Mbeumo’s Bar
The informed opinion, amongst soccer experts, seems to have been that Manchester United manager, Ruben Amorim, former right midfielder for Portugal (14 caps) and Benfica (2008-17), had a system, but didn’t have the players. Despite obtaining, for around £200m, from Germany’s Bundesliga club, RB Leipzig, Slovenia’s right footed center forward, Benjamin Šeško; Wolves’ right footed Brazilian center forward, or inverted left wing/inside left, Matheus Cunha, and Brentford Town’s left footed winger; often inverted right winger/inside right, Cameroon’s Bryan Mbeumo: before the commencement of the 2025-26 season.
On August 27th, 2025, on its south bank, where the Humber river estuary joins the North Sea, the Trafford club, looking to build New Trafford Stadium for the 2030-31 season, at a cost of £2 billion for 100,000 fans, were summarily dumped out of the League Cup, 2nd round, by fourth tier Grimsby Town, ‘The Mariners’, at their North East Lincolnshire ‘fishing hole’, Blundell Park, Cleethorpes, with a squad valued at £3.6m in toto,1 watched by a near capacity, 8,647(9,546), crowd.
The team had gone behind, 0-2, at half-time, with eyebrows already having risen at Amorim’s inability to win his first league game of the season, on August 17th at ‘the theater of dreams’ stadium, Old Trafford. Losing at home to Arsenal of London’s Islington, after Turkish ‘keeper, Altay Bayindir, in for Cameroon’s injured, and also at times hapless, André Onana, trying left-handed to push away, and behind him, midfielder Declan Rice’s right-footed, viciously in-swinging 13th minute corner from the left, failed. Italian left back, Riccardo Calafiori, headed in at the back post, 0-1.
United had just a single point out of a possible six, following upon the side’s second match, on 24th August, away, at London’s Fulham, 1-0, after an own goal credited to Brazilian center forward, Rodrigo Muniz, on 58 minutes, giving United the lead, although central defender Yoro looked to have headed home the corner on the right from Fernandes. It’d be a start to the league campaign as ignominious for the forward line as the end to the previous term’s had been. Losing 6 out of 8, and failing to score in 5, before defeat to London’s Tottenham Hotspur, 0-1, in the Europa Cup Final on May 21st, 2025, at the stadium of Athletic Club, Nuevo San Mamés, Bilbao, Spain.
The defence, caught square by a left wing cross on the left, right-footed, from Nigerian midfielder, Alex Iwobi, with Yoro and de Light ball-watching, as attacking midfielder, Emile Smith Rowe, on for central midfielder, Joshua King, on 71 minutes, ran in at the near post, ahead of his opponent, left footed Luke Shaw, left side of the United defence; square, watching Emile level, right-footed to ‘keeper Bayindir’s right, 1-1.
In that first home game against Arsenal, Shaw, left back by trade, had begun on the left of the three-at-the-back defensive formation, favored by Amorim, with Portugal’s Diogo Dalot, as a right wing back, which made tactical sense; though emphasizing the loss of left sided Argentine center back, Lisandro Martínez, ‘The Butcher’, to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) damage, after colliding with Senegal winger, Ismaïla Sarr, during the home defeat to Crystal Palace, 0-2, on February 2nd, 2025. Martínez, replaced by de Light on 82 minutes, with the score 0-1, was the defender United needed, with Shaw as the alternative wing back to Denmark’s Patrick Dorgu.
A defensive wing back, like Shaw on the left, in the event of a fit Martínez, as a left sided central defender, Dalot could function as a right full back; in the face of pressure being applied down the flank there. Without Martínez, selecting a defensive right wing back, Dalot, and a left full back, that is, Shaw, permitted of four at the back, as required, while having the option to attack down the right, or left side, from the wing back position. Ruben’s 1-3-4-3 system depended on the selection of either a left back with two central defenders, or a right back with the same, where Martínez, or similar (Ayden Heaven, for example), was central and left sided; together with complimenting defensive/attacking left/right wing backs.
However, Amorim’s invariable selection was of three center backs, whose sidedness often seemed largely incidental; though reminiscent of a half-back line: most familiar to supporters from the 1968 European Cup Winning side that beat Benfica, 4-1, (1-1), a.e.t., at London’s national Wembley stadium on May 29th. Scot, Pat Crerand, right half; Bill Foulkes, center half, and ‘Nobby’ Stiles, left half. As good left and right half backs are generally the equivalent of ball-playing midfielders, only the central back (in that ‘68 team, ex-right full back, Bill Foulkes), is an out-and-out defender; flanked by no-nonsense, strong-tackling, full backs to left and right. Without that ball-playing ability, as what are essentially half-backs, Amorim’s three, out-and-out center backs, were redundant; without even being anachronistic. Twin center backs, and a left or right sided central defender/full back, with a defensive wing back, and perhaps an attacking wing back on the other flank, were the manageable system; unless the central defensive trio had enough skill, which wasn’t in evidence.
With substitutes being of paramount significance within such a system, Amorim’s bear examination. Leaving aside Amorim’s replacing top-scorer, Marcus Rashford, at inverted inside left, with right-footed attacking midfielder, Mason Mount, which older fans have seen before. In the summer of ‘78, manager Dave Sexton similarly replaced top-scorer, left wing, Gordon Hill, with the ultimately unproductive industry of Wales’ Mickey Thomas from Wrexham. Similarly indicative of Ruben as a defensive personality was his discarding of goalscoring Argentine right winger, Alejandro Garnacho, in preference for Ivory Coast’s left footed, inverted right winger, Amad Diallo, as a right wing back.
The selecting of inverted winger, Amad, joint top-scorer with Portugal midfielder, Bruno Fernandes, on 8 for 2024-25, as a left wing full back, on the right side of the pitch, seemed a punishment on Diallo, by a sadistic pervert, rather than team strategy. Amorim’s first change on 55 minutes against Arsenal, 0-1 after 13 minutes, was to bring on Diallo, an attacking wing back, for Dalot, a defensive wing back. The other change in the back line was to take off Shaw, after 80 minutes, for left sided center back, Harry Maguire, alongside France’s Leny Yoro, and the Netherlands’ Matthijs de Ligt, which gave the side three out-and-out central defenders, designed to compensate the incorporation of Amad on the right, while the covering left back/left wing back was Dorgu.
The technical description for Manchester United’s problem was, ‘square’, that is, central defenders, positioned in a straight line across the field, parallel to the goal-line, are easily beaten by through balls, because they’re ‘too square’, whereas particularly left, and naturally right sided, full backs, or left sided central defenders, like Martínez, Maguire, and Heaven, aren’t ‘square on’, but designedly ‘zonal’.
Amorim began against Fulham at Craven Cottage, with Diallo as an attacking right wing back, although the side were ahead after 58 minutes, through Muniz’s own goal, albeit subsequent to defensive right wing back Dalot’s replacing Amad on 52 minutes. However, United couldn’t recover from the defensive change, designed to achieve a draw, and drew, 1-1. Center halves, Tyler Fredricson, age 20, Maguire, age 32, and left sided Heaven, age 18, started as a ‘flat back three’ at Blundell Park, with Dalot as the right wing back, and Diallo as inverted inside right. United were down, 0-2, after half an hour, because of a largely inexperienced back three, and the propensity of such a formation to be ‘caught square’.
In the 22nd minute, Ayden had gone across to counter Irish right winger, Darragh Burns. Crossing, left-footed, right side of the 20 yard box, and in front of it, over and beyond Maguire in the center, and Fredricson on the right. The defenders, caught square, forced to turn, look for the ball, and run. Arriving, inside the 20 yard box, left corner of Onana’s penalty area, left winger, Charles Vernam, fiercely shoots; striking low, right-footed. Inside ‘keeper André’s right post, 0-1, with United’s right wing back, Dalot, significantly absent. In the 30th minute, Onana faps ineffectually at a right-footed Vernam cross, left corner of the 20 yard box, following a short corner; leaving right back, Tyrell Warren, a simple task: footing the ball over the line with his right boot. Behind the mistake-prone African, 0-2.
With a Premier League squad, comprised of rare talent from Europe, Africa, South America, and the British Isles, United unsurprisingly recovered, 2-2, late on. Inside right, Mbeumo, coming on for left wing back, Dorgu, in the 46th minute, curling a low, left-footed ball, from the right of the ‘D’, on the edge of the 20 yard box, into the bottom left corner of Christy Pym’s net, 1-2, on 75 minutes, before Maguire’s equalizing header, inside the far post right, following an 89th minute corner, on the left, right-footed, from Mount, coming on for Heaven in the 64th minute, 2-2.
Cunha could have won the tie, 5-3, on penalties, but fourth tier, Second Division Town ‘keeper Pym saved; low to his left. The penalty decider went on, 4-4. With penalties at 11-12, Mbeumo hit the bar; ‘sudden death’ and humiliating defeat for the first tier outfit.
1 Transfermarkt, https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/grimsby-town/kader/verein/1034 .