Ipswich 1-1 Man United: Ruben Amorim kicks off his Red Devils reign with an awkward draw after Omari Hutchinson cancels out Marcus Rashford’s dream opener inside just two minutes

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. He does, we presume, possess a television.

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 doing so. 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 at full-time 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 on this early winter’s day.

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 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. Goalkeeper Andre Onana, meanwhile, was probably Amorim’s best player.

But at least this game didn’t collapse around him as so many did for Ten Hag. United remained in it until the end. They didn’t retreat and when Onana was called upon to make one final save – in the 87th minute from Ipswich substitute Conor Chaplin – he did so.

And the result – given the way things have gone for United so far this season – was quite okay. No shame in drawing at Ipswich. 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.

Earlier, the 39-year-old had been all about the low key. Background blending was his manner before kick-off. His team spoke of his beliefs and judgement, though. Rashford up front. Diogo Dalot and young Amad Diallo as wing-backs. £250m of recently purchased player on the bench.

And what a start. I mean, really. What a start. United played the ball with width and purpose from their defensive third and when young 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 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 had 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, it wasn’t quite like that.

United tried manfully to stick to their manager’s plan, to follow the script. They were diligent. They were proving themselves to be better at the unsexy stuff. When their back three needed to number five, it quickly did so. Over the course of the piece, though, they weren’t good enough to take hold of the game and that was familiar.

And Ipswich, of course, were not here to self-sacrifice. The modern United don’t scare opponents and over time Kieran McKenna’s team found a way back by opening holes through the centre of United’s ageing midfield. Up top, Liam Delap didn’t score but was handy while Omari Hutchinson was clever and progressive.

Delap should have equalised from close in as half-time neared. Onana’s right-handed save was fabulous. Then they did score, Hutchinson wrapping his left foot round the ball from 20 yards and finding the top corner via a looping deflection from the head of United defender Noussair Mazraoui. The goal had been earned. Hutchison had worked Onana with a free-kick and Sam Szmodics had done so with a long shot. At the other end? Not terribly much.

Onana saved brilliantly again early in the second period from a Delap flick. United’s defenders had been static as a low cross arrived. Goodness, there were enough of them in the vicinity.

From thereon in the game dropped a little in terms of sizzle and energy. United gained some impetus from Amorim’s substitutions. Luke Shaw and Manuel Ugarte injected fresh oxygen while Rasmus Hojland and Joshua Zirkzee brought an intent to try and win the game.

United improved territorially towards the end but Muric remained chronically underworked. Hojlund looked scared to shoot while Zirkzee missed with his one effort by about fifteen yards. Two contrasting tales of difficulty, right there.

One of Ipswich’s owns replacements, 27-year-old Chaplin, could have won it with three minutes to go. Probably should have. He had the goal to aim at when Jack Clarke teed him up but the contact was not clean enough.

That meant that Amorim’s entry into the Premier League ended without any of the trauma that has characterised so much of United’s modern football. Bullets still in the shotgun. No toes blown off. It’s a start of sorts.