£41.5m Manchester United target has just shown Ruben Amorim what he’s missing, PSG star dominated Mohamed Salah

Manchester United are gearing up to face Real Sociedad but Ruben Amorim was surely impressed by one Champions League star on Wednesday night.

Manchester United have flown out to San Sebastian with Ruben Amorim facing Real Sociedad on Thursday evening.

With Ineos eyeing Europa League football as a minimum for the next four years, United need a strong result in Spain.

Amorim may have played down the Europa League but this is effectively United’s final hope of securing European football for next season.

Winning the Europa League would secure a passage into the Champions League for next season, putting United back along Europe’s big boys.

Amorim is taking a more long-term approach but must have watched one Champions League game on Wednesday night with a sense of ‘what might have been’.

Nuno Mendes shows why Manchester United wanted him

Wednesday night saw more Champions League games with United fans watching on dreaming of a return to the top of the game.

Paris Saint-Germain against Liverpool was the big tie of the night with Amorim surely watching from afar.

PSG dominated the game only to be hit by a sucker punch late on with Harvey Elliott scoring the only goal of the game.

Elliott was introduced late in the day as Mohamed Salah struggled against recent United target Nuno Mendes.

Salah will be in Ballon d’Or contention this year but Mendes shackled him like few left backs have this season.

United held talks to sign Mendes in January with a price tag of around £41.5million on his head.

Amorim coached Mendes at Sporting and wanted a reunion at Old Trafford with the Portuguese left back stalling on a new PSG contract.

Mendes did eventually sign his new contract, ruling out a move to United in the process – and has now shown Amorim what he’s missing.

The stats from Mendes’ display were sensational, winning eight out of eight tackles and 11 out of 11 duels – all whilst limiting Salah to no shots, no successful dribbles and no chances created.

Mendes became the first player since February 2018 to contest more than 10 duels and win all of them in a Champions League game as Salah struggled badly.

Not many left backs have kept Salah quiet this season but Mendes showed exceptional defensive work to almost wipe the Egyptian out of the game.

We certainly saw why Amorim wanted him at Old Trafford but Mendes is now out of reach with his long-term future now secured to PSG.

Patrick Dorgu has the potential

Mendes was effectively off the table midway through the January transfer window and United focused on other targets.

United ended up signing Patrick Dorgu from Lecce in a deal worth up to £30million.

The Dane is two years younger than Mendes and will be looking to develop his game to rival the PSG star as the top young left back in the game.

Dorgu – deployed as a left wing back under Amorim – has shown some real promise going forward and certainly has the potential to become a star.

There will be ups and downs for Dorgu as he truly settles into Premier League life but there have been encouraging signs so far with United hopeful of having landed the left wing back of the future after missing out on Mendes.