Ruben Amorim has revived Man Utd - now he must restore Old Trafford's fear factor after years of home embarrassments

Having made United a tougher nut to crack in big away games, Amorim's next task is to improve the team's poor home record by restoring the fear factor to Old Trafford. When Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge, very few opponents enjoyed playing away against the Red Devils. United were unbeaten at home for the entirety of their title-winning campaigns in 1995-96, 1999-00 and 2010-11, and in the Scot's 405 Premier League games at Old Trafford across 21 season, his side were beaten just 34 times.

Since his departure in 2013, however, the Theatre of Dreams has been just that for the visitors. Indeed, the only thing for opposing teams to fear these days is the dressing room being flooded!

United have lost 42 of their 219 home league games since Ferguson left, meaning Old Trafford's away section, which once was like a torture chamber for visiting supporters, is now a party venue. And away teams have never had it as good as this season.

Heading into this midweek round of fixtures, United had the seventh-worst home record in the Premier League this season, having picked up just 13 points from their 10 matches, losing five of them. If the second half of the campaign follows a similar pattern to the first, they will record their lowest amount of points at home in their 33 Premier League seasons.

That tally currently stands at 30 points from 2013-14, their nightmare campaign under David Moyes. United also recorded their highest number of home defeats that campaign (seven), another number they are in danger of exceeding this season.

United's fear factor at home had long gone when Amorim became coach in November. Last season, they lost nine times at Old Trafford in all competitions before tasting defeat in two of their first four home games of the current campaign before Erik ten Hag was sacked, being humiliated 3-0 by Tottenham and Liverpool.

But things have gotten even worse under Amorim, who has lost three out of four Premier League games at Old Trafford, thus becoming the first United coach since Dave Sexton in 1979 to preside over three consecutive home losses.

It was only two seasons ago that United earned a massive 48 points at Old Trafford and won a joint-record 27 games there in all competitions, losing only once in the league and beating all their major rivals. United's imperious home form in Ten Hag's first season (2022-23) turbo-charged their campaign, making amends for their patchy away results and ensured they finished third in the league. The Dutchman brought a siege mentality to every home game after losing the opener against Brighton and the team's style, geared towards fast counter-attacks, got the fans on their feet.

Save for the 4-0 win over Everton in his first home league game, matches under Amorim at Old Trafford have followed a familiar and worrying pattern: conceding the first goal in the first half - in the second minute against Forest and the fourth against Newcastle - and losing all hope. Amorim was bluntly honest when he declared that the entire stadium was nervous from the beginning of the game against Bournemouth.

The atmosphere was even bleaker against Newcastle, with the only noise coming when Amorim substituted Joshua Zirkzee to loud cheers from sections of the stadium. Old Trafford was deadly silent for most of that game, and the hopelessness seemed to seep into the players as they struggled to get back into the game.

The funereal feel during recent games at Old Trafford is in massive contrast to the defiant atmosphere in the away ends at Anfield and particularly the Emirates, which Amorim described as "unbelievable".

United's fans are far from alone in creating better atmospheres away than at home for obvious reasons, as the fans who follow the team across the country are naturally the hardcore element and thus more vociferous. But there needs to be a collective effort to raise the noise at Old Trafford, and the players also need to play their part by showing as much energy and passion at home games against so-called lesser opposition as they have done in their last two away games, and as they did in the last-gasp win at Manchester City in December.

The contrast in efforts from the players was what led Amorim to show his anger after the Liverpool game because his players had not shown the same passion in the previous home matches.

"I’m pretty upset because if we showed this today against Liverpool, who are first in the league, at Anfield, why can’t we do this every week?" he said. "I wasn’t worried about everyone putting in effort today, because it’s Liverpool… But I will probably be more worried about Southampton after this performance, thinking it’s already good enough, because it’s not and it will be a really tough one again."

Southampton should be the perfect opponents for United to earn their first home win in six weeks as the Saints are on track to record the lowest points total in Premier League history, having accrued just six from their opening 20 games. They have shown little signs of progress since sacking Russell Martin and replacing him with Ivan Juric, who has lost his three league games in charge.

Brighton, however, will pose a much tougher test when they travel to Old Trafford on Sunday in search of a third-consecutive win at the Theatre of Dreams. So too will Rangers when the Europa League resumes next Thursday. Crystal Palace, who United host the week after visiting Fulham and FCSB in their last Europa League league phase game, will also make things difficult for them, having done the double over the Red Devils last season and won three of their last five league trips to Old Trafford.

None of these teams possess the quality of Liverpool or Arsenal, but they will in many ways be tougher propositions as United are the ones who will have to grab the initiative and take the game to them.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was also capable of earning important results away from home. Indeed, in the pandemic-affected 2020-21 campaign his side never lost a league match on the road. What the Norwegian struggled to do was evolve the team's style in his third full season, when his side were outclassed at home by Liverpool and City at Old Trafford after trying to go toe-to-toe with them.

"It’s easy to set up a team and beat City away from home," Solskjaer said last year. "At Manchester United, you have a responsibility as well for the fans to enjoy the game. Don’t just go and get a result."

Amorim had a whole week to prepare against Arsenal and Liverpool, but his team are now back to the relentless grind of playing twice a week with minimal training sessions to refine their style and plan how to play their way through teams. The players, then, need to play their part.

"Our focus is now on Southampton [on Thursday] - that is when we have to back it up," said Bruno Fernandes after the Arsenal clash. "The big games against Liverpool [and] Arsenal, everyone steps up because it is a big game. We suffered a lot but we sacrificed as a team, and at the end you get this. You want to be in these kinds of games, you want to be involved, you want to be the best but we have to do it in Old Trafford with these fans again. We have to give it back to the club. We need to do it every week, every game."

Harry Maguire echoed Fernandes thoughts when he said: “We can produce moments. We produced a moment in the FA Cup final last year [when they beat City], but over a long period, our consistency’s been bad. It’s something that we do need to nail down, starting with Thursday.

"We also have to realise that we are still where we are in the league table. We can’t rest because the league table to look at is embarrassing. We all have belief that we should be a lot higher. To be sat where we are, it’s nowhere near good enough. It’s down to us to change it. We’ve got to go on a little run."

Being strong at home will be crucial to kickstarting that run, so it's time for United to block out their anxiety about conceding set-pieces, for fans to get behind the players and not on their backs and for everyone to treat their next games like they did the last two: as though the world is against them.