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Some of the Manchester United hierarchy did indeed prefer to sell Bruno Fernandes in the summer, but Ruben Amorim wasn’t one of them. The Portuguese coach knew he needed his compatriot’s craft, as well as his goals.
Fernandes offers a rare perceptiveness in this United team, even if it often feels misapplied in midfield. On Sunday, he will face Morgan Rogers in a match against Villa that already looks like one of those hinge fixtures in the Premier League.
Unai Emery’s team, a little like Rogers’s match-winning strike against West Ham United, are flying. If they make it seven successive wins, it could truly launch them into the upper tier, while pushing United further into mid-table. If United get a result, however, it could instead pull Villa into what looks a very congested battle for the Champions League places.
The point here isn’t really about the top of the table, though. It’s about the top of the pitch – or rather the area just behind it.
One major reason for Villa’s form has been Ollie Watkins’s dovetailing with Rogers, who may well be the outstanding performer in the Premier League right now.
He also perhaps illustrates an evolution in thinking among clubs. Rogers’s form is all the more timely given that it appears to strengthen his lead in the race to be Tuchel’s starting playmaker at the World Cup.
The competition is striking: Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Eberechi Eze. That made Palmer’s goal against Everton just as timely, after such a long spell out.
Such depth only emphasises the wider return of the playmaker – beyond fixtures like Kevin De Bruyne – especially as Liverpool look to make Florian Wirtz their central figure in the long term, and Rayan Cherki begins to find his feet at Manchester City.
They carry an increasing creative burden, particularly as many of the number-nines signed in the close season – part of a defining summer trend – are still struggling for goals.
Except, of course, many football figures would be reluctant to describe any of them as true playmakers – bar Palmer.
The playmaker, after all, is often seen as almost dead in the modern game.
This is something else.
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