Manchester United are about to kickstart a new era after the international fixtures, as Ruben Amorim has officially taken over for interim manager Ruud van Nistelrooy on Nov. 11.
Amorim’s first actual game in charge will come on Nov. 24 against newly promoted underdogs Ipswich Town, fresh off a 2-1 upset victory over Tottenham this past weekend.
There is a lot of optimism surrounding the Amorim appointment, because so many other big clubs around European football were interested in hiring the Portuguese manager from Sporting CP.
But Amorim waited and ended up leaping at the opportunity to be the guy who finally turns Manchester United around after a revolving door of managers, with the most recent being the thoroughly disappointing Erik ten Hag.
With Manchester United coming off their worst finish in the Premier League era and currently sitting in the bottom half of the table, Amorim has a lot of work to do.
His first difficult decision was deciding the future of Manchester United legend Ruud van Nistelrooy, hired this summer by INEOS to be an experienced voice as th assistant to the very much unpopular Ten Hag.
Although Van Nistelrooy couldn’t help save Ten Hag from himself, he did establish himself as a more authoritative figure in the dressing room and showed in his time as interim manager that he has the tools to be a top level manager one day.
But Van Nistelrooy won’t be around for the Ruben Amorim era, as the new Manchester United coach officially chose not to keep RvN around on his coaching staff for the remainder of the 2024/25 season.
While the decision costs Man United a promising coach and a notable figure at the club, it’s hard to argue against Amorim making the right decision here for both himself and the club.
Van Nistelrooy is great, but Amorim needs a clean slate and his own guys to instill his vision. He can’t have a clashing of heads or philosophies with RvN, because there needs to be one overarching voice leading Manchester United in its new direction.
Amorim is a successful coach in his own right. He doesn’t need RvN to relate to players or the legendary striker to guide him. This is Amorim’s show, and, if anything, the decision is great for the Dutch assistant, too, because he now gets to pursue being the main man himself.
