On Nov. 24, Manchester United will officially kick off the Ruben Amorim era when they face Ipswich Town, and nothing less than a win will be expected for the Portuguese manager, even in his debut game with the club.
Manchester United finally grew sick of the Erik ten Hag ruse, firing a manager they should have tossed aside before the season even started. But Man United may not have too many regrets if Amorim immediately proves to be the answer, since they may not have ended up with him if they fired Ten Hag earlier.
Without a full transfer window of his own yet, Amorim will have to make do with a host of talented pieces who couldn’t quite be put together as a cohesive unit under his predecessor, and this will be the kind of challenge a manager who truly aspires to be great, like Amorim, relishes.
Let’s take a look at how Amorim could line this Manchester United team up going forward, at least until more possible signings can be made by INEOS in the January transfer window.
GK Andre Onana
There isn’t another alternative to Andre Onana in goal, but he’s one of the better goalkeepers in the Premier League, even if he can make some terrible gaffes and basic positional errors.
In terms of raw talent, Onana is one of the best in the world. He is a great sweeper, his distribution makes him a legitimate playmaker, and his reflex saves are up there with any goalkeeper in the world.
CB Lisandro Martinez
A healthy Lisandro Martinez is undoubtedly the best center back at Old Trafford, unless a healthy Leny Yoro proves otherwise, and he has to be on the shortlist of the best center backs in the Premier League.
Ruben Amorim worked with a couple of great young talents in Goncalo Inacio and Ousmane Diomande at Sporting CP, and both of them could even end up at Manchester United next summer.
Martinez is even better than both of them right now. He is a bulldog who can mark any forward out of the game one-on-one, and his ball-playing abilities are as solid as any starting center back in the English Premiership.
CB Matthijs de Ligt
Although Matthijs de Ligt isn’t without his detractors and admittedly hasn’t lived up to the insane hype from his Ajax days when he led the club to an underdog Champions League semifinal appearance in 2019, you still have to say that he is one of the better center backs in world football.
De Ligt was good for Juventus and safely above average for Bayern Munich, and I think a lot of people sleep on how fast he is in open space because he just happens to be a massive human being (at least for a footballer).
So far, De Ligt has been as expected for Manchester United. He has his flaws, but his athletic ability and leadership make up for some of his positional lapses, which would be protected as the centermost defender in a back three.
CB Leny Yoro
Leny Yoro is the real prize to watch at Old Trafford under Amorim, as the ex-Lille man is widely regarded as the best young center back in world football alongside Barcelona man Pau Cubarsi.
The Frenchman nearly became Cubarsi’s rival, but he decided to move a summer early to Manchester United, who were willing to spend 60 million euros in order to guarantee his signing over rivals Liverpool, Real Madrid, and Ligue 1 giants PSG.
Yoro, at the age of 18, was already one of the best center backs in French football last season. He has yet to play for Manchester United due to a preseason injury, so his Man United debut is actually scheduled to be the same date as Amorim’s coaching debut for the club on Nov. 24 vs. Ipswich Town.
LWB Noussair Mazraoui
It’s hard to adjudicate who will start on the flanks in a Ruben Amorim 3-5-2 or 3-4-3, and it becomes a bit more tricky still when projecting which side the fullbacks will start on.
Noussair Mazraoui performed so well in an inverted role against Chelsea that it might make more sense to play him on the left instead of Diogo Dalot, especially in a more attacking formation.
There’s no doubt that Mazraoui has been one of the top fullbacks in Europe over the past couple of seasons, and he’s actually been even better for Manchester United than he was at Bayern Munich, particularly defensively.
Honestly, the Moroccan international wouldn’t look out of place as a right-sided center back in an Amorim back three either, but the wing takes better advantage of his technical quality when going forward or setting the tone of the passing game as an auxiliary midfielder when tucking in.
DM Kobbie Mainoo
There isn’t much of a need to write paragraph after paragraph about Kobbie Mainoo, because anyone with at least a passing interest in the Premier League over the past year will tell you that the England international is the future of Manchester United.
Mainoo very quickly usurped Casemiro in terms of importance at Old Trafford, and he is the kind of skilled, energetic two-way, box-to-box midfielder who can win games and provide a necessary spark for the Red Devils.
DM Manuel Ugarte
The same goes for Manuel Ugarte, who has shown, at times with PSG and Uruguay, that he is just as talented as Mainoo. Ugarte has more technical quality as a passer and can dictate the game, with Mainoo being more box-to-box.
Ugarte hasn’t been able to show the the full extent of his quality, but the former Sporting prospect can most definitely reach his greatest heights with Amorim, a much better coach at working with midfielders than Ten Hag, as his manager.
Manchester United prioritized Ugarte well above any other possible midfield signing this past summer, so the 23-year-old is honestly the player to watch the closest as Amorims’ tenure begins.
AM Bruno Fernandes
Bruno Fernandes is easily the most consistent difference-maker in the final third for Manchester United, and while he can be accused of hoarding possession and failing to provide adequate all-around play, a lot of the criticisms come from outside Old Trafford and are horribly overblown.
Statistically speaking, Fernandes has been the best playmaker in the Premier League since the start of the 2023/24 season despite how poorly Man United have performed as a team, and he is the only player on the Red Devils with at least two key passes per game this season.
Though he left the same summer that Amorim arrived in Lisbon, Fernandes has a strong Sporting CP pedigree and seems like the kind of playmaker the new manager can build his team around, albeit in a way that is far more tactical than his predecessor.
RWB Diogo Dalot
Although Diogo Dalot has flourished in an inverted left back role out of necessity, starting the Portuguese international on the right side of the attack enables Manchester United to get the most out of the speedy and athletic 25-year-old.
Dalot is one of the true success stories of a bleak Manchester United period, as Cristiano Ronaldo scoped out his greatness years before the general public realized they had one of the best attacking fullbacks on their hands.
An elite crosser and technician at the position, Dalot can be fully uncorked in a wing back role that suits his playing style more and will enable him to take the kind of risks that could pay off for both him and the strikers.
FW Marcus Rashford
Speaking of the strikers, Manchester United have some serious competition up front, and Amorim will likely switch between a 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 so he can get the likes of Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo more involved on the wings.
In a 3-5-2, Joshua Zirkzee has a very strong case to start as a stellar all-around striker who loves to create chances for another No. 9, but it’s so difficult to justify benching a talent like Marcus Rashford, especially right off the bat.
Ruben Amorim is an ambitious manager, and any coach aspiring to be the best at their job will want to take on the challenge of getting the most out of a potentially elite talent.
Where so many managers have failed, Amorim should be desperate to succeed. Rashford has traits between a striker and left winger, and like so many others, he could thrive in a left forward position with a well-rounded counterpart next to him, such as Hojlund or Zirkzee.
FW Rasmus Hojlund
At 21, Hojlund is both the youngest and most promising striker at Manchester United, and all he’s done since his big money move from Atalanta in 2023 is prove that he has talent worth mining.
Hojlund is a fantastic dribbler who can execute difficult finishes. He is one of the most explosive athletes at the striker position in European football, which he often shows for Manchester United on the break or in big games, including in the Champions League.
Amorim has to make Hojlund one of his first names and do everything he can to support the young No. 9, because if he can get the best version of Hojlund, he just might have the second-best striker in the Premier League on his hands after only Erling Haaland.
