Ruben Amorim - Manchester United Head Coach

Big Ben Foster said:
Great performance and result today. Still think we can go all the way in the EL.
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Bilbao are huge favourites in this competition and most idiots expect a Spurs vs United final, just can’t see it?
I think only one will get to the SF, Bilbao are a huge problem especially in a 2 leg knock out.

Lyon are also a very good side as well and will cause us problems, hopefully we have 3/4 weeks to get more players back like Harry Maguire, Kobbie, Mason and Lenny Yoro for those two games.

Luke shaw you can write off for the season and if he’s not fit for pre season we need to offer him a free contract to leave and advise him on playing in Italy or Spain in a less intense league, just get his wages off the balance sheet. He’s suppose to be back May but that’s unrealistic with how much football he’s missed this year.
 
davidmichael said:
We look far better when the wing backs are on their natural side and we have the option of them providing the width so the two behind the striker can support or go beyond the striker, it also meant Hojlund was able to attack space in the channels due to the two behind him going beyond him but still have options out wide.

I’ve been critical of the system on here a fair bit but will always admit when I’m wrong and last night showed that the system can work, it does need wing backs on their natural side but last night was promising if we can play to that level and everyone in their best positions.
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Agree with most of this however he only ever used a natural left footer on the left hand side at sporting the right sided wing back was always inverted left. Maybe Ruben has adapted and realised, especially at old Trafford which is one of the widest pitches that he needs to use all the width of the pitch to create more opportunities. Not only was Mazroui, Dalot , Garnaucho all right footed for the right sided but Heaven, Dorgu are both left footed and Zirzkee definitely two footed.

He might Change that in the summer though and go back to a left footed 10 and a left footed right wing back. His sporting team were so dominant in Portugal that sometimes the Right sided CB who was right footed would be the overlap and the guy to cut back the ball into a multiple attacking options.

Yesterday was much better but against very modest opposition. He is now able to try and do something he’s never done before in his career and try and get to a European Semi Final.
 
Woziak said:
Bilbao are huge favourites in this competition and most idiots expect a Spurs vs United final, just can’t see it?
I think only one will get to the SF, Bilbao are a huge problem especially in a 2 leg knock out.

Lyon are also a very good side as well and will cause us problems, hopefully we have 3/4 weeks to get more players back like Harry Maguire, Kobbie, Mason and Lenny Yoro for those two games.

Luke shaw you can write off for the season and if he’s not fit for pre season we need to offer him a free contract to leave and advise him on playing in Italy or Spain in a less intense league, just get his wages off the balance sheet. He’s suppose to be back May but that’s unrealistic with how much football he’s missed this year.
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When you say huge favourites, they're 10/3 and United are 15/4...
The reality is we have a number of good but not great teams left (us included) and then some we mostly are confident will not get through; Bodo, Rangers.
Lazio, Bilbao, Spurs and I'd argue Frankfurt could easily beat us if we turn up and aren't at it. I am hopeful against Lyon, have watched them a few times this year and think we will get a lot of joy against them.
 
Woziak said:
Agree with most of this however he only ever used a natural left footer on the left hand side at sporting the right sided wing back was always inverted left. Maybe Ruben has adapted and realised, especially at old Trafford which is one of the widest pitches that he needs to use all the width of the pitch to create more opportunities. Not only was Mazroui, Dalot , Garnaucho all right footed for the right sided but Heaven, Dorgu are both left footed and Zirzkee definitely two footed.

He might Change that in the summer though and go back to a left footed 10 and a left footed right wing back. His sporting team were so dominant in Portugal that sometimes the Right sided CB who was right footed would be the overlap and the guy to cut back the ball into a multiple attacking options.

Yesterday was much better but against very modest opposition. He is now able to try and do something he’s never done before in his career and try and get to a European Semi Final.
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In Amorims first season he used Mendes and Porro as WBs, with a left footer and a right footer.

He has also shown this with Dorgu & Dalot playing multiple times.

I thought also having a Left footed WB & CB meant more passing angles and helped our build up play, which also stretched the pitch taking advantage of Zubimendis lack of pace to cover spaces.

He might go to an inverted RWB with Amad or a new signing, who knows.

This is certainly the best I have seen us play under Amorim, yes we can only beat what is in front of us and are far stronger tests in EL to come, I certainly liked the interplay and fast paced 1 2s, hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

Whatever he has worked on with Hojlund worked wonders last night, looked a constant threat, hopefully this is the turn around he has been needing.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
When you say huge favourites, they're 10/3 and United are 15/4...
The reality is we have a number of good but not great teams left (us included) and then some we mostly are confident will not get through; Bodo, Rangers.
Lazio, Bilbao, Spurs and I'd argue Frankfurt could easily beat us if we turn up and aren't at it. I am hopeful against Lyon, have watched them a few times this year and think we will get a lot of joy against them.
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Your looking at SKY bet or another British bookie, in Europe they would be more like 5/2 and the field is 5/1 bar them.

Fourth in la liga, practically guaranteed CL football next season and a very difficult team to break down; let’s compare their record this season with ours in all competitions.

Athletico Bilbao - Played 40, Won 20 Drawn 12, Lost 8, Goals Scored 64, Goals against 35. They conceed less than 1 goal per game.

Man United - Played 45, won 18, Drawn 14, lost 13, Goals Scored 74, Goals conceded 58

The reality is we conceded to many goals to probably win Europa League however if we can get the attacking players finally firing we do have a chance, but we are from favourites ,maybe in name only but definitely not this current team performances on the pitch.
 
Woziak said:
Your looking at SKY bet or another British bookie, in Europe they would be more like 5/2 and the field is 5/1 bar them.

Fourth in la liga, practically guaranteed CL football next season and a very difficult team to break down; let’s compare their record this season with ours in all competitions.

Athletico Bilbao - Played 40, Won 20 Drawn 12, Lost 8, Goals Scored 64, Goals against 35. They conceed less than 1 goal per game.

Man United - Played 45, won 18, Drawn 14, lost 13, Goals Scored 74, Goals conceded 58

The reality is we conceded to many goals to probably win Europa League however if we can get the attacking players finally firing we do have a chance, but we are from favourites ,maybe in name only but definitely not this current team performances on the pitch.
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A bit disingenuous (if not completely useless) to compare stats across leagues like this, given the relative quality of the average Premier League team compared to La Liga.

Bilbao would not be fourth in the Premier League.
 
Agree that it's going to be a very tough route to the final. As already stated, Lyon and Bilbao are no mugs and I can see us losing to either clubs. If we do get to the final, and spurs make it, we haven't beaten them in 3 games this season so I'm not confident there either.
 
Ayoba said:
Agree that it's going to be a very tough route to the final. As already stated, Lyon and Bilbao are no mugs and I can see us losing to either clubs. If we do get to the final, and spurs make it, we haven't beaten them in 3 games this season so I'm not confident there either.
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Yeah, but we're slowly becoming a different kind of team, now that the players are finally starting to understand how they should play in this system. Individually and collectively.
 
JB08 said:
A bit disingenuous (if not completely useless) to compare stats across leagues like this, given the relative quality of the average Premier League team compared to La Liga.

Bilbao would not be fourth in the Premier League.
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We don’t know that, especially when Forrest are currently third and we continue to beat the PL Drum yet last year no PL team won in Europe and this year I could easily see a La Liga clean sheet with Real/Barca, Atleti and Betis beating Chelsea in ECL, as a group of people on a tiny island we really need to lose the football arrogance, if the PL is so strong why are Liverpool wining at a canter, where as Serie A and La Liga can still be won by 3 or 4 different teams.

Our mid teams have improved yes but when they are faced with two competitive games per week they will drop in the EPL too, we’ve seen it with Newcastle, Brighton and Villa in the last two years alone.
 
Just extend his short-term contract. Not tomorrow, not after breakfast, now!
 
Cnaiür urs Skiötha said:
There clearly is improvement to be seen. Add to the team that played yesterday Martinez, Shaw, Mount and Amad who in theory are all among the best players we got and suddenly there might be light at the end of the tunnel.
A bunch of players that are not fitting out and 3-4 in and with a bit of luck when it comes to injury we could look much sharper.
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have we ever had a 3 games streak of all 3 of them being fully fit together?
 
Woziak said:
Your looking at SKY bet or another British bookie, in Europe they would be more like 5/2 and the field is 5/1 bar them.

Fourth in la liga, practically guaranteed CL football next season and a very difficult team to break down; let’s compare their record this season with ours in all competitions.

Athletico Bilbao - Played 40, Won 20 Drawn 12, Lost 8, Goals Scored 64, Goals against 35. They conceed less than 1 goal per game.

Man United - Played 45, won 18, Drawn 14, lost 13, Goals Scored 74, Goals conceded 58

The reality is we conceded to many goals to probably win Europa League however if we can get the attacking players finally firing we do have a chance, but we are from favourites ,maybe in name only but definitely not this current team performances on the pitch.
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Not that it matters but this isn't true, if I go on Spanish bookies it's all very similar, some even have Spurs as faves above Bilbao.

La Liga is so hard to judge, the quality is really poor outside of a few elite teams - no offence to Sociedad but they are 11th and I think they'd be right in the relegation scrap in the PL given the lack of pace/physicality in that team. Girona were 3rd last year and they just got 1 win and 7 losses in the CL, with their win coming against Bratislava.

Point being all games will be tough, not because the other teams are great though, Bilbao are nothing special, because we are massively underperforming. We are in Europa for a reason.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
Not that it matters but this isn't true, if I go on Spanish bookies it's all very similar, some even have Spurs as faves above Bilbao.

La Liga is so hard to judge, the quality is really poor outside of a few elite teams - no offence to Sociedad but they are 11th and I think they'd be right in the relegation scrap in the PL given the lack of pace/physicality in that team. Girona were 3rd last year and they just got 1 win and 7 losses in the CL, with their win coming against Bratislava.

Point being all games will be tough, not because the other teams are great though, Bilbao are nothing special, because we are massively underperforming. We are in Europa for a reason.
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Bilbao have the Williams brothers who are going to cause us a massive headache.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
Not that it matters but this isn't true, if I go on Spanish bookies it's all very similar, some even have Spurs as faves above Bilbao.

La Liga is so hard to judge, the quality is really poor outside of a few elite teams - no offence to Sociedad but they are 11th and I think they'd be right in the relegation scrap in the PL given the lack of pace/physicality in that team. Girona were 3rd last year and they just got 1 win and 7 losses in the CL, with their win coming against Bratislava.

Point being all games will be tough, not because the other teams are great though, Bilbao are nothing special, because we are massively underperforming. We are in Europa for a reason.
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They have an elite attack that can hurt our defence, I’m not sure our powder puff attack would currently give their defence too many sleepless nights!

I mean we have two Strikers who have 13 goals in all competitions and 4 assists better them in over 40 matches.

Rasmus is 1 in 7 in all competitions 1 in 13 in the EPL
 
Dr. StrangeHate said:
Bilbao have the Williams brothers who are going to cause us a massive headache.
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We'll see if we play them - it's not like we're coming up against Rafinha/Yamal/Lewa or Vini/Mbappe/Rodrygo though. This is Europa and we're not levels below this Bilbao team.
 
Woziak said:
Your looking at SKY bet or another British bookie, in Europe they would be more like 5/2 and the field is 5/1 bar them.

Fourth in la liga, practically guaranteed CL football next season and a very difficult team to break down; let’s compare their record this season with ours in all competitions.

Athletico Bilbao - Played 40, Won 20 Drawn 12, Lost 8, Goals Scored 64, Goals against 35. They conceed less than 1 goal per game.

Man United - Played 45, won 18, Drawn 14, lost 13, Goals Scored 74, Goals conceded 58

The reality is we conceded to many goals to probably win Europa League however if we can get the attacking players finally firing we do have a chance, but we are from favourites ,maybe in name only but definitely not this current team performances on the pitch.
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Why are you inventing false bookmaking odds for the sake of being negative?
 
We don't have the same physical problems in Europe like Amorim said after the game. We're one of the weaker sides physically and athletically in the Premier League but in Europe we're probably one of the stronger teams.
 
AndyMUFC said:
We don't have the same physical problems in Europe like Amorim said after the game. We're one of the weaker sides physically and athletically in the Premier League but in Europe we're probably one of the stronger teams.
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Also, most games at Europa League level are played at a speed that suits most of the players currently at our disposal, for whom the "freedom" of an extra touch (or more) and/or a few extra seconds to weigh their options can be the difference between a bad and a good performance.
 
I really like how honest he is on his shortcomings. This must help him build the team morale.

I watched his post match interview on TNT and he was talking about how he is learning about players, he mentioned how he tried Garnacho on the right in the away leg and how he saw all the different things he liked compared to the left.

He also went on to say.. I am learning how to coach Casemiro, where to play him etc... it shows when he talks about players need to do better / improve, he is also questioning whether he is doing enough to profile these players.
 
People are getting carried away. Sociedad were poor and had a man sent off, which gave us a lot more space to operate. We aren’t going to be facing a team as bad as Socidead too often and we aren’t getting a man advantage. Some green shoots of progress hopefully are sprouted, but I think we are getting a reality check with Lyon.
 
NLunited said:
No one knows wtf this team will do at this moment. But a game like yesterday shows the players are a lot better than ‚14th place PL, this squad can‘t do better‘ nonsense spouted on here.

Signings like ZZ, Mazraoui and De Ligt looking great. Even Højlund looks like he might turn his bad form around.

Dorgu looking like a good signing, but raw. Heaven looks like a great signing.

Before we can challenge for anything, we need more goals from Garnacho, Højlund and ZZ, and start games better than we‘ve been. I‘d argue to get competition in for Garnacho, who needs to improve a lot.

With the right signings (rwb, st, cam/winger) I expect we can target 4th place next season.

And Bruno, has been fecking disrespected by the Caf. Our best player by far.
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Love after almost 2 seasons of piss poor performances, one good result against a mediocre Spanish side means the players clearly are good enough.

romufc said:
I really like how honest he is on his shortcomings. This must help him build the team morale.

I watched his post match interview on TNT and he was talking about how he is learning about players, he mentioned how he tried Garnacho on the right in the away leg and how he saw all the different things he liked compared to the left.

He also went on to say.. I am learning how to coach Casemiro, where to play him etc... it shows when he talks about players need to do better / improve, he is also questioning whether he is doing enough to profile these players.
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Yeah it's always a green flag for me when a manager is accurate/honest about screw ups, both his own and his players. He noted Zirkzee as an example yesterday needing to be more direct and WANTING to score more, which is something we've all mentioned as noticeable from the first kick with him. So it's good to hear those things are being harped on in training as well.
 
Woziak said:
Agree with most of this however he only ever used a natural left footer on the left hand side at sporting the right sided wing back was always inverted left. Maybe Ruben has adapted and realised, especially at old Trafford which is one of the widest pitches that he needs to use all the width of the pitch to create more opportunities. Not only was Mazroui, Dalot , Garnaucho all right footed for the right sided but Heaven, Dorgu are both left footed and Zirzkee definitely two footed.

He might Change that in the summer though and go back to a left footed 10 and a left footed right wing back. His sporting team were so dominant in Portugal that sometimes the Right sided CB who was right footed would be the overlap and the guy to cut back the ball into a multiple attacking options.

Yesterday was much better but against very modest opposition. He is now able to try and do something he’s never done before in his career and try and get to a European Semi Final.
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I thought Amorim started off with Porro and Mendes as his wing backs at Sporting ? They became so dominant anyway that much like City were over here they could do the tweaks and it didn’t effect much in the grand scheme of things whereas at United we need to do the basics before we’re in a position that we can do tweaks.

In Amorim's system with where we are I think it’s very important to have a right footed right sided centre back and a left footed left sided centre back then a right footed right wing back and a left footed left wing back, as far as the two behind a striker are concerned I don’t think that’s overly important as long as they fully support the striker and the wing backs create the width.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
People are getting carried away. Sociedad were poor and had a man sent off, which gave us a lot more space to operate. We aren’t going to be facing a team as bad as Socidead too often and we aren’t getting a man advantage. Some green shoots of progress hopefully are sprouted, but I think we are getting a reality check with Lyon.
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A bit of enthusiasm and positive energy when you're in 14th is never a bad thing. Even though the opposition lost a man, we played with a lot more spirit than in the preceding games and are now reasonably well positioned to seriously challenge for a CL spot.
 
hobbers said:
Anything to fuel that narrative.

Socieded are a mid table Spanish side. When we get the same sort of result regularly against Bournemouths, Palaces, Brightons and Fulhams we can talk about the players being "clearly good enough".
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Agree. We beat a fairly woeful Spanish side and had a man advantage, and suddenly we're winning the EL with the gang who couldn't shoot straight.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
People are getting carried away. Sociedad were poor and had a man sent off, which gave us a lot more space to operate. We aren’t going to be facing a team as bad as Socidead too often and we aren’t getting a man advantage. Some green shoots of progress hopefully are sprouted, but I think we are getting a reality check with Lyon.
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I like that the manager has already said that it will be a different game with a far more physical team in Lyon, although they do have the likes of Matic and Lacazette in their squad.

I think in the last 30 minutes the difference between United and Sociedad was the fitness of the players. Dorgu seemed to be winning every duel he had on his side especially. Lyon and Athletic Bilbao will be fitter teams to play against. We also have some horrible fixtures around those games in City and Newcastle. We need players back and more options.
 
Cutch said:
After we got drawn against Sociedad the negativity in here was unreal. I was expecting them to play like prime Barca. After we beat them the narrative has flipped completely to how shite they are and that we can't get carried away
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And it’s onto how good the remaining teams are and we haven’t got a chance…
 
JBG said:
Well I did say, "slowly becoming" as in we're showing signs. Not that we are atm.
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And you are spot on. Clear signs of improvement last night and the match before. More running into channels. Quicker recycling of the ball. More linked together in the press and counter-press. LONG way to go. But Amorim is still the man for the job, imo. It's taken a lot longer than supporters would have liked and will still take a lot more time but the way RA wants to play is very slowly starting to take shape.
 
Swedish_Plumber said:
And it’s onto how good the remaining teams are and we haven’t got a chance…
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Yeah it's madness, we might be ropey this season but we have every chance against any of these teams left in.
Sociedad aren't great, I think there's no shame in admitting that, but we take a win and enjoy it all the same.
 
Irwin99 said:
I like that the manager has already said that it will be a different game with a far more physical team in Lyon, although they do have the likes of Matic and Lacazette in their squad.

I think in the last 30 minutes the difference between United and Sociedad was the fitness of the players. Dorgu seemed to be winning every duel he had on his side especially. Lyon and Athletic Bilbao will be fitter teams to play against. We also have some horrible fixtures around those games in City and Newcastle. We need players back and more options.
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I thought people were joking about this, wow. It will be fun to see them roll back the years!
 
Cutch said:
Exactly. We've beat arsenal and city away, and drew with Liverpool at anfield in a game we should have won but it will count for nothing when we run in to European juggernauts like Lyon and Bilbao
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This is not mentioned enough. That was new to us and there were signs
 
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