A wild-eyed Ruben Amorim staunchly defended his decision to start Altay Bayındır for Manchester United against Arsenal on Sunday afternoon even if the Turkish goalkeeper was at fault for the game’s only goal.

United were impressive for large swathes of the 1–0 defeat at Old Trafford, forcing Arsenal’s David Raya into seven saves, the most of any goalkeeper across the opening weekend of Premier League action. However, new recruits Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha failed to take advantage of these opportunities, while Riccardo Calafiori nodded the Gunners into a scarcely deserved lead in the 13th minute.

Declan Rice viciously whipped Arsenal’s first corner of the new Premier League campaign right on top of the crowd of players which had gathered around Bayındır. The 27-year-old shot-stopper was clearly unsettled by some jostling from William Saliba and could only flap at Rice’s corner which Calafiori prodded over the line.

Bayındır was a surprising name on Amorim’s teamsheet to begin with, taking the place of first-choice André Onana which sparked a wave of speculation surrounding the Cameroonian’s future. As his manager would later explain, Onana had been omitted from the squad to continue recovering from a hamstring injury.

Onana wouldn’t have offered much more security. The former Inter custodian suffered a similar fate against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium last December in a 2–0 defeat, while Bayındır himself conceded directly from a corner against Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals last season.

When it was put to Amorim at his post-match press conference that he perhaps should have started third-choice Tom Heaton on Sunday, the Portuguese boss did little to hide his disdain. “Why?” he fired back. The questioner pointed back to that Son Heung-min inswinger against Spurs and was cut off before he could finish listing the example.

“Without VAR,” Amorim interrupted, casting his mind back to United’s fixtures at the turn of 2025. “With VAR, is a foul. Then what happened in the next game? Arsenal. Who saved all the game? So I consider everything to put one or the other, and I choose Altay.”

Bayındır was voted Player of the Match in an FA Cup third round victory over Arsenal last January, saving a Martin Ødegaard penalty in normal time before producing more spot-kick heroics in the subsequent shootout. Amorim hailed him as “our hero” that night and insisted that he remained “unbelievable” on Sunday.

Nevertheless, Amorim didn’t entirely absolve his goalkeeper from blame. “Everyone needs to improve,” he admitted. “The goalkeeper has to use his hands to catch the ball. I understand we are trying to help the game have more goals, but sometimes too much is too much. He chooses to push players and let the ball pass. But again, it’s the rules. If it’s allowed, we need to do the same thing.”

Bruno Fernandes was more critical of the refereeing which overlooked Arsenal’s physical approach to attacking set pieces. “When you touch the goalkeeper and he can’t jump, that makes it difficult for Bayındır,” the United skipper seethed. “We know in the Premier League they don’t give much. Even if they had a meeting with us saying that they will whistle more if players block and don’t look at the ball but it is more of a saying.”

READ THE LATEST MAN UTD NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ruben Amorim Goes on the Attack in Defence of Man Utd Selection.