When Manchester United decided to move on from Erik ten Hag as their manager in November, the Red Devils were reeling in 14th place and in desperate need of a coaching change that, quite frankly, should have come in the summer when INEOS took over.
After a few weeks of club legend Ruud van Nistelrooy taking care of the club as interim manager – he would later get the Leicester City gig – Ruben Amorim stepped in as the latest hyped up, up-and-coming hire from an established club outside of the top five European leagues.
And now five months later, Manchester United sit 13th in the table, not ahead by Tottenham and Everton in 14th and 15th and clearly not significantly improved from Ten Hag’s time at the beginning of the season.
The minute Amorim stepped in to the job, he told the fans that it would take a while for Manchester United to improve, and, more recently at the beginning of March, the Portuguese coach said that he fears he won’t get the same time Mikel Arteta did at Arsenal to put Man United back on track.
Without getting into how much time INEOS should or will give Amorim, I want to evaluate the job Amorim has done so far, based solely on results and improvements of the players.
It’s hard, to be frank, to make sweeping generalizations through the first few months, but, already, there are some troubling signs with Amorim that are not dissimilar from Ten Hag.
While Amorim does have a more defined philosophy of how he wants to play and while he is being more pragmatic and defensive out of necessity because of the players he has at his disposal, I do think Amorim sells the talents he has in his squad a little short,
Bruno Fernandes, Amad Diallo, Alejandro Garnacho, Joshua Zirkzee, Rasmus Hojlund, Manuel Ugarte, Mason Mount, Matthis de Ligt, Lisandro Martinez, Diogo Dalot, Casemiro, Noussair Mazraoui, Kobbie Mainoo, Patrick Dorgu, and Harry Maguire are all the caliber of players that teams ahead of them in the table would like to have.
Though Casemiro, Maguire, and Mount have declined or are oft-injured, I bring them up because they are the kinds of players an experienced manager should know how to use, since they are players whom we have seen succeed at the top level and, in the cases of Casemiro and Maguire, have actually been decent this season when given minutes.
What’s alarming with Manchester United is how little progress the young players have made under Amorim. Diallo was already breaking out under Ten Hag at the beginning of this season with his first chances in the lineup.
But the others are just as bad, or even worse, under Amorim. Hojlund has shown less of a spark under the new coach, while Zirkzee, Ugarte, and Yoro can scarcely get going as new signings.
The same people who struggled under Ten Hag are struggling under Amorim, and that’s something that should be concerning to Manchester United fans. As much as Amorim wants to buy time and wants to paint this narrative that Man United need new players, most of the top managers are able to get immediate results when they have a decent enough investment on their hands.
Manchester United have invested heavily. They could have stood to invest more wisely and with more thought into the club’s weaknesses, but it’s hard to say that Hojlund and Zirkzee, for example, are the problem or some sort of abomination when they were great players with less experience for teams competitive at the top level in Serie A.
Amorim has the same stubborn streak than Ten Hag did. He has installed a back three with wing backs in a one-striker system with two attacking midfielders that is both very niche and pretty isolating up top with too much responsibility thrust on the wing backs.
It’s hard for Manchester United to have the width and balance they need, and the back three is more of an Amorim idea than something the players at Manchester United are used to or optimized for.
Amorim should use his favored tactics, but, right now, he doesn’t have the players he needs to execute. He should be working with the players to maximize United’s chances this season, but that’s not happening.
Overall, it’s hard to pinpoint any major positives with Amorim at Manchester United. It’s a lot of “keep the faith”, which is valid but doesn’t end itself to a positive grade when looking solely at what’s been done.
The results are about as poor as they were under Ten Hag, the players themselves are just as stagnant in their development, and, if anything, previous solid performers like Dalot and Mazraoui have been less impressive in the new system.
Grade: D
Joe Soriano covers West Ham for Green Street Hammers and writes about Real Madrid for The Real Champs. He has extensive experience covering world football since 2014. Joe is an editor for The Trivela Effect, where he covers the biggest clubs in European football. He has watched professional sports regularly since 2002 and can be found playing the same sports he covers with his friends.