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Fulham 0 Man Utd 1: Martinez’s deflected strike sends all three points back to Manchester in huge boost for Amorim
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LIFE now begins for birthday boy Ruben Amorim - and he will now hope his team can also start enjoying themselves.
Amorim will be blowing out 40 candles on a cake today and at least he will not be in a rotten mood, which has been the case the day after most of his United games.
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On this occasion, there was no TV smashing in the dressing room although by the time Lisandro Martinez scored a 78th minute winner, many fans at home will have switched off their television sets as the game was so bad.
But thanks to Martinez, who got away with a nasty challenge on sub Adama Traore before the goal, United will now look to win a third successive game for the first time under Amorim when they travel to Romania to face FCSB on Thursday.
Amorim’s name was sung enthusiastically by the United fans who will not have headed to west London with too much confidence.
While the United boss is unlikely to be getting a birthday card off skinflint boss Jim Ratcliffe - and he was here at Craven Cottage - Amorim will be hoping to get a few presents in the transfer market this week.
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Despite this win, only a seventh under the Portuguese coach, it remains clear United are still desperately short of quality, particularly in the final third,
While they might not be the worst team in United’s history, despite those bombshell comments from the manager, the fact they are 12th in the Premier League sums up this embarrassing situation.
Where United go this season remains to be seen although at least they will not get relegated like 51 years ago. But great entertainers they are certainly not.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino will certainly regret heading to west London for this match which only became interesting in the closing stages.
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The family of Hollywood star Julia Roberts were also supposed to come but they cried off and that proved to be an incredibly wise decision.
The Magnificent Seven by The Clash was played at half-time although there was nothing magnificent about this game which kicked off at the unusual time of 7pm.
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Alex Iwobi fired a couple of efforts at United keeper Andre Onana but they were not particularly testing ones.
Raul Jimenez delivered a couple of wild finishes but against this awful United team, Fulham would have expected to do better,
United did not manage a shot on target until the 42nd minute although it was not much of one with Matthijs De Ligt’s effort easily gathered by Bernd Leno.
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Amad Diallo, one of United’s better performers recently, looked lost on the right while Alejandro Garnacho - who started despite being a January window target for clubs including Chelsea - had a few bright moments and played a part in the winning goal.
Marco Silva’s Fulham were less of a threat in the second half and they lost Harry Wilson who hobbled off towards Cottage and they are unlikely to see him play away at Wigan in the FA Cup on Saturday.
In Wilson’s place, Fulham brought on speed merchant Traore down the left and worried about his pace, Amorim switched Noussair Mazraoui over to the right of defence with Diogo Dalot moving across to left wing-back.
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Despite Fulham being unusually passive, United were so lacklustre.
They had one free-kick in a dangerous area and bizarrely, keeper Onana raced to the touchline on halfway to get a view of the angle and he shouted at Bruno Fernandes to try his luck in the top right corner.
Whether this was a clever ploy or Fernandes could not be bothered to take any notice of his colleague remains to be seen, But United’s captain went for the bottom left corner but he shot wide.
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Traore added a bit of spark although as ever, his final product was not great and he wasted one good chance while he then suffered that crunching tackle from Martinez.
And then, the United centre-back delivered an impact at the other end of the pitch.
He seized on a loose pass from Sander Berge, nipped in front of Jimenez, and his shot deflected off Sasa Lukic and looped over keeper Keno who was able to get a hand to the shot.
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United sub Toby Collyer saved his team with a goal-line clearance from Joachim Andersen’s header.
Diallo thought he had got the second deep into stoppage time but it was ruled out by VAR but Amorim would not be bothered about that,
Now aged 40, Amorim still looks youthful.
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But what a couple of years in the job at United will do to him remains to be seen.
There will certainly be plenty of grey hairs.
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