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Rob Dawson, Correspondent
MANCHESTER, England — Ruben Amorim still has to prepare for one more Sporting Lisbon game before taking over as Manchester United‘s new head coach, but Amad Diallo can only hope his soon-to-be boss was watching his performance against PAOK FC.
The 22-year-old winger struggled for opportunities under former manager Erik ten Hag, who was sacked by the club last week. Recalled to the team by caretaker Ruud van Nistelrooy for Thursday’s Europa League tie against the Greek champions, he was United’s best player and scored both goals in a 2-0 win.
Amad‘s back post header early in the second half helped his team edge in front in a game, which had been finely balanced up until that point. His second, a curling effort from the edge of the penalty area, sealed United’s first win in European competition for more than a year.
Amorim will be busy balancing his preparations for Sporting’s game at Braga on Sunday with early assessment of the squad he will inherit when he starts work at Old Trafford on Monday. In that sense, it was perfect timing for Amad — he did more than enough against POAK for his new coach to put a tick next to his name.
“He is a great character,” Van Nistelrooy said of Amad. “A hard worker and he shows it in every training session. Every day after training he comes to me and wants to do extra finishing, extra crossing, how can I improve my heading.
“He’s constantly focused on learning and getting better, living in a professional way and he’s very motivated to get the best out of his career. I was very pleased for him.”
On the final whistle, United’s official Instagram account posted a picture of Amad with the caption, “let him cook.” The problem, though, is that he’s hardly been allowed in the kitchen. It became a mystery to some United fans as to why he was continually overlooked by Ten Hag.
The Ivorian was responsible for one of the best moments of Ten Hag’s reign, when he ran half the length of the pitch to score a stoppage time winner against Liverpool in the FA Cup last season. Despite his heroics that day, he struggled to regularly break into the team.
Amad scored on a rare Premier League start against Brighton in August, but was dropped for the next game against Liverpool a week later. Handed another start against Southampton, he registered an assist for Marcus Rashford in a 3-0 win. Since then, his involvement has been largely limited to the role of impact substitute.
In from the start against POAK, he made the most of his chance. He was unlucky not to win a penalty when a quick and direct run into the box was only ended by a clumsy challenge from Baba Rahman. Shortly afterwards, his ferocious pressing, which ended with a crunching tackle on the opposite side of the pitch was met with a huge cheer from the Stretford End.
His looping header in the 50th minute put United in front, but Amad’s second goal was better. After robbing Rahman of the ball, he took a couple more touches and bent his finish into the far corner. He went off in the 80th minute, the game won, and got a bear hug from Van Nistelrooy and a standing ovation from the home fans.
Van Nistelrooy wasn’t happy with United’s first-half performance — POAK had more shots and more shots on target in the first 45 minutes — but Amad saved the Dutchman from an embarrassing blemish on his caretaker CV.
“The first half wasn’t good, that’s clear,” said Van Nistelrooy. “I addressed the positioning a lot at half-time. We left positions too much in the first half and that’s why we couldn’t get going.
“In the first half Amad was our best player and in the second half he decided the game for us. He was excellent. The second goal had everything in it that for me is Amad Diallo. He fought to take the ball off the PAOK defender, pushed through to get the shot and had the quality to curl it round the goalkeeper.”
As impressive as he was, Amad still has reason to feel nervous about Amorim’s arrival.
As an out-and-out winger, his position doesn’t really exist in the Portuguese coach’s favoured 3-4-3 system. Instead of forwards ordered to stay high and wide, Amorim usually picks two narrow attackers behind a central striker. It’s possible Amad could fill one of the wing-back roles, but that would require more defensive responsibility than he’s used to.
Concerns about where they might fit in under Amorim are not limited to Amad. Established senior players like Bruno Fernandes and Rashford will also be trying to work out what their role might be once he takes charge.
Van Nistelrooy is in the same boat. He’s overseen two wins and a draw from his three games as interim boss, but ahead of his final assignment against Leicester on Sunday he’s still waiting to hear whether or not he will be retained as part of the new-look backroom staff.
“I’ve got to check my phone now, we’ll see later,” he joked during his post-match news conference.
The next time United play in the Europa League against Bodo/Glimt in three weeks’ time, Amorim will be on the touchline. Amad and Van Nistelrooy can only hope they get prominent roles when the new era gets underway.