Rúben Amorim has his second go-to star at Manchester United after two months at Old Trafford

Rúben Amorim has discovered a second go-to star at Manchester United following his opening two months as head coach at Old Trafford.

Before the 82nd minute of Thursday night’s dramatic win over Southampton, it looked to be another frustrating evening for Manchester United fans.

Yet in what is now becoming standard practice for the Ivorian winger, Amad stepped up in United’s moment of need. This time, doing so in style with a rapid hat-trick. This made him the second youngest United player to ever score a hattrick.

Since Rúben Amorim was instated as United’s new head coach two months ago, Amad has come up with a late winner away against Manchester City – having won the penalty for United’s equaliser six minutes earlier, an equaliser at Anfield, he dispatched his penalty with ease against Arsenal in the FA Cup third round shootout, and of course, scored that brilliant hat-trick.

In the week leading up to the Arsenal game he signed a new contract that will extend his United stay until 2030, and fans have a lot of reason to be excited about securing the future of a player who is fast staking a claim to being United’s main man.

Building resilience through hardship

Pressure creates diamonds, and Amad has faced a lot of pressure in his life. Originally born in Abidjan, he moved to Italy at a young age – later being investigated for doing so illegally. He didn’t have an easy upbringing but his footballing talent was always very evident, with Atalanta eventually signing him to their academy.

There was a lot of promise when he moved to Manchester United, and he scored just minutes into his first appearance with the club with an incredible backwards header against AC Milan. But his road to being one of the team’s most important players, as he is now, wasn’t so smooth.

Amad faced difficulties with injuries, had a loan to Feyenoord cancelled and then an unsuccessful one at Rangers, and was then loaned again when new boss Erik ten Hag came in – this time to Sunderland – with the club throwing away £85 million on Antony, signalling his path being blocked.

The loan at Sunderland was successful, but when he came back to United he picked up an injury in pre-season and once he recovered he was not given a real chance to get minutes in the team despite it being clear that players starting ahead of him were not performing.

At one point, it looked very uncertain if he would even stay at United, seemingly wanting to return to Sunderland. Whilst he impressed towards the end of the 2023/24 season and started this current campaign as one of the team’s key players, he was again dropped and given limited minutes for a while.

Quality always shines through

United fans have always been strongly in support of Amad, his humble character and aggressive passion for football speaking to their hearts in a way not every footballer can, and could see his talent even from the small glimpses he was given.

Since November he has become a fixture in the starting XI, and the team is clearly much better for it. Amad is often United’s brightest spark in attack with his technical prowess, bravery, and appetite for responsibility shining through.

He has become Amorim’s second go-to star at the club after initial fantastic performances from Noussair Mazraoui across the black line cemented his place as an essential cog for the head coach.

He is United’s joint-top assister in the Premier League and, after the Southampton hat-trick, also a top scorer, the first to score a hat-trick for United since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2022.

He is one of United’s top creators and dribblers, and always puts in an incredible shift out of possession – his pressing earning him his hat-trick goal on Thursday evening.

Amad is also an incredibly popular member of the squad due to his character and quality, and it was evident to see how much the players value him with their reactions to his hattrick at full time. He is often seen joking around on social media with his fellow teammates.

Amad is fast becoming Manchester United’s go-to man for the big moments, and those hardships he faced in his life and early part of his career are undoubtedly a huge part of creating that. By overcoming them he has built incredible bravery and resilience and this directly translates to football, where like life, no situation is too much for him to handle.

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