Jamie Carragher and Thierry Henry were left stunned by the skill on show for Amad’s last-minute winner against Manchester City on Sunday. The Manchester United forward completed a stunning comeback when he rounded Ederson following a long pass, before finishing from a tight angle.
Offered the chance to feature in a more advanced position due to the absence of Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho from the United matchday squad, Amad made the most of his opportunity – while he was unsurprisingly crowned played-of-the-match after also winning the penalty for Bruno Fernandes’ equaliser.
Amad had stood out before the drama at the end, though, offering a bright spark in a performance which failed to impress for most of the 90 minutes. His touch and end product when it mattered left Sky’s two pundits for Monday Night Football with only the highest of praise.
“This is just out of this world from this young lad, Thierry,” Carragher started. The former Arsenal attacker did have some criticism of Amad to start with, but things quickly shifted to positivity.
“You wanted to talk about this run,” said Henry. “He started his run really early.” Carragher added: “It was actually a poor run, initially, and he makes it too early, but the way he checks that run…” Henry continued: “That’s magnificent. He goes early, but he checks and makes sure that he wasn’t going to be offside.
“He was never going to be offside, because Ruben Dias was covering, but he does something very important, and this is why I always talk about. When that ball goes over his head, if you can scan back, it’s very important [that he doesn’t] carry on looking at the ball. If he looks at the ball, he will never get it.
“At one point, you will see, he looks at the ball, but he stops looking at it and he looks where the ball is going to bounce. That’s the only way he can get it. He knows he will get it only after the bounce, so doesn’t look anymore.”
Freezing on the point when Amad makes contact with the ball, which is almost at head height as his legs stretch out, Carragher was astonished. “He’s in the air there with his other foot,” he analysed, looking at the still.
Leave a Reply