Yes, you've made your mind up - after 3 months!
Ruben Amorim - Manchester United Head Coach
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) are here to discuss three 1-1 draws.
The first got us knocked out of the FA Cup, the next puts us in a good position in our Round of 16 Europa League game, and the latest was an actual decent performance against Arsenal at Old Trafford.
All hopes for the season now rest on the Europa League - does Amorim have the squad to win it?
The main problem is that the players who replaced them are even worse.
Ronaldo was terrible, over the hill, but still he scored 24 goals in 38 appearances in a year when the manager was ... Rangnick (a really bad manager who should had never been hired).
Sure, we needed someone better than Ronaldo. However, we got Wout, Hojlund, Zirkzee ... and for these guys scoring 24 goals in 38 appearances is just a dream that will probably never become reality!
The solution? First find the better player, then phase out the worse player, only after you are absolutely certain that the new player is performing better for us for some length of time. We haven't done this, we have been replacing players with the "hope" we are getting someone better, we spent 600 million, and as a result our position now is 13th and we again need to replace most of the new guys.
I'm still surprised a lot of people are giving a lot of leeway to Amorim. 12-18 months ago, no one was saying EtH was a terrible manager who set us back many years - yet here we are. I can see a scenario where we are saying that about Amorim fast forward a year or so. As I've said before, it's objectively harder to say Amorim is a better coach than EtH given the latter has a better CV (similar domestic success in weak leagues but ten Hag had a CL run) and that actually he has come in and had a worse record with the same team.
We can say the players are crap, and definitely it's a flawed squad. But it's not unreasonable to expect better than 1.1 points per game from a decent sample size (ie relegation battle form) from a team with players in England, Portugal, Argentina, Netherlands squads etc and not to struggle against Ipswich and Southampton who have genuinely Championship level squads. It's not like we were all happy with 8th and a trophy last season with a ridiculous injury list, so I don't see how anyone can suddenly say this is the level we expect of the squad available.
He has to take responsibility for the formation and his selections/rotations. Van Gaal was one of the most headstrong & dogmatic managers we've had ever ("my philosophy") but he seamlessly binned his 3-5-2 when it wasn't working and went to 4-2-3-1. And even then we actually looked like a well coached team that played a high line, dominated possession and was tight at the back - ie a well coached side, but toothless. Right now, I find it hard to point to an area that we have improved tactically. Without overdoing the EtH comparison, because we needed a change, but arguably his last game vs West Ham was the most dominant we have looked in a PL game (finishing and dodgy penalty aside) since (you can argue Liverpool away we deserved to win).
We can say the players are crap, and definitely it's a flawed squad. But it's not unreasonable to expect better than 1.1 points per game from a decent sample size (ie relegation battle form) from a team with players in England, Portugal, Argentina, Netherlands squads etc and not to struggle against Ipswich and Southampton who have genuinely Championship level squads. It's not like we were all happy with 8th and a trophy last season with a ridiculous injury list, so I don't see how anyone can suddenly say this is the level we expect of the squad available.
He has to take responsibility for the formation and his selections/rotations. Van Gaal was one of the most headstrong & dogmatic managers we've had ever ("my philosophy") but he seamlessly binned his 3-5-2 when it wasn't working and went to 4-2-3-1. And even then we actually looked like a well coached team that played a high line, dominated possession and was tight at the back - ie a well coached side, but toothless. Right now, I find it hard to point to an area that we have improved tactically. Without overdoing the EtH comparison, because we needed a change, but arguably his last game vs West Ham was the most dominant we have looked in a PL game (finishing and dodgy penalty aside) since (you can argue Liverpool away we deserved to win).
I’m giving him till Christmas, no excuses after that. And let’s be fair, results are mainly down and my expectations were for him to have us playing better by now, irrespective of results.
All this talk of the system - the squad is bang average and it's been clear all season. There's a big changing of the guard happening and it's long overdue. Unless the wheels really come off we can't sack yet another manager when this time we wouldn't have even backed him. I reckon he's got the character for the job and will slowly improve us over the next couple of years.
The only black mark against him for me currently is Dalot and Onana being so shit - they're both capable of much better. Hojlund looked better under Ruud too, but it was such a short spell you can't really draw any conclusions from it. Hopefully Dorgu allows Dalot to get more rest and play on his stronger side now at least. I would like to see Yoro play with more confidence too but that injury at the beginning of the season was very unfortunate timing, not hard to imagine it would throw him off while he's settling.
The only black mark against him for me currently is Dalot and Onana being so shit - they're both capable of much better. Hojlund looked better under Ruud too, but it was such a short spell you can't really draw any conclusions from it. Hopefully Dorgu allows Dalot to get more rest and play on his stronger side now at least. I would like to see Yoro play with more confidence too but that injury at the beginning of the season was very unfortunate timing, not hard to imagine it would throw him off while he's settling.
I see no or very little progress after 3 months, nothing controversial about that.
He did try some different things and when he found that the most effective tactic for moving the ball forwards was long diagonals to Fellaini in the left half space, for him to bring down and lay it off, he did stick to it. That's using a player which arguably wasn't even the profile that he wanted in his CMs and that he'd just inherited from Moyes. Yet he eventually made it work (to a degree).
Looking back on EtH I'm mostly baffled by his refusal to play Amad at RW when it was a position that was clearly an issue. But other than that I must say that I generally understood what the plan was and some of the patterns he expected to work for build-up and chance creation were. In these past few weeks I'm more confused in terms of figuring out what the team is supposed to be doing to create problems for the opposition.
We have a right on dense set of fans here, that's for sure. People seriously living with that entitlement that 'We are Man Utd! We can ONLY be top 6 because we are a big club!'. Unable to think critically and see the reality of the quality of the squad (from terrible recruitment and mismanagement), coupled with that mismanagement itself; this is not something that can be set right in 3 months. I cannot even with the nonstop campaigning of some of these fans on how Amorim's system is wrong, or the games are boring, or we can't play with 5 defenders! Right, I'm sure Amorim achieved what he did at Sporting then came here and thought, "Nah, I'll just throw all that out the window and ask this lot to keep knocking it round the back and not score goals so we'll win the PL". These fans obviously know better, should have hired the lot of 'em as a committee to get us back to the top of the league. Can't believe we have people dumb enough to say we should have kept Ruud because he won 2 games against a shit Leicester, a Leicester that he's managing amazingly with those 10 losses in a row now, eh?
Amorim should definitely (and will most likely get) till middle of next season at least, with a few players brought in over the summer, before we even begin to properly scrutinize what he can do. In saying that, I'd say he's done a great job managing this rabble of overpaid divas up to this point, and the times that the players have managed to perform a semblance of Amorim's plans, we've definitely looked a much improved side.
Where I lost faith in Ten Hag was when he started doing the same thing (same players, same formation, same shape) every week and expecting different results.
I'm seeing this now with Amorim where he's picking Dalot and Mazraoui at wing back every week despite it being shown that United's performances and results are better with Amad at RWB.
Especially at Old Trafford, having basically 5 defenders on the pitch, has been a disaster. We have zero goal threat and it's not as if it makes us more defensively sound either as we end up conceding 2 or 3 goals anyway! So WHY does he keep doing it?! Might as well play an attacker as a wb and at least try to score more goals!
And then against FCSB, Mainoo gives a motm performance as one of the 10s (something a lot of United fans had been calling for). But instead of playing him there in the next game to see if he can replicate the performance, he plays him as a false 9 instead!
I know the squad is substandard and our strikers are shit, and he hasn't had a chance to use any of "his" players, but those decisions are frustrating.
I'm seeing this now with Amorim where he's picking Dalot and Mazraoui at wing back every week despite it being shown that United's performances and results are better with Amad at RWB.
Especially at Old Trafford, having basically 5 defenders on the pitch, has been a disaster. We have zero goal threat and it's not as if it makes us more defensively sound either as we end up conceding 2 or 3 goals anyway! So WHY does he keep doing it?! Might as well play an attacker as a wb and at least try to score more goals!
And then against FCSB, Mainoo gives a motm performance as one of the 10s (something a lot of United fans had been calling for). But instead of playing him there in the next game to see if he can replicate the performance, he plays him as a false 9 instead!
I know the squad is substandard and our strikers are shit, and he hasn't had a chance to use any of "his" players, but those decisions are frustrating.
Yeah look, he's up against it. His remit now I guess is to.make the squad he has better at the formation he's chosen. Dorgu left and Dalot right you'd hope will have a disproportionately positive effect on the balance of the whole thing, less choice with Rashford, Antony, Malacia gone and Martinez injured will reduce the rotation, which hasn't been doing us any favours. Everyone hopefully can get their heads down and get on with it and we'll hope the Summer brings something positive.
That's the type of advice the mods really love. You should DM with implementation details too.
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With that Lisandro injury and no striker signing, absolutely no one expecting him to work a miracle. Get through to the end of the season, have a good go in Europe, that's all we can ask for.
Wouldn't even mind if we started resting players in the league for Europe this season. The best we can hope for is a top half finish in the league, that's not a trophy.
Wouldn't even mind if we started resting players in the league for Europe this season. The best we can hope for is a top half finish in the league, that's not a trophy.
About 40% of posters on this forum expect him to work miracles or face the sack so some other mug can have the same treatment.
We could win the Europa Cup, we'd still be among the favourites. If he pulled that out the bag it's a miracle and frankly hilarious we'd get a golden ticket of CL football, through adding another European Cup to the honours (that we only got into in the first place because we won an FA cup
). A man can dream anyway..
So both he and the club were desperate to move Rashford on with the knowledge (terrible decision at this point in the season imo) that they weren't going to sign any replacements? Did the club assure him of the opposite and fail him? Højlund Zirkzee Garnacho Amad is a terribly underpowered forward line for the PL.
We're playing terribly, outclassed by most teams and our forwards struggle to score. 5 PL goals combined between Højlund and Zirkzee, 3 for Garnacho. Finishing in the top half will be a great achievement. Goodluck to Ruben, because he's going to need it to even survive till June.
We're playing terribly, outclassed by most teams and our forwards struggle to score. 5 PL goals combined between Højlund and Zirkzee, 3 for Garnacho. Finishing in the top half will be a great achievement. Goodluck to Ruben, because he's going to need it to even survive till June.
He's definitely not done a great job managing the overpaid divas to this point. I like him a lot as a person, he's been honest about what he's going to do, but has ultimately just stuck combinations of players into the same formation he's used at his previous clubs. We've lost the majority of our home games since he came in. So whilst I obviously think he needs time and a bit of backing, I don't know in what world you could describe it as a good job so far.
If Ashworth had his way it would have been Potter, who was no use at Chelsea, or Southgate. Either of those choices would have gone down badly with the fan base, especially Southgate.
I do believe Amorim will come good, though he's been short changed by having to come substantially earlier than he would have liked. Ultimately, bad attitudes (Rashford) and lacking ability (Antony) have been shifted. It's time for those who remain to kick on now without the off the pitch distractions.
Having a natural LWB SHOULD bring more out the attack in the sense there'll be an option actually overlapping and supporting rather than 20 yards back.
Hopefully by the summer, the old (Casemiro and Eriksen) and the useless (Lindelof) are shown the door among others and the emphasis is put on recruiting a mix of young and hungry players, playing with those with spine of experience.
There is zero evidence that Ashworth wanted or advocated for Southgate.
I think the best we can hope for in the PL this season is the top half of the bottom half.
No no, the Ineos PR machine said that, so it definitely must be true
To be fair, even they didn't say that (although they did brief the outlandish claim that Ashworth was the driving force behind ETH staying - even though he was not an employee when that decision was made).No no, the Ineos PR machine said that, so it definitely must be true
The Southgate links came from lazy journalists who realized they had previously worked together at the FA, and connected the non-existent dots.
Yep, like getting Martinez after his injury last season really helped with us scoring for fun.
Some fans would take a turd for a diamond if the media said it so. Now, I am not trying to say Amorim will not come good, but to have absolutely blind faith after 3 months of atrocious football and results is the kind of thing that got us in this position.
There is no guarantee that Amorim will be a success here, so I really hope Ineos (for all their awful decisions so far) do not build a squad of players only capable of 3-4-3. We really need to assume that Amorim may not be here long term and whoever comes in next with whatever formation preferences he has, should have a squad capable of implementing it from day 1.
The media were all over that, I'm a firm believer of no smoke without fire. He's shown preference for British managers in the past and they were the only two available at the time.
Maybe I'm wrong, only people who know are/were in that boardroom. For me Amorim, despite some naivety so far represented the most progressive and ambitious choice compared to the others.
There's no guarantee for any of the other potential candidates (from a shallow pool) to have got success. The club is reaping the horrors of 12 years of largely dog poo recruitment on the pitch and upstairs.
Will Amorim come good? Heart says yes, head says no idea, but same could be said whenever any manager comes into a new job. I don't buy that players are rigid to one formation, and think it's more down to hard graft and adaptability. Hopefully they do sign players that while being more a fit for what Amorim is trying to do, are also hungry to put their bodies on the line every match and have the quality to back it up.
There was press talk around Ratcliffe not being happy with Ashworth distancing himself from the decision to retain Eth and then asking for time/external support to find a suitable replacement.
At this point, if Ineos told me the sea is salty, I would still take it with a truckload of salt.
this is the best post on here.
The ones that are throwing Amorim under the bus after less than three months are ridiculous. He hasnt even played his one transfer in yet and has his hands tied with no LB fit, or any good, Rashford, Casemiro, Dalot, Onana and other over the hill and/or bang below average players and two forwards who would struggle at Championship level to score.
Lets at least give him a transfer window in the summer, to get a couple more of his own players in and next season before you throw him to the wolves.
It remains to be seen. But if you want to be impatient go ahead. Or would you have preferred Southgate or Potter as he put forward?
He's a disrupter. The early chaotic stripe to his deviations require perception. He is the kind of guy who starts a start up merely to Kammy laughed when El Tel said he and Clough looked like a couple of. At this stage McTominay could Napoli the shit out of God I wish OT smelt less and still you'd Celtic in 1983 Celtic in 1984. Now had Martin Edward's first son had wings of kind of guy who starts a start up merely to Kammy laughed when El Tel said he and Clough looked like a couple of none of his would be hap. En. Ing. Give him two windows and if he hasn't chooked then whipbang Neville's Roy Keane nose snort.
1. A lot of people were saying exactly that.
2. totally agree. Injuries were ridiculous, and that's not even counting losing Shaw and Mount for months. We finally have a good window, bring in Yoro, DeLigt, Ugarte, Zirkzee (3 out of 4), and Yoro gets broken in preseason.
3. We have only gotten worse. Playing Mainoo at striker was like playing O'Shea in goal, except the emergency wasn't as profound (and O'Shea did amazingly well that day). If Amorim does not know that Maz can't play wingback, that is alarming. But is it more alarming that he knows and plays him anyway, or that he doesn't know?
24 matches is a large enough sample size to draw some conclusions, especially as we've lost 11 of those 24. If he's simply auditioning players in unfamiliar roles with an eye towards next summer's transfer window, what's the point? Surely by now he's compiled enough data to know who should stay and who should go.
How is this system going to kick in with these players?Just saying we can write off this season is disingenuous, because if we keep getting embarrassed, the sponsors will take note, not to mention it fecking sucks watching us get slapped at OT by Palace.
There's some valid excuses for our poor form and it's not all on Amorim but I will forever hate any formation with 5 at the back. I could tolerate it when we had Amad on the RWB and Mazraoui on RCB but he's done that 2 or 3 games? And why Garnacho hasn't been tried on the LWB is beyond me. At least at home.
But this negative 541 is just ugh. It has it purposes in games against certain teams and knockout games but it's just mad boring to watch it regularly.
So for that reason alone I hope Amorim is just the guy before the guy and that we don't invest too much on players that only suit 5 at the back. But hopefully he proves me wrong and starts using some offensive players on the wingbacks.
But this negative 541 is just ugh. It has it purposes in games against certain teams and knockout games but it's just mad boring to watch it regularly.
So for that reason alone I hope Amorim is just the guy before the guy and that we don't invest too much on players that only suit 5 at the back. But hopefully he proves me wrong and starts using some offensive players on the wingbacks.
The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all traffordian minstrelsy. The great fall of the offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Needham, erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes: and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since devlinsfirst loved livvy.
The situation we find ourselves is largely down to the club not being decisive enough and making the manager change last summer.
Having said that, Amorim is compounding problems for himself by setting up the team in a way that exacerbates the players’ weaknesses and limits their strength:
1) Our main CBs (MdL, Maguire) are good at defending in a low /mid block defensive line, between the boxes. Defending the channels & half spaces exposes their lack of pace and makes us vulnerable. Only Licha & Yoro (too inexperienced) are potentially suited to play in the system that Amorim wants to play. Both Maguire & MdL can play in a back 3, only when we are playing a low block with protection in front of them.
2) Our 2 fit full backs, Dalot & Maz are decent / passable when they have to focus on defending. Horrible when they are asked to attack as wingbacks.
3) Garnacho is more suited to play as an out & out winger than a 10
4) Amad is good in whichever system / position we play him (Winger / WB / 10)
5) CM quality is weak irrespective of system. However, I would argue a 3 in the middle in a 4-3-3 with Bruno dropping deeper mitigates some of the weaknesses.
6) Bruno better as a 10 than CM
7) Strikers are hopeless irrespective of the system
In summary, our squad has glaring weaknesses and is low on quality & confidence, however, Ruben is actually making them look shittier with his system. Ideally, he is a little bit more pragmatic, gets us to the end of the season with some stability, and then culls the squad to suit his system.
Having said that, Amorim is compounding problems for himself by setting up the team in a way that exacerbates the players’ weaknesses and limits their strength:
1) Our main CBs (MdL, Maguire) are good at defending in a low /mid block defensive line, between the boxes. Defending the channels & half spaces exposes their lack of pace and makes us vulnerable. Only Licha & Yoro (too inexperienced) are potentially suited to play in the system that Amorim wants to play. Both Maguire & MdL can play in a back 3, only when we are playing a low block with protection in front of them.
2) Our 2 fit full backs, Dalot & Maz are decent / passable when they have to focus on defending. Horrible when they are asked to attack as wingbacks.
3) Garnacho is more suited to play as an out & out winger than a 10
4) Amad is good in whichever system / position we play him (Winger / WB / 10)
5) CM quality is weak irrespective of system. However, I would argue a 3 in the middle in a 4-3-3 with Bruno dropping deeper mitigates some of the weaknesses.
6) Bruno better as a 10 than CM
7) Strikers are hopeless irrespective of the system
In summary, our squad has glaring weaknesses and is low on quality & confidence, however, Ruben is actually making them look shittier with his system. Ideally, he is a little bit more pragmatic, gets us to the end of the season with some stability, and then culls the squad to suit his system.
Yes, that's it. Most clubs able to freely attack and press with little difficulty and for us to do the basics right we need specialist players, 3 years and 400 mils. I'm not sure what I'm missing, i constantly have this feeling somewhere we are over complicating things for complication sake.
I think the biggest issue is that we're just not getting the basics right. Forget the football or system, but set pieces are the bread and butter of all teams through the entire football pyramid.
It's shocking how poor we are at defending them, and how poor we are attacking through them.
He's failed to get on top of that issue since he's arrived, and arguably the issues gotten worse since he's been here. You can't expect to win games, knowing we're going to start every game 1 goal down. This needs to be fixed before anything else.
By the same measure, we need to be more threatening when we have our own. That doesn't mean that I expect us to get a goal a game from them, but the amount of wasted set pieces we have drives me nuts. It's clear that we just don't spend anywhere near enough time on them in training.
The other thing I've been adamant about since he joined here, is that he needs to solidify the middle of pitch - at least while everyone's still learning the system. Chelsea's Conte are the blueprint to make this system work, and they had Kante and Matic in the middle. You need 2 players that can hold the pitch, so that your wide CBs can contest the spaces out wide so that your wingbacks can afford to be "lazy" defensively. Even Amad, at RWB gets pinned too far back back.
To make this system work, in possession you need this 3-2 set up, so that when you lose the ball the space you willingly give to teams is down the wide channels but it's your CBs who are defending down the channels, and your midfielders cut off space in the middle.
Forget Chelsea, Man City's treble winning side also ended up in this set up in attack.
-------Rodri--Stones
-----LCB---CCB---RCB
That team won the treble just 2 seasons ago, so it's not as if this set up can't work. Our problem is that aside from Ugarte, that second person in midfield isn't enough of a defensive presence. So he needs to find a way to either get Casemiro or Collyer in the team, or if he doesn't believe they're good enough he needs to do something clever like get one of the wingbacks to invert into midfield, and get one of the forwards to shuffle out wide.
It's shocking how poor we are at defending them, and how poor we are attacking through them.
He's failed to get on top of that issue since he's arrived, and arguably the issues gotten worse since he's been here. You can't expect to win games, knowing we're going to start every game 1 goal down. This needs to be fixed before anything else.
By the same measure, we need to be more threatening when we have our own. That doesn't mean that I expect us to get a goal a game from them, but the amount of wasted set pieces we have drives me nuts. It's clear that we just don't spend anywhere near enough time on them in training.
The other thing I've been adamant about since he joined here, is that he needs to solidify the middle of pitch - at least while everyone's still learning the system. Chelsea's Conte are the blueprint to make this system work, and they had Kante and Matic in the middle. You need 2 players that can hold the pitch, so that your wide CBs can contest the spaces out wide so that your wingbacks can afford to be "lazy" defensively. Even Amad, at RWB gets pinned too far back back.
To make this system work, in possession you need this 3-2 set up, so that when you lose the ball the space you willingly give to teams is down the wide channels but it's your CBs who are defending down the channels, and your midfielders cut off space in the middle.
Forget Chelsea, Man City's treble winning side also ended up in this set up in attack.
-------Rodri--Stones
-----LCB---CCB---RCB
That team won the treble just 2 seasons ago, so it's not as if this set up can't work. Our problem is that aside from Ugarte, that second person in midfield isn't enough of a defensive presence. So he needs to find a way to either get Casemiro or Collyer in the team, or if he doesn't believe they're good enough he needs to do something clever like get one of the wingbacks to invert into midfield, and get one of the forwards to shuffle out wide.
I think the club to this day, still hasn't quite figured out how the transfermarket works in this day and age. It's a sellers market, year after year we get our trousers pulled down because we go in their desperately looking to solve our woes rather than looking for good opportunities.
It's how we've ended up with the likes of Antony. We as a club decided we desperately needed a RW (despite buying 3 in the previous 2 summer windows - Pellistri, Sancho & Amad). Because of this notion, we stupidly overpaid for what we perceived was the best option on the market - in reality, there wasn't any real good option available that summer, so why not just make do with what we've got? We just lack that sort of foresight as a club throughout.
What was available that summer, was a top class a CF prospect in Isak. But because we prioritised the RW position, we didn't even bother competing for him. Then we went back into the market looking for CFs when the market again hasn't been favourable - and that's how we've ended vastly overpaying for Hojlund.
If Chelsea used this logic, they don't end up with Cole Palmer - because they had other immediate needs, and had also somehow brought Nkunku for the same position. I'm not suggesting the way forward is to be as insane as Chelsea, but we need to realise that it's not a buyers market - but you need to strike when top talent is available.
From what I seen so far, I think our biggest flaws are execution (especially in the final third) and defensive lapses. The first one could impacted the second one as it keeps the pressure more on defense if the attack keep making mistakes and don't score. I don't know if the players are over correcting from previous manager, but many times in attack they took too many touches when a simple one touch would do, or just simply choose the wrong option.
Also, I think the reason why we are playing better against big teams is that they sit back less and more inclined to attack , therefore we don't press as high and this is the perfect situation for the likes of Maguire and De Ligt, as they don't have the recovery pace if they pushed too high. With team that are too happy to sit back and soaked the pressure, United are forced to push their defence up, and teams has been punishing them with simple ball over the top that our defence can't catch up.
Our midfield also can use someone who are more athletic and stronger while having the ability to switch plays when necessary. I think it's damning that those kind of play mostly are initiated by the central defenders.
I still think Amorim is the guy, and I hope Ineos share my patience. He did say that inconsistencies will be part of the issue of implementing new tactics mid season.
Also, I think the reason why we are playing better against big teams is that they sit back less and more inclined to attack , therefore we don't press as high and this is the perfect situation for the likes of Maguire and De Ligt, as they don't have the recovery pace if they pushed too high. With team that are too happy to sit back and soaked the pressure, United are forced to push their defence up, and teams has been punishing them with simple ball over the top that our defence can't catch up.
Our midfield also can use someone who are more athletic and stronger while having the ability to switch plays when necessary. I think it's damning that those kind of play mostly are initiated by the central defenders.
I still think Amorim is the guy, and I hope Ineos share my patience. He did say that inconsistencies will be part of the issue of implementing new tactics mid season.
Well, we now know the squad for the rest of the season. Gonna be a rough one.
My hope is he goes for more offense and plays something like this.
Onana
Maz - De ligt - Yoro/Heaven
Amad - Ugarte - Bruno - Dorgu
Mainoo - Garnacho/eriksen
Höjlund
My hope is he goes for more offense and plays something like this.
Onana
Maz - De ligt - Yoro/Heaven
Amad - Ugarte - Bruno - Dorgu
Mainoo - Garnacho/eriksen
Höjlund
Agreed - we have been too quick to let go of "deadwood" rather than phasing them out of the team slowly. The squad building has been horrible, hampered by tighter financial space.
Defending corners will be fun
Too complicated.
We just can't pass a ball to someone in a red shirt.
Our forwards don't know how to drag defenders away and create space.
Solve that and our situation looks a whole lot better.