Marcus Rashford scored after just 81 seconds of Ruben Amorim’s regime but Omari Hutchinson equalised

Managerial news from elsewhere:

Alex Kamilewicz writes: “My heart believed it would turn around with each managerial appointment, but starting with the transfer botchings under Moyes my head believed we were in for a long run in the wilderness with no adequate replacement for Gill.

It was plainly too good to be true. Or to last. There were 82 seconds on the stadium clock when the Ruben Amorim era at Manchester United was jumpstarted. The new manager had put his faith in Marcus Rashford in the No 9 role and it was United’s great enigma who put them in front. Rashford charged about in the early running, a point to prove.

And yet it was the prompt for a slow retreat by United for the remainder of the first half. The structure was different, United set up in Amorim’s trademark 3-4-2-1, but the players were the same, along with plenty of the frustrations and faultlines from Erik ten Hag’s tenure. Control proved elusive. As it did so often under Ten Hag.

• Coach will be ‘very demanding – this club needs to win’
• Amorim takes charge for first time at Ipswich on Sunday

Ruben Amorim has warned his Manchester United players he has a ruthless streak he will not be afraid to use if they fail to meet his demands. The Portuguese has a reputation as an astute man-manager as well as an innovative tactician but it will not all be sweetness and light.

The 39-year-old begins life as head coach at Ipswich on Sunday aware of the task ahead as he tries to turn United around. Amorim arrived with the team 13th in the Premier League after four wins from 11 matches and ­needing to improve results ­if they are to have ambitions of European qualification for next season.

Portugal’s coaches and players are all the rage in part thanks to links forged between academia and the game

They always knew Ruben Amorim was a special one at the faculty of human kinetics. “I interviewed him for the course and from the start it was obvious,” says Prof António Veloso, José Mourinho’s former classmate, who runs the high-performance football coaching course at the faculty, which is affiliated to the University of Lisbon.

“The students needed to do an essay on specialist topics and Ruben’s results were fantastic. He had a leadership role in the group. When we were doing tactical drills on the pitch all the other students were looking at Ruben’s and asking for his opinion. But he was very humble.”

Previous incumbents in the Old Trafford hotseat have shown that first impressions can often prove misleading

Two days after leaving Aberdeen, Ferguson sent out an XI including Paul McGrath, Jesper Olsen, Peter Davenport, Graeme Hogg and Clayton Blackmore that fell to a 16th-minute John Aldridge penalty and an 89th-minute Neil Slatter strike. “It was a nightmare trying to concentrate with so much media attention and so many cameramen on top of me,” Ferguson said. “They [the players] were a bit uptight and they wanted to do well.” None were in the 1-0 1990 FA Cup final replay triumph over Crystal Palace, Ferguson’s first trophy, though Blackmore was an unused substitute. Twenty-six and a half years after the Oxford reverse Ferguson retired as the UK’s greatest manager and a knight.

Despite a torrid start to the season the club remain within touching distance of top four as new head coach arrives

With his breezy manner, shock of jet-black wavy hair and declaration that “we choose our way 100%”, Ruben Amorim exuded the fresh energy Manchester United need in his debut media conference at a crammed Jimmy Murphy Centre.

With only four points to third place, there is a golden chance to transform the season. Yet the issues Amorim wrestles with are the club he has walked into and the squad he has inherited.

Ruben Amorim said he is a 'dreamer' in his first press conference as Manchester United head coach after joining the club from Sporting.

The 39-year-old signed a two-and-a-half-year deal to replace Erik ten Hag who was sacked in October.

He has been compared to José Mourinho because of his nationality and success and said: 'He [José Mourinho] sent me a message and told me that this is a lovely club, a big club, with lovely people, and that is correct.'

He added: 'I am different from Mourinho. I am a different person.'

• ‘I am the right guy at the right moment,’ head coach says
• He will play 3-4-3 and wants big say on recruitment

Ruben Amorim has denied that managing Manchester United is the impossible job but says his two-and-a-half-year contract is not long enough to win the title.

Amorim is United’s sixth permanent appointment since they were last Premier League champions, under Sir Alex Ferguson, in May 2013. David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, José Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Erik ten Hag failed to make them contenders. Amorim was reminded of this and asked whether United was the impossible job.