For a minute or so English football must have felt terribly easy to Ruben Amorim. One stroll down the touchline, one handshake, one shrill of a referee’s whistle and, almost immediately, one goal for Manchester United. Eighty seconds into his reign as United manager and there was the first return on his club’s investment in one of Europe’s most talked about young coaches.
And then United remembered who they were and it all started to feel a little different. Reality dawned on Amorim, just as he probably suspected it would. This is the United team who struggle to win at places like this, who struggle to put away teams who play with spirit and belief and adventure and without fear. So pretty soon Amorim’s rejigged United team was back in muscle memory mode. They didn’t score again and never really looked like it. By the end many of the big stats were dressed in Ipswich blue and United were heading home with the draw that felt just about fair to both teams.
Let’s be right about this. United did look a little bit better than the rancid rabble left behind by Erik ten Hag. Gone was the chaos of the Dutchman’s latter weeks. United did the basic stuff better. They didn’t give the ball away constantly. They remembered to run. Marcus Rashford played up front and scored a nice goal. Who needs New York anyway?
There was a time not long ago when the sight of Roy Keane confronting a fan who was rude to him as he prepared to opine for Sky on the touchline would have prompted bad jokes about him being the most aggressive United figure in the stadium. But not this time. United did not wear that coat here.
The truth is that United gave Amorim some of the things he had asked for – the effort and the care – and also maybe some of the stuff that – having watched them on TV – he feared they would. They continued to look rather blunt up front and a little short of gas as the game wore on in midfield. His goalkeeper Andre Onana, meanwhile, was one of his best players.
But at least this game didn’t collapse around him as so many did for Ten Hag. United remained in it until the end and when Onana was called upon to make one final save – in the 87th minute from Ipswich substitute Conor Chaplin – he did so.
Ruben Amorim kicked off his Manchester United reign with a disappointing 1-1 draw at Ipswich

Marcus Rashford got Amorim’s United off to a flying start with a goal inside just two minutes

He coolly converted Amad Diallo’s ball into the penalty box before wheeling away to celebrate
And the result – given the way things have gone for United so far this season – was quite okay. No shame in drawing at Ipswich as long as you do it the right way. Amorim had less than a week to work with his players, to drill them in the 3-4-2-1 formation that he has promised to play. It was never going to be perfect and it certainly wasn’t. But it was better in part and that may well be enough for Amorim for now.
At the start his walk from the tunnel along the touchline to the dug out was under stated. Not so much as a wave to the travelling fans. Plenty of time for that as the show rolls on. Then, when his team started in such sensational fashion, he barely moved.
The away section was a little different. ‘Limbs’ is the modern word for it. And why not? United’s travelling support are a loyal and hardy bunch and they lived off a diet of disappointment and chaos for the last decade. So here was something to get excited about.
It was a lovely goal, too. United played the ball with width and purpose and when young Amad Diallo got away from two Ipswich challenges that should have been stronger down the right, he looked up to see red bodies pouring forward. Rashford, playing as a striker with a £100m of recent signings in that position on the bench, drove hard towards the near post and poked the low cross in with his instep as Ipswich goalkeeper Arijanet Muric waited in vain to scoop the ball up.
Rashford has been here before. He scored within three minutes of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first game – away at Cardiff in December 2018 – and United went on to win that one 5-1. Here, Rashford – back from his trip to New York last weekend to join yet another United rebirth – had given Amorim and his team a platform once again.
United were better for a good while. It has been obvious for so long that this team needed coaching. They needed someone to nudge them back towards doing the basics right. That was evident almost immediately.
United kept the ball better in their own half and that gave them some possession on which to work. They ran harder and they were compact and clear and proper. On a couple of occasions they moved the ball from back to front cleverly and with direction. They carried a threat this way. They were, in short, proving themselves to be better at the unsexy stuff. They defended two or three corners comfortably. When their back three needed to number five, it quickly became so.
Equally, Ipswich were not here to self-sacrifice. They had started the game terribly and could have folded. They could have bowed to the occasion. But they didn’t and the truth is that – apart from two speculative Alejandro Garnacho efforts – United didn’t create another chance of note for most of the game.

Ipswich equalised just before half time thanks to a glorious effort from Omari Hutchinson

A fire alarm at Stockley Park led to VAR going down for six minutes towards the end of the first half – when Ipswich scored their equaliser – and it also led to a brief stoppage in the match

Hutchinson (right) has proved a bright spark for Ipswich during their fight against relegation

The result proved there’s lots of work to be done under Amorim, with United still stuck in 12th
It took a while but over the course of the first half, Ipswich found a way in to the game and then started to take control of it. By the time the home team equalised just before half-time, a goal had been coming.
Occasionally Ipswich found some joy down either side but more often their progress came through the middle, United’s rather old midfield finding it hard to stop the players in blue finding holes and feeding the dangerous attacking players Liam Delap and, in particular, Omari Hutchinson.
Sam Szmodics could have equalised early on, lifting a bouncing ball over the crossbar from about seven yards. It was a decent chance. Better was the low drive supplied by the same player from 20 yards in the eleventh minute. United goalkeeper Onana had to save that one, as he did Hutchinson’s free-kick just before the half hour.
Portman Road was alive throughout. The crowd generate a super atmosphere here. They sensed opportunity for their team and that was helped by United failing for the first time to deal with a corner. Hutchinson shot on the rebound and Diogo Dalot blocked.
Then two big passages of play. A raking ball down the left released Ipswich’s Leif Davis in the 40th minute. The left-back’s ball inside to Delap was cute and the former Manchester City forward had to score from eight yards. Somehow he didn’t. The save from Onana with an outstretched hand was magnificent but the truth is that Delap should have buried it.
Within a couple of minutes, it didn’t matter. Hutchinson was fed from the right outside the penalty area and when his left foot curled shot was headed on by Noussair Mazraoui, it looped above Onana and in to the top corner.
Amorim had much to think about at half-time. His team had started well and then succumbed to familiar habits. He maybe decided not to say too much, though, as he was back in the dugout some time before his players emerged for the second period.
Once again United started quickly. This time Muric saved at his near post from Garnacho after Bruno Fernandes fed him. Then, at the other end, Onana excelled again to deny Delap, this time his foot preventing the Ipswich player’s flick finding the net after he anticipated a low cross from the right far better than any of the United defenders present.
Read More
Ipswich 1-1 Man United – PLAYER RATINGS: Which star’s place in the team is most under threat?
Amorim made his first changes soon after that. Luke Shaw on for Jonny Evans – his first appearance for United since February – while Manuel Ugarte replaced Casemiro and his caravan in the centre of the field.
More changes were to come and they were more ambitious. With a little over 20 minutes left, Joshua Zirzkee and Rasmus Hojlund were both sent on. At this stage United were starting to assert themselves again and the game hung perfectly in the balance.
Hojlund’s first contribution was to turn neatly and make space for himself. He could have shot but didn’t. A sign of diminished confidence perhaps. At the other end Delap turned and ran powerfully in to space and drove a shot over when he probably should have fed Wes Burns in space to his right.
The home team had been subdued for a while but they returned to prominence as the light faded from the game. Substitute Jack Clarke picked up an overhit cross at the far post in the 87th minute and when he found Chaplin in the penalty area, he probably should have scored. Instead the shot was inadequately hit and Onana saved to his right. With that we were done.