Manchester United fell to yet another defeat on Sunday afternoon, losing 1-0 away at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.
Meetings between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United have often been with Champions League qualification in mind.
These two clubs, so used to battling it out for top four places, have endured difficult seasons and Sunday’s instalment featured struggling sides.
United fans had already witnessed two defeats to Tottenham this season; a harrowing loss at Old Trafford in September and a more recent Carabao Cup exit in December.
Sunday ended up being a third defeat to Spurs this season as James Maddison shrugged off Roy Keane’s criticism to score the only goal.
United created some great openings but just couldn’t find a goal, slumping to a 1-0 defeat in the capital.
Ruben Amorim on Chido Obi
Fingers may be pointed at Ruben Amorim but United’s preparations for the game were far from ideal.
Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte and Toby Collyer all suffered injuries whilst Amad confirmed a season-ending injury.
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That resulted in an unfamiliar midfield setup and a raft of untried teenagers on the United bench.
Only one of them made it onto the pitch though as Chido Obi was brought on with just minutes to play.
The teenage striker wasn’t able to find a leveller and United fans raged at Amorim over his lack of substitutions.
Obi was the one to get the nod and Amorim discussed the striker when speaking to Beanyman Sports after the full-time whistle.
Amorim suggested that Obi is ‘very clever’ inside the box and is particularly adept at making the most of loose balls around the goal.
Amorim didn’t feel a need to make changes from the bench but believed that Obi could ‘make the difference’ from any United balls into the box.
“If you see Chido playing, sometimes every ball lost in the box, he’s very clever, so I was trying to put one more player… because I felt the team was good during the game and I didn’t feel the need to change,” said Amorim.
“Chido was that player when, from a long ball, he could make the difference,” he added.
Chido Obi knocking on the door
We can understand the frustrations of United here.
Tottenham were there for the taking and Amorim left it until injury time to make a change.
Obi may only be 17 but he is making himself hard to ignore with his goalscoring exploits in the United youth setup.
Obi joined United from Arsenal over the summer and the hype around the teenager is already enormous.
Rasmus Hojlund isn’t exactly thriving right now and with Amorim preferring Joshua Zirkzee deeper, there may be chances for Obi in the coming months.
United fans wanted to see more of Obi on Sunday, but we will surely see him in first-team action before the season ends.