Manchester United are the talk of the town in the Premier League after finally giving Erik ten Hag the boot – months late, mind you – and hiring one of the world’s most promising managers in Ruben Amorim of Sporting CP.
Amorim has already officially taken over for club legend Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has left the club gracefully after serving as the caretaker manager in Ten Hag’s stead.
Now, it is Amorim’s show, and his first game will come after the November international fixtures on Nov. 24 against Ipswich Town, the newly promoted underdogs fresh off a 2-1 upset win over Champions League hopefuls Tottenham.
Manchester United themselves are in a fight to get back to the European places, as they are currently in 13th after 11 matches played, and they will expect nothing less than a win over Ipswich when club football resumes.
There is optimism that Amorim won’t be the only promising individual making his Manchester United debut in the Premier League against Ipswich, as star center back Leny Yoro may be ready to return from a preseason injury.
However, even if Yoro plays, Man United may not be at full strength at the back, because their most important defensive player, Lisandro Martinez, appears to be injured.
Argentina national team manager Lionel Scaloni said, via infobae, that Martinez was unable to play against Paraguay due to a hip injury that was more serious than expected:
“We did not expect Lisandro’s case. We saw that he had suffered a blow to the back, but apparently he had no problem, just pain. When he arrived here, the pain increased a little, he had tests done and he is not in condition to be back.”
That doesn’t mean Martinez is guaranteed to miss United’s next match against Ipswich Town, because the 26-year-old central defender still had another 10 days to recover from the injury, which sounds minor.
But it’s still not ideal for Manchester United not to have their best center back at 100 percent. Ipswich shouldn’t be too much of a threat to the Red Devils defensively, but since it’s Amorim’s first game and he prefers a back three, it would be ideal to have everyone who is important to the team healthy.
Hopefully, Martinez can be out there and at his best on Nov. 24, because the 26-year-old has, one again, been one of the five best players on Manchester United so far in the 2024/25 season.
