The point is that Amorim’s system is so specific and not played by anyone else that if it doesn’t work we’re potentially in an even bigger hole and left with yet more deadwood that the next manager doesn’t want because he most likely won’t play anywhere near the same system as Amorim does.
It’s one thing for Ratcliffe and Ineos to talk about 4-5 year plans but what you need for that to even be a possibility is continuity which means the clubs footballing structure decide a United way of playing, a system and an identity that is played from the first team all the way down to the academy groups.
The structure would implement a scouting network to spot players to fit ‘our’ way and we would fill the academies up with players that will maybe one day break into the first team without the system feeling alien to them as they’d have played it for a while as young kids, we’ve all said for years that no manager should have absolute power.
If we give Amorim say £300 million over the next 18 months and it doesn’t work then the next manager is a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 guy what does he do with the wing backs ? What does he do with no wingers ? What does he do with wide centre backs that can’t play in a back 4 ? It’s rinse and repeat and yet another rebuild and the toxic cycle continues.
What is needed isn’t Berrada pulling rank over Ashworth to sign the coach Berrada wants or the coach choosing the staff we use which is surely the job of Wilcox or Brailsford and Berrada involved in anything coaching related when that was Ashworth's job but us to have the system, the identity and the specified job roles all in place so there’s a continuity and if a coach does work out it’s not upheaval after upheaval and rebuild after rebuild.
Berrada’s job is basically what Woodward and Arnold did so has no right really in choosing a head coach in the same way neither did Woodward or Arnold but we’re such a fecking shambles that Ratcliffe and the ever pointless Brailsford allowed an in house power struggle over ETH staying or going then after ETH went another power struggle over who replaced ETH and rendered certain job roles pointless, the point is the footballing structure isn’t a structure in anything but name and until it is we’ll keep repeating the same expensive mistakes unless Amorim gets it very right which with our recruitment is unlikely.
That simply isn't true though. Or at least it shouldn't be if you build a squad competently.
For example, you mention the specialist wingback position in Amorim's system and ask what we will do if the next manager doesn't use wingbacks.
But the reality is that when we talk about "signing wingbacks", what we
actually mean is signing fullbacks or wingers who can play as wingbacks. So the answer is that if the next manager doesn't use wingbacks, they simply revert to being fullbacks/wingers.
You can see this clearly in the players we were just linked with for the the wingback role. Davies, Mendes, Ait Nouri, Dorgu, Alvaro, etc. Not only are none of these players limited to playing a specialist wingback role, the player we actually signed has
primarily played at fullback or winger, not wingback. And all of those players are/were targets for other clubs who play with fullbacks, and could easily have been targets for us if we wanted a fullback. So even signings in that supposedly specialist position impose very few
actual restrictions on the squad.
In other words it's much less difficult to transition a squad from 343 to 433 than vice versa, because 99% of the players you sign for a 343 will have experience playing in a 433. In fact most of them will be
more used to 433.
If you successfully recruit a young, athletic, high-talent level squad to fit Amorim' system, they will be able to translate to a 433 that emphasises those same qualities with minimal disruption. Because that new formation will still require high-talent GKs, CBs, CMs and attackers. There are few (if any) profiles of player who work in a 343 but don't work in a 433.
The primary issue we're experiencing now isn't that the squad doesn't suit Amorim. It's that it doesn't suit and/or isn't of sufficient quality to allow for sufficient success under
any manager. If you fix the talent and profile of the squad, it inherently become much more adaptable.
