I believe many United supporters have been feeling this way recently.

The excitement that we have with Ruben’s arrival and the first impact on the team has been great, I believe.

But only at times.

However, there’s many things I don’t think to be possible to change.

Not in one month, not with 6 months, even if training every day.

The team is far from being great, we all know that.

There’s almost no time to train (again, no news) and with the trials being completed, the future is getting clear with the matches moving and the stability of players used is arriving.

Maybe, that’s the biggest news at the moment!

The Scouting Department, and probably others, have been distracted over the last years.

No news there, as well.

The Culture is, definitely, not the biggest strength the Club enjoyed for many years, we’ve all heard that.

There’s no news here and I don’t want to take the responsibility from Ruben’s shoulders.

Yes, the team wasn’t built from or for him.

There’s no news, again.

Just as there’s no news that set pieces are incredible challenging and different from the world pattern of rules understanding.

No news, and all at the League play with the same rules.

Therefore, enough excuses!

On the other hand, what Ruben (and the players) can control isn’t generating great results.

Yesterday’s’ match presented us with the closest starting 11 available that I believe Ruben found for his plan, which may indicate that he’s finding his plan (and stability).

But the performance was poor.

The first half showed a team that wasn’t conceding a lot, but creating none.

The forward trio (Bruno, Amad and Højlund) couldn’t find the right space, the right momentum, the last pass, the movements.

Let’s start there, and I’m leaving my last comments today to Bruno Fernandes.

On one side, Amad creates a constant signal of danger to the opposite team.

He has that power.

But the decision making was poor, and Mazraoui should probably be frustrated with the amount of overlaps he made without correspondence from the winger. 

And, as anyone that played knows, if the winger isn’t passing to the right or left back, they will eventually give-up moving forwards.

At least, with the same hopes and intensity.

Just to give you an example of his performance, he couldn’t succeed in any drible and his pass accuracy was on 80%.

Much lower than previous games.

On the other side, Højlund isn’t progressing what he could with Ruben.

I believe him to be someone with the potential to be very important under Ruben.

Not only for the profile, but also because there will be limited financial resources to spend in Winter Transfer Window, and definitely a top Striker isn’t something that Manchester United is able to achieve in January.

And there are other positions that require special attention and urgency.

Højlund, however, has been less effective in his actions.

Although he’s very strong physically and be the pin-man Ruben needs when the team is being pressed, his decision making when the ball reaches him and his passing skills are taking too long, too many touches to deliver, when not losing completely the ball possession.

He ended yesterday’s game with 63% of pass accuracy…

And that completely breaks the flow of the play, allowing the defensive team to recover. 

Additionally, on the midfield there’s still an engine to work upon.

Ugarte and Mainoo are the strongest contenders for this space, but they are still trying to understand each other, the movements required.

Specially Mainoo, once he’s required to increase his action-area, make more offensive movements, creating different passing options when the ball reaches the last third, etc.

The subs Eriksen and Casemiro aren’t the profile needed for that position, as we all know, and I think Ruben understands the moment to show that there’s an urgency in having more options there.

The defensive line was ok, and although we get the feeling that it’s very easy to create danger situations against Man United, I can’t say it’s exclusive fault of the players that were there.

Yes, they aren’t the most reliable and perfect players.

But Yoro getting a yellow card on the first minutes affected, having to deal consecutively with Matheus Cunha finding the gap between the midfielders and defender and facing them gets harder and uncomfortable with the time passing by. 

Onana has been struggling, not providing the right confidence to the team.

Although we look at him and we think he’s very confident, his performances aren’t supporting the image he wants to give.

Additionally, we can’t say there’s a real competition in the squad for this position.

And the momentum isn’t helping, definitely.

Finally, there’s Bruno Fernandes.

The captain, the one representing the Coach on the field.

The expected example.

However, what we’re getting isn’t that.

Since Ruben arrived, he scored 2 goals and made 3 assists.

Not bad for 10 matches, theoretically.

But, isn’t that what we’re talking here.

There’s no doubts that (specially in this team’s context) Bruno is a very good player.

He can contribute with goals and assists, even with the position changes and struggles we’ve been talking about in the recent posts, specially when he plays in the front 3, where he still feels lost.

However, the same player has been sent off 3 times this Season (!)

We cannot accept that.

He cannot accept that.

That’s not the example one expects from a team captain.

Even with the attitude not being the best at all times, being known for a special temper when the ball, or play, doesn’t follow what he believes to be the best, we can all try to forget that once the performances match the figure.

At this point, everything is too painful.

Every match is a hope transformed into an inconvenient experience.

Let’s hope that in 3 days, against Newcastle we can have a good day.

But Ruben desperately waits for January.

And we all do.