Manchester United have won just three of their last eight homes games in all competitions and even those victories have provided more questions than answers.. Wins over Premier League basement boys Southampton, Scottish Premiership also-rans Rangers and relegation scrappers Leicester have all been secured in dramatic fashion. And there’s a case to be made that Ruben Amorim’s side didn’t deserve to emerge victorious in any of them.. The biggest worry for Amorim during Friday’s clash with Leicester is that the visitors weren’t particularly good value for their lead prior to United’s comeback. Andre Onana had very little to do aside from fishing the ball out the back of his net, yet United were so bad they deserved to be behind.. The introductions of Alejandro Garnacho and Joshua Zirkzee changed the game, with the former’s direct running adding an urgency that had been sorely lacking from United’s play.. Should United fail to secure Champions League football via the Europa League this season, the FA Cup could once again come to their rescue with a place in European club football’s second tier competition up for grabs.. It would be remiss of United to ignore a competition that can provide another avenue to European football next season, but qualification for the next round of the FA Cup comes at a cost.. Amorim has made no secret of the fact he is desperate for more time on the training ground with his players. United have played 20 games in 77 days including the Portuguese’s first game in charge of United on November 24 at Ipswich – more than a game every four days.. Time on the training pitches has been limited with travelling and rest days between games to account for. A drastic change in system mid-season was never going to be easy but the hectic fixture schedule certainly hasn’t helped.. While nobody of a United persuasion would have preferred to see them knocked out of the FA Cup on Friday night, qualification for the next round means there will be no free weekend at the start of March, thus robbing Amorim of an extended period working with his players on the training ground.. If United go on to lift the FA Cup at Wembley on May 17 then nobody will be complaining about the extra games. But for now, Amorim needs as much time at Carrington as he can get.
