moments later when he stepped off his line to catch and hold a deep cross just before half-time.
By then United were already in front. Mount, brought back into the team by Amorim, scored after eight minutes with a clever touch and finish. Sesko made it 2-0 midway through the first half with his second goal in consecutive games.
Sunderland played their part in a perfect half for Amorim and his team. Bertrand Traoré missed a golden chance after just four minutes when Diogo Dalot, playing at left wing-back in place of Patrick Dorgu, was caught flat-footed. Dan Ballard should have scored with a header.
In amongst it all, referee Stuart Attwell awarded Sunderland a penalty for a high boot from Sesko. It was swiftly overturned thanks to VAR Neil Davies, who spotted that there had been little if any contact with Trai Hume’s face.
Given the way things went for Lammens on his debut he might have saved the spot-kick anyway. In the final minute, he made a save from Sunderland substitute Chemsdine Talbi and followed it up with another catch from a cross to earn United their first clean sheet of the season.
Fans in the Stretford End began to sing “are you Schmeichel in disguise?”
“He looks confident in the first game but the important thing is the teammates help Senne to have a good game,” said Amorim. “Everyone is focused, not a lot of mistakes, we did well as a group effort.
“When Senne arrived here, first of all Altay was playing. Then he arrives and you can feel he needs to adapt. New country, new training and the pressure you guys [the media] put on the goalkeeper is massive. Now he is just one game and needs to work, he needs to be prepared that in our club things are hard.”
When the songs for Lammens finally died down, supporters started up a chorus on “Amorim’s red and white army.”
There’s still support for the Portuguese coach, but he will need more days like this before the real faith returns. Fans who have already decided he needs to go will point out that victory over Sunderland was another against a newly-promoted team.
Five of Amorim’s 10 Premier League wins have come against teams only just promoted from the Championship. Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton last season. Burnley and Sunderland this.
“There is no momentum with our team,” Amorim said. “We know what happens when we win one game. The frustration is not to see the same team at home and away.
“We didn’t play well in the second half but we focused and we fought hard for second balls. These small things are going to help us win games.”
If nothing else, United’s first comfortable league win since beating Leicester 3-0 in March should give Amorim a relatively relaxed international break.
Next up is a much bigger test against champions Liverpool at Anfield. Dream up a win there and he might finally be able to sleep soundly.