It’s funny what a difference a football game can make.

That 2-1 Europa League win at Viktoria Plzen has long been a game notoriously wrong for that early and incoherent replay Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United. They are obviously still a team, a squad and a manager, learning as they go, adapting to each other and making lots of mistakes along the way.

One of those errors had given Viktoria Plzen the lead early in the second half after a largely non-event first half, in which United’s stale and sterile dominance brought back unpleasant memories of the Louis van Gaal years.

Onana tried to play a pass to Matthijs de Ligt, who was unable to receive it, let the home team in and gave Matej “Wait, this Matej Vydra?” Vydra scores.

Moments later, a frustrated and frustrating Marcus Rashford – who already had a yellow card – inexplicably launched himself into a wild challenge in which he was lucky to make contact with his trailing leg rather than his lead leg. After dodging the second yellow like this, he was quickly caught by Amorim to save him from himself.

It’s one of the most basic plays in a manager’s repertoire, but it worked. Rasmus Hojlund replaced Rashford and put in an excellent performance as United took such strong control of the final half hour of the game that the winning goal in the final minutes was fully deserved.

Fellow substitute Mason Mount equalized for Hojlund, but it was the winning goal that really caught the eye. The speed of thought and precision of execution of Bruno Fernandes’ pass were matched by Hojlund’s touch and finishing to complete a turnaround of greater significance than meets the eye.

On the one hand, every win is particularly welcome for United at the moment. We all know that it will take some time and at least a few transfer windows for Amorim to realize his full vision. Anything that helps keep spirits up heading into this potential future is crucial.

And in more prosaic terms, this is a win that hugely increases United’s chances of finishing in the top eight and avoiding unpleasantness in the play-off round. Amorim has happily expressed that he would rather spend more time with his players on the training pitch rather than worry about a home-and-away game slipping into an already busy schedule, and United have now got that in the Hand.

Those three points take them into fifth place heading into late games, with winnable games to come in the new year.

However, the concerns that remain after this ultimately invigorating victory remain familiar. The defense remains a confused mess. Onana doesn’t seem to be enjoying the task, and Amorim hasn’t really found the ideal formula for his full-backs yet, as neither the full-back-forward nor the winger-forward approach has really worked so far.

Furthermore, United still find it difficult to create chances and the chances they do create are all too often squandered. In the hectic final phase there were often overloaded counter-attacks, which never looked as if they would really benefit from them.

We’re starting to get an idea of ​​which players might adapt and benefit from this brave new world. The small concern is that it’s the same few players every time. Hojlund is obviously one, Amad Diallo is obviously another.

Bruno doesn’t appear to have a clear place in this system that he is ideally suited to, but has both the technical quality and footballing intelligence necessary to adapt and find a way to make an impact.

Until tonight, Rashford was another player who got off to a good start under Amorim. Unintentionally and coincidentally, he still had a huge impact on United’s fortunes tonight.

NOW READ: Man Utd and Man City are miserably side by side in the Premier League mood rankings