Ruben Amorim - Manchester United Head Coach

There’s a world of difference between using xG as part of your analysis and using it as your only analysis.

Because anyone who actually watched the game saw United put in a decent performance in the first half. Almost completely nullified Arsenal as an attacking threat, dominated possession and got into decent attacking positions a few times (only for a lack of real quality from our front three to let us down) That was one of our most evenly matched 45 minutes of football against a legitimate top team of the last several years.

Second half was obviously less impressive. Our subs played very poorly and our attempt to be more attacking allowed Arsenal to get on top. Shit happens. We’re a work in progress.

Oh and nobody said set-pieces don’t count. But when a team is accumulating the vast majority of its xG from corners bouncing around inside the six yard box then that’s a great example of why analysing the overall pattern of a game by xG alone is a mug’s game.

Excellent post
 
My history suggests what I said in my post. I'm cautiously optimistic about him. That doesn't mean I'm going to fawn over that performance against Arsenal nor does it equal to me being anti Ruben.
No one is asking you to fawn. Try to enjoy things a bit. The constant negativity must be tiring.
 
Alright let's remove the xG part and let me know what do you disagree with my post? That we couldn't have threatened more against Arsenal's 2nd choice defence ? Or that we started the game with ultra defensive mentality?

Because of those things, I can't call it a good performance and if you disagree then fair enough.

Yeah, both of those. That’s what I disagree with. Especially the second one.
 
No one is asking you to fawn. Try to enjoy things a bit. The constant negativity must be tiring.
I did enjoy the win against Everton. It was awhile since we were that comfortable in a game. It's not constant negativity. As I said, I didn't like the Arsenal performance so I'm calling it as such.
 
I have seen enough to know things will pick up. It won’t be smooth sailing but we will become consistent again. Weather we can be serious title challenges is another story but I’m going to enjoy watching Ruben implement his style and more importantly standards.

Great snipit today from him that we need to sprint forwards and back. He knows what he is doing and I am really looking forward to see what he achieves. Everything about him is positive and honest.

It’s ok to believe again don’t be scared.
 
Fair enough. I guess I see things differently to a lot on here.
One person who seemed to agree with some of your assessment was Amorim, who clearly was unhappy with decisions made by the players when there was opportunities to attack several times. He was going ballistic on the sidelines a few times. To me, that would indicate that maybe the setup wasn't ultra defensive but rather the fact that the players are still very new to the system and don't know when to do what offensively yet.

Coaches usually say that coaching the defensive setup is less time consuming than the offensive. We just haven't had the time to get the patterns of play down yet. I don't think it has anything to do with an "ultra-defensive" setup for this particular match.
 
One person who seemed to agree with some of your assessment was Amorim, who clearly was unhappy with decisions made by the players when there was opportunities to attack several times. He was going ballistic on the sidelines a few times. To me, that would indicate that maybe the setup wasn't ultra defensive but rather the fact that the players are still very new to the system and don't know when to do what offensively yet.

Coaches usually say that coaching the defensive setup is less time consuming than the offensive. We just haven't had the time to get the patterns of play down yet. I don't think it has anything to do with an "ultra-defensive" setup for this particular match.
I guess this is where I differ from a lot of people. I can agree if one or two players didn't attack that it's down to them but not when every single one of them refused to attack. That would suggest, atleast for me, that they were prepared for the game by the coach to be as risk averse as possible and more concerned about not conceding a goal rather than trying to score one.
 
Set up against Arsenal was perfectly fine given players availability and capabilities. No matter what that match was written off anyway. For me at least by setting the team correctly the manager met my expectations, and the players met my anticipation by losing the game anyway.
 
Ruben is starting to figure out what a bunch of overpaid and overrated players he’s got at his disposal
 
I like how he doesn't shy away from the facts to the media, I think he has the personality the charisma for it to come across well to the players
 
The stuff he said since he’s joined, it is clear that he has the full backing from the leadership team, player power has finally come to en end.
 
If the player don’t or won’t buy into this Managers ideas then we might as well all go home.

I’m normally a ‘let’s wait and see ‘ person but I really think we have the right guy , I’m excited but we’ll need to be patient
 
He's 100% correct, not sure if the great team comment is beneficial but he is not lying.
 
The recruitment in the last 10 years has been diabolical, and shockingly it has been made worse under every manager. Utd have ended up with a squad lacking the athletic basics needed to succeed in the PL. That was one of the most frustrating things about Ten Hag, he talked as if he understood that was a problem, but continually targeted players and played a style that exacerbated the issue, making his drawn out failure a frustrating inevitability.

Amorin appears to have identified this issue very early on and his team selection backs it up, recutiment will tell the full story though.
 
Huh? Depending on which site you look at, we had 0.2-0.25 XG which is the worst or the 2nd worst in 3 years since ETH joined and that includes ETH's disaster results from last season. Why are we making out that performance to be much more than it is? We were set up to snatch a point from somewhere. Not once did it felt like we wanted to win the game.

What football did we play? Passing around aimlessly with zero threat so that we can up our possession stats? Controlling possession is useless if we barely threaten with it and Arsenal were only too happy to let us have the ball as we did feck all.
I think this is a pretty implausible take on the game.

Low ExG - the most interesting point of the post, and a relevant fact. Just not the only one. Most interesting about it is the causes for it. Were we cautious and careful away to Arsenal? Yes. Is that cowardly? No, anything else would have been stupid. Was that the only reason? No, it was also a matter of not finding the solutions in the final third. Is that due to not trying? Is it due to not hsving an aim? No, silly idea. It’s due to not being good enough yet in attacking movements to trouble Arsenal without opening up defense. Still we could have gone to the break 1-0 up if Dalot had scored, and no one would have complained about it.

1 st half was exemplary based on the circumstance. Context. Assuming that Arsenal wanted it so at home is unrealistic.

2nd half was different, due to Arsenal, corners, goals and changes. Lots to improve.
 
The stuff he said since he’s joined, it is clear that he has the full backing from the leadership team, player power has finally come to en end.

It does feel like that doesnt it? Lets hope it stays that way!
 
It doesn't help that we give our players obscene contracts, definitely has an effect on their motivation and hunger to succeed in my opinion. Once you join United you're already set for life with a fat juicy wage, trophies are just for egos after all.
 
The recruitment in the last 10 years has been diabolical, and shockingly it has been made worse under every manager. Utd have ended up with a squad lacking the athletic basics needed to succeed in the PL. That was one of the most frustrating things about Ten Hag, he talked as if he understood that was a problem, but continually targeted players and played a style that exacerbated the issue, making his drawn out failure a frustrating inevitability.

Amorin appears to have identified this issue very early on and his team selection backs it up, recutiment will tell the full story though.

Not sure I agree it’s gotten worse, it’s just been a consistent level of shit for 10 years.

Even if we ignore who Moyes signed because of the chaos of that one season, Van Gaal signed some proper duds and it didn’t get much better from that point.

The Antony signing clouds the perception of recent transfer activity but I wouldn’t call it significantly worse than under any other manager, we’ve even seemingly signed some players who might actually be worthy of the shirt (Maz, Onana)
 
I think this is a pretty implausible take on the game.

Low ExG - the most interesting point of the post, and a relevant fact. Just not the only one. Most interesting about it is the causes for it. Were we cautious and careful away to Arsenal? Yes. Is that cowardly? No, anything else would have been stupid. Was that the only reason? No, it was also a matter of not finding the solutions in the final third. Is that due to not trying? Is it due to not hsving an aim? No, silly idea. It’s due to not being good enough yet in attacking movements to trouble Arsenal without opening up defense. Still we could have gone to the break 1-0 up if Dalot had scored, and no one would have complained about it.

1 st half was exemplary based on the circumstance. Context. Assuming that Arsenal wanted it so at home is unrealistic.

2nd half was different, due to Arsenal, corners, goals and changes. Lots to improve.
I think we differ in how we define "not being good enough." If we tried something and failed, I'd say that shows they're not good enough yet. But if they don't try at all, I’d argue that means they didn’t aim to be attacking enough. In my view, that first half we didn't threaten nearly enough. It wasn't because Arsenal were defending exceptionally well or sweeping everything up; it was more about us repeatedly passing the ball back when we got near their box and generally playing it too safe.

For further context, Arsenal were missing three of their first choice back four, so I honestly feel we could have been more of a threat. And just to clarify, I’m not calling for an all-out attack, as some others may have misunderstood. I'm simply saying we didn’t take enough risks or show enough intent in the attacking situations we had.

Also, for the record, I'm not writing off Amorim already or anti-Ruben as some posters seem to think. I just didn’t like that performance, and I really hope and expect we can deliver better than what we showed against Arsenal.
 
Love the way he talks to the media, gives me real Fergie vibes. Proper man crush developing here.
 
Can't fault him so far, infact been a joy to watch. This job isn't easy and the big lad makes it look like he's got it all under control. Very impressed.

More importantly I think he has the respect and authority to cull this squad...from the board up. But and there always is.....results have to come. Getting beat by arsenal away 0-2 happened at the best of times. Relax