Ruben Amorim - Manchester United Head Coach

A good win today after a somewhat shaky performance against Bodo/Glimt. The stats might say we dominated that game, but they still managed to score twice and had chances for more in the second half, as our defense predictably shat the bed when Casemiro came on as the CCB.

Even today, Everton had a few opportunities in the first half, but I thought we controlled them well. Every team in this league will have spells where the opposition puts pressure on, so I’m not too concerned as long as they don't capitalize on it. We've had excellent performances earlier this season where we failed to make the most of our dominance, so it’s great to see we didn't repeat that mistake and took our chances when we were on top.

One thing I really like is that it feels like we're funnelling chances more towards our strikers. Hojlund and Zirkzee both scored braces in their first starts under Amorim and looked far more involved in the game. You can certainly see why Gyokeres has been so prolific for Sporting.
 
Really excited to see where he'll have us and what our football will be like this time next year. Get him a few better players in key positions and we'll be flying.
 
We're already seeing a lot of positives in the tactics, particularly in regard to how we use width and our ability to counter attack effectively. I think we haven't even scratched the surface of how dynamic our attack can be, since we haven't yet been able to play our no.10's into the game, so haven't really had the connections through the middle
 
Atheist said:
We’re playing with proper width and stretching the field rather than the nonsensical shit that the previous manager tried to do with fullbacks tucking in.
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Yes that switch of play to Amad is always on. Great to see.
 
Even if we lose by a few against Arsenal it won't dampen things for me too much, because it's clear there's progress and a plan. We're progressing, and its still very early days.
 
I'm mightily impressed with Amorim so far. One thing I'd like to understand about today's game - I'm no expert on tactics - first half we were really deep when we had the ball and just passed it around among the back three, with De Ligt having twice as many touches as anyone else. Second half we were suddenly playing further up the pitch and our defenders were able to find midfielders with their passing instead of just shuffling the ball around among themselves. How did Amorim change that?
 
Our players hopefully appreciate Amorim and how he is helping them. Also, I am sure our team will be much fitter in a few weeks
 
Amorim impress me with his ability to give everyone a chance to play. I think football is a team sport and if Amorim don't alienate players, there will be much more belief. He changes his line up for each game which is unlike ETH who consistently stick to underperforming players until fans get sick and tired. I hope he tweak his system against Arsenal, please do not play Casemiro and Dalot! I cannot understand why Dalot keeps losing balls under little pressure. Casemiro doesn't has the legs to keep up with Arsenal's runners in midfield. Ugarte and Mainoo must start in midfield, Antony as LWB? Maybe Antony can provide better attacking and ball retention. Shaw as LCB as Martinez is suspended. Mount, Bruno behind Hoijund with Amad on the right.
 
r0663664 said:
Amorim impress me with his ability to give everyone a chance to play. I think football is a team sport and if Amorim don't alienate players, there will be much more belief. He changes his line up for each game which is unlike ETH who consistently stick to underperforming players until fans get sick and tired. I hope he tweak his system against Arsenal, please do not play Casemiro and Dalot! I cannot understand why Dalot keeps losing balls under little pressure. Casemiro doesn't has the legs to keep up with Arsenal's runners in midfield. Ugarte and Mainoo must start in midfield, Antony as LWB? Maybe Antony can provide better attacking and ball retention. Shaw as LCB as Martinez is suspended. Mount, Bruno behind Hoijund with Amad on the right.
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Mainoo is suspended
 
Escobar said:
Our players hopefully appreciate Amorim and how he is helping them. Also, I am sure our team will be much fitter in a few weeks
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I think this will be a huge difference maker if he can get them fitter. We’d pick up more points just with this alone.
 
Escobar said:
Our players hopefully appreciate Amorim and how he is helping them. Also, I am sure our team will be much fitter in a few weeks
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This is a key point.

ETH was trying in increase fitness in training whilst also playing a pretty much unchanged 11.

We've already seen Amorim being a lot more aware of the workloads players are putting in and trying to rotate. I have much more faith that thale latter has much more chance of success without setbacks.
 
I've just registered because I'd like to share something about Ruben Amorim, the previous coach of Sporting CP as you know.

I understand the curiosity and the discover phase that you are going through.

Amorim is a master mind. At Sporting CP not only he was the coach, but also organized the football of the club.
For example, before, some players could be important and playing a lot, while their wages were far below other players that didn't play so much.
He introduced a fair system where players would have their wages increased to match their performance.
As you can see, this is what Amorim needs. That the football club is under his supervision. For sure, he got that assurance from the MUFC management.
He doesn't want to be the manager in title, but he sets some directives for the management to follow.

He's very good on tactics, as you're finding out. Very good in training, very good communicating. He's also very good observing and trying to approach each player in the best way. This way, the team will be a very fine-tuned car. He's the engineer and the pilot of one of the best F1. All the players will support him, because they show them they are really important.

One thing that is maybe missing from the comments I've read explains why people like to hear him so much. He's very good with players, supporters, journalists. Once he said that he could never lie either to his wife and his players, because if he did so, he'd lose them.
People are very used to falsehood that is broadcasted by every sort of power, be it governments, media, etc.
But he says the truth, and people find it refreshing, because they are not used to it.

Sporting CP played the best football I've ever seen under him. Sometimes he's stubborn, but he already mentioned it, so he acknowledged it. He always like to improve himself.
Three games and you already see some quality football. Not all the time, but some periods. Now just imagine how it'll be next year, with a proper pre-season, and two or three new players adjusted to the team.

If the club continues to give him the right conditions, Amorim will be your next head coach for the next twenty years. I'm sure of that.
He has no better place to go.
 
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I hope the new manager bounce can last a few weeks longer.

But we need to be cautious as the last few managers at United have all started positively!

But personality wise he is coming across very well with everyone which is a good first step.

Excited for Wednesday!
 
lib5 said:
Amorim is a master mind. At Sporting CP not only he was the coach, but also organized the football of the club.
For example, before, some players could be important and playing a lot, while their wages were far below other players that didn't play so much.
He introduced a fair system where players would have their wages increased to match their performance.
As you can see, this is what Amorim needs. That the football club is under his supervision. For sure, he got that assurance from the MUFC management.
He doesn't want to be the manager in title, but he sets some directives for the management to follow.
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He's unlikely to have anywhere near that sort of influence at United though. They just put together a whole new management team to manage the football side of the club, basically anything outside what a head coach is responsible for (i.e., running the first time on a day-to-day basis). Amorim was explicitly hired as a head coach and it would think it is very unlikely that he has responsibilities that eat into what the new management is responsible for - even if I'm sure he can give his opinions and they'd consider them.

I would also suggest that it's right this way. The head coach has enough to do already and no-one can be a specialist in everything.
 
Might be the greatest ever. Based on what we’d seen this season what would the odds of Rashford, Zirkzee and Hojlund all scoring 2 goals each in the same week be.

You can see there is so much improvement to come but he’s doing the little things really well. How he’s trusted the squad is also impressive. Everyone is stay fit and on their toes.
 
RuudTom83 said:
I hope the new manager bounce can last a few weeks longer.

But we need to be cautious as the last few managers at United have all started positively!

But personality wise he is coming across very well with everyone which is a good first step.

Excited for Wednesday!
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Didn't ETH start horribly, including having us suffer a 4-0 defeat to Brighton?
 
Cheimoon said:
He's unlikely to have anywhere near that sort of influence at United though. They just put together a whole new management team to manage the football side of the club, basically anything outside what a head coach is responsible for (i.e., running the first time on a day-to-day basis). Amorim was explicitly hired comes as a head coach and it would think it is very unlikely that he has responsibilities that eat into what the new management is responsible for - even if I'm sure he can give his opinions and they'd consider them.

I would also suggest that it's right this way. The head coach has enough to do already and no-one can be a specialist in everything.
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I agree in theory. But with success cones influence and power. So you never know.

Imagine the influence that Pep has despite the 'best in class' structure at city?
 
Escobar said:
Arsenal comes a tad too early but I am sure we are a different team in like 4 weeks
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It's annoying how soon that fixture is. In lots of ways, I wish we had pulled the trigger on ETH sooner so that we could be further ahead with Amorim now, but nowt we can do about that now.

Really interesting to see what Amorim's approach is going to be. We would have got pumped 5 or 6-0 under ETH.
 
hellhunter said:
Brentford even, I think. Losing the prior match 2-1 vs Brighton
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To be fair to ETH we did go in a decent run after that though. The warning signs were there as we could put together a decent run of form without losing the odd game. But his win percentage was very high up till January. Then it slumped.

But it also took till his 17th game PL game to reach +7 GD, we've done that in 4 since he was sacked. Pretty wild how bad we were really under ETH. We never ever reached higher than +16 GD at any point. Sigh. So many months wasted, but hopefully we've finally stumbled on the right man.
 
Ruben is looking the part and comes across really well in the pressers.
 
I really hope we find the sort of money for him in the next 2 years that we did for Ten Hag.

But it would seem a bit typical for Amorim to be the first manager post Fergie to be held back by lack of money for new players, rather than lack of ability for the job.
 
RedSky said:
To be fair to ETH we did go in a decent run after that though. The warning signs were there as we could put together a decent run of form without losing the odd game. But his win percentage was very high up till January. Then it slumped.

But it also took till his 17th game PL game to reach +7 GD, we've done that in 4 since he was sacked. Pretty wild how bad we were really under ETH. We never ever reached higher than +16 GD at any point. Sigh. So many months wasted, but hopefully we've finally stumbled on the right man.
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I never cared much for goal difference, and I also don't want to pretend everything was bad under ETH. Like you say, we did have decent spells. Just a horrible start that had people very worried
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
I really hope we find the sort of money for him in the next 2 years that we did for Ten Hag.

But it would seem a bit typical for Amorim to be the first manager post Fergie to be held back by lack of money for new players, rather than lack of ability for the job.
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If he can get a tune out of the players we already have then we might not need wholesale changes. Sell a few who are surplus to requirements, get a few people off the wage bill and sign a couple of key players.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
I really hope we find the sort of money for him in the next 2 years that we did for Ten Hag.

But it would seem a bit typical for Amorim to be the first manager post Fergie to be held back by lack of money for new players, rather than lack of ability for the job.
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But good managers can improve what they have right? Let’s hope he’s the first manager we’ve had since Fergie who can improve the current squad rather than spend 600m on new players. Obvs we need better quality in the squad which will help the manager but if he can improve a load of players aswell then that’s even better.
 
hellhunter said:
I never cared much for goal difference, and I also don't want to pretend everything was bad under ETH. Like you say, we did have decent spells. Just a horrible start that had people very worried
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I think GD gives you a decent picture on how well the team is playing. If you're domimating games and scoring goals then generally that's a good sign. If you're scraping through games with only a 1 goal cushion then it's generally not sustainble long term. A bad GD is a symptom of a poorly run club.
 
hellhunter said:
I never cared much for goal difference, and I also don't want to pretend everything was bad under ETH. Like you say, we did have decent spells. Just a horrible start that had people very worried
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People should care more for GD as it’s what cost us an extra title when city nicked it off us. People don’t because it’s rare teams finish on the same points.
 
If players are willing to run thru a brick wall, I know we will be succeed. I doubt anyone is willing to do that with ETH. ETH set United back 3 years at least with his tactics and signings. I would say that he is the worst managers that we have hired.
 
DJ_21 said:
Love that he mentioned he wasn’t happy with the way we played despite winning 4-0. The result was good. Performance not to good. We let Everton have a lot of the ball. If we can win without playing good then we’re gonna be on fire when we start to click
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Not just that but when we recruit the type of players that compliments his system.
Starting to believe Berrada's words about wanting to win the EPL title in 2 - 3 years. If we continue to improve and win despite playing in 1st or 2nd gear, it definitely is a possibility.
 
Sandikan said:
Having stood about 10metres away from Stuart Pearce, some ex Reading player and the ITV lot for their coverage on Saturday, it's not as obvious when they're just chit chatting versus actually doing the serious live bit as you'd think .
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Sheeran is a dick nevertheless.
 
Shark said:
Didn't ETH start horribly, including having us suffer a 4-0 defeat to Brighton?
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2 bad games to start before going on a enormous unbeaten run at home I believe…as crazy as it sounds I seem to remember EtH having a run of nearly 25-30 games or something unbeaten at Old Trafford.

Don’t quote me on the numbers. But along with Ole they both had huge periods of positive results.
 
Sandikan said:
Having stood about 10metres away from Stuart Pearce, some ex Reading player and the ITV lot for their coverage on Saturday, it's not as obvious when they're just chit chatting versus actually doing the serious live bit as you'd think .
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Super Richard Kone!
 
DJ_21 said:
People should care more for GD as it’s what cost us an extra title when city nicked it off us. People don’t because it’s rare teams finish on the same points.
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Yeah it happened once (to us). But generally I don't care about narrow wins and the occasional big loss. Other factors, like the run being sustainable or playing at a strong level matters more. Remember that Fergie run with like ten 1-0s when VdS broke the record?
 
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