Manchester United 1-1 Fiorentina: De Gea returns, Sesko unveiled and familiar scenes for United
Before the match against Fiorentina, Manchester United unveiled new signing Benjamin Sesko, who joined from RB Leipzig for a fee rising to £74m.
He came onto the pitch to applause and cheers and joined fellow summer arrivals Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo on the circle. Then there were poses, photos, et cetera.
Add to that the lingering positivity that followed the £50m renovation of the club’s Carrington training ground, unveiled on Friday, and you could forgive fans for smelling something new and fresh in the Old Trafford air.
Yet there were old, familiar scenes in the early stages of the match when Simon Sohm seized upon sloppy defending that left him in acres of space to put Fiorentina ahead.
In a way that has come to be typical of United over the past couple of years, both Leny Yoro and Patrick Dorgu somehow got entangled with each other during a corner and the ball fell to Sohm at the back post to rifle a volley past Altay Bayindir.
United levelled midway through the half through an own goal from Robin Gosens, although he had been under pressure from Yoro and Casemiro and those two could have scored.
Still, while United showed some promise – Cunha in particular going close in the box after a brilliant team move – they were ultimately unable to find the net in the next 75 minutes.
This is a problem that was evident in the side for much of last season, with the Red Devils ending the campaign with the least goals scored among all but one of the Premier League sides that stayed up.
After the match, Amorim said: “In some moments I felt that, because of the one-against-one in all the pitch, we struggled without a reference as a striker. We have a new player, so we’ll see.”
He will indeed.
