Manchester United stars raised their game to earn a well-deserved draw at Anfield against Premier League leaders Liverpool, with the players now told to maintain their performance levels – or risk being sold
Alan Shearer believes Ruben Amorim has a “free pass” to get rid of Manchester United players who do not maintain the level of performance they showed against Liverpool.
United finally ended a torrid run of four defeats on the bounce with a 2-2 draw in Sunday’s Premier League meeting at Anfield. The clash between the two bitter old rivals did not disappoint, as a thrilling end-to-end encounter saw the Red Devils take the lead initially thanks to Lisandro Martinez.
Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah responded by putting the league leaders in front, before United’s exciting attacking play saw Amad score the crucial equaliser, with a late chance missed by Harry Maguire to almost certainly win the game. The outcome appeared more important than a mere point at Anfield as United’s players finally showed the commitment, aggression and ability required to play Amorim’s newly-implemented formation, two months after his appointment.
Shearer stated on the latest episode of The Rest Is Football podcast that he was impressed with the away side’s performance. But the Premier League’s all-time leading scorer insisted those players cannot now revert to their previous levels – or they risk being sold.
The Newcastle United legend said: “I thought Man United were excellent. What I would say is that they’ve now set their standard. That was without doubt their best performance. I was really impressed with them.
“They’ve been under the cosh, they’ve been criticised left, right and centre but when you put in a performance like that. They looked up for it and organised. There were some brilliant performances.”
Co-host Gary Lineker then asked: “United fans will be saying ‘that’s the commitment we want to see week in week out’. Fair?”
Shearer agreed, saying that Amorim also has a right to demand similar performances from his players going forward. He added that Old Trafford bosses will afford the Portuguese head coach the time required to figure out who he should keep and offload in future transfer windows.
Shearer, who won a Premier League title with Blackburn Rovers, said: “Without a doubt that’s fair, they have to produce that every week after showing they can do that. They showed they’ve got aggression. Where has it been? I couldn’t tell you. And all the other question marks that have been put against them.
“Right, let’s see what you’ve got now boys. You’ve shown us it once, we need it every single week now. Not just now and again. If they do then they’ll be alright. If not then the manager will obviously have a free pass to get rid of them.”
Fellow host Micah Richards also asked Shearer: “Do we need to give the players a little bit more time in terms of being able to do what he wants? It’s not like he’s got the required players. He’s still figuring out exactly what he needs to do, would that be a fair comment?”
“Without doubt, and he will rightly be given the time to suss his players out with who he wants to keep and bring in and get rid of,” Shearer responded. “You’re never going to get a completely free pass, but because of the issues Man United have had for so long, he has to be given the time to do what he wants to do.
“It will take time but I think he will be feeling more confident today after a performance like that. He will sleep a lot easier tonight than he has done in the last two months.”
Amorim has sought to implement his trademark 3-4-2-1 formation that reaped so much success at Sporting CP, which he admits has proven more difficult than he anticipated given the limited training sessions he has had to work with in the busy festive period. It is a completely different set-up to the one the players were accustomed to under predecessor Erik ten Hag, with wing-backs now used instead of full-backs and a new-look front-three.
It means Amorim has only won four of his 12 matches in charge in all competitions, with his side down in 13th in the league table. But, as mentioned by Shearer, Amorim now has a far better idea of which players he can work with.
Most notably, former talisman Marcus Rashford has been frozen out of the side in recent weeks, with the forward’s future now looking likely to lie elsewhere. Conversely, Amad, who was given few opportunities under Ten Hag, has established himself under Amorim as one of United’s most important players for the future.
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