Set-piece theft pays off for Man Utd: Amorim

Ruben Amorim said stealing set-piece routines played a key role in Manchester United's fightback to win 2-1 at Crystal Palace on Sunday.

Amorim has spent much of this United reign under fire and the pressure was mounting again after a limp 1-0 home defeat against 10-man Everton on Monday.

When Jean-Philippe Mateta broke the deadlock for Palace in the 36th-minute with a retaken penalty, Amorim was on the rocks again.

But Joshua Zirkzee levelled nine minutes into second half after he seized on Bruno Fernandes' free-kick.

United captain Fernandes then teed up Mason Mount to drill home the winner after 63 minutes from a quickly-taken free kick.

It was another away match with a set-piece goal for United following efforts from corners at Nottingham Forest and Tottenham earlier in November.

Amorim said United had spent time finding ways to use the set-piece routines that have become so popular in the Premier League this season.

"We have more time to work and we work a lot and we are learning," he said.

"We learn a lot in England. You are used to do that with set-pieces, but when you come to the Premier League, you learn a lot about how other the teams do it.

"And we are stealing a lot of things to score goals."

Amorim warned his players that fatigue would set in for Palace after Thursday's trip to France to face Strasbourg in Conference League.

And United took advantage with their second half escape act.

"I said to the players we need to be more alive and you could feel that. If you are more alive, you are in more places, near the ball more often and everyone did that, but we also need to understand that the opponent is tired," he said.

"If you see the last plays of the game, they were struggling so much to take the ball out of the box and you could feel it in the way they move that they were getting tired for the second half and we talked about that.

"I had the feeling that if we scored one goal, this would change completely."

Zirkzee's first league goal in 25 matches was a welcome boost for the much-maligned Dutch striker, who lashed home from an almost impossible angle.

"He was really important but again was not just the goal," Amorim said.

"Even the runs behind, in the first half he struggled on the duels and won some duels in the second half.

"We improve a lot because of the quality of Josh in the second half and that's important for him to understand that it is not just the goal."

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