Wayne Rooney concerned for Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United again: ‘We’re seeing things we were seeing last season’

United were looking to follow up a mostly encouraging display in defeat to Arsenal in the opening round last weekend and missed a chance to take a first-half lead against Fulham when Bruno Fernandes blazed a penalty over the crossbar, moments after stumbling into the referee. It needed an own-goal by Fulham striker Rodrigo Muniz, who deflected in a header at a corner from United’s Leny Yoro, to give United the lead in the 58th. Amorim’s team couldn’t hold on as substitute Emile Smith Rowe poked home a cross from Alex Iwobi for the 73rd-minute equalizer.

“You should see United at the start of a new season saying: ‘Right, last season’s gone. Let’s make sure we have a good start and let’s stick together.’ Already, though, we’re starting to see those gaps, so that’s a big concern for me,” Rooney said. “We’re seeing things we were seeing last season. I hoped all the mistakes, players walking and being easy to play against at times would have gone, but that was a bit of a worry.”

United had an awful 2024-’25 season, losing in the Europa League final and finishing 15th in the Premier League table, losing a whopping 18 times. But after showing plenty of ambition in the transfer window with the recruitments of Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, there were expectations of a turnaround. After two matches however, the familiar concerns have started circling again.

“Players are getting moved around the pitch and into different positions. You see Mason Mount playing two or three positions, Cunha, Mbeumo, Amad… the players are moving into different positions and then from that you can’t get settled,” Rooney explained.

“It can be very frustrating. And then all of a sudden you get fed up with it and that shows through body language as well. I just hope that doesn’t start to happen with these new players because there’s a lot of ability in there. And already early on, the worry is there are three centre-backs but it’s too easy for forward and midfield players to get on to the centre back.

Bumping into the referee

A misstep by the referee might have contributed to Fernandes missing a penalty for Manchester United in the Premier League. Fernandes was walking backward away from the ball in readiness to take the spot kick against Fulham when he stumbled into referee Chris Kavanagh, who was trying to get round the United captain on Sunday. Fernandes threw up his arms to complain, went back to the ball and picked it up. After some seconds, Fernandes put the ball back down and attempted to compose himself before taking the penalty, which he powered over the crossbar. It left the score at 0-0 heading into halftime at Craven Cottage.

“I was upset. Obviously, as every penalty taker, you have your own routines. You have your own things that you do. It upset me because the referee didn’t apologize, and that was what triggered me in that moment,” Fernandes told Sky Sports. “But that’s not the excuse to missing the penalty. I just had a very bad hit on the ball. I got my foot too (much) under the ball, and that’s why the ball went over the bar.”

After the teams came out for the second half, Fernandes was seen talking to Kavanagh before the game restarted and United manager Ruben Amorim felt the penalty miss impacted the Portugal midfielder’s performance for the rest of the game, which finished 1-1. “He’s not used to missing a penalty,” Amorim said. “He knows the importance, that every moment in this context can have a huge impact in the team and I felt during the game he was not so happy. Not so involved because he has so much responsibility.”

(With AP inputs)