They are up for the game because we are always a big scalp and we have been, for a very long time, a very winnable game for any team that shows up. Those two things make teams up their game a bit.
Ruben Amorim - Manchester United Head Coach | Locked during matches
- Thread starter sewey89
- Start date
-
Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) discuss United's fantastic win away against Athletic Club in the semi-final of the Europa League.
They also pick out the positives of United's 4-3 loss away at Brentford, and Nik reviews a day out at Old Trafford watching Manchester United Women qualify for the Champions League.
They are up for the game because we are always a big scalp and we have been, for a very long time, a very winnable game for any team that shows up. Those two things make teams up their game a bit.
@pocco it can be done!!!!Hold up, haven't you been telling everyone how shit this system is and how it's not going to work?
Apologies if it was another poster, but I thought you were quite vocal about it up till yesterday.
343 can be done.
I think a lot of people needed convincing on the pitch. And it was delivered yesterday.
I believe any arguments about the tactics or not, has been closed.
Work now is on Amorim to construct a title winning squad. He should be given absolutely anything he needs.
Yes it was me
Do you think he speaks to Bruno in English or Portuguese?
Hold up, haven't you been telling everyone how shit this system is and how it's not going to work?
Apologies if it was another poster, but I thought you were quite vocal about it up till yesterday.
Basically spent the last month doing just that.
Amazing what a decent result and performance can do to change peoples minds.
That is very true as well, so I guess we need players that are willing to fight to get that fear factor back that has been lost too.
Quite clear he speaks to Hojlund in Portuguese, so not sure why he wouldn't with Bruno
English. Unified dressing room innit.
Portuguese in private, English in the dressing room I'd imagine.
Refreshing to see us not overwhelmed and going toe to toe at Anfield. Back this guy and his ideas.
To be fair, motivation, intensity etc are the main things to succeed. Fair enough you can motivate yourselves in the big games, but to win long term you either need to be motivated or simply better than anyone else.
It's great to see he more than knows this. At the end of the day, you can have the 'perfect system', the 'perfect players' but if they aren't motivated and just giving it 90% then it's easy to get found out.
It's the whole reason that crap teams can beat anyone with a new manage bounce and why the FA Cup etc have had great moments, or you get a Leicester or Forest every now and again.
If you can get that right, and then improve with training, tactics and the right transfers, then that's a recipe to being unstoppable in the future. SAFs greatest strength was motivation.
The thing I appreciated most about yesterday's performance wasn't the intensity, although that was decent, but more it was that we were generally calm in possession, notably Bruno in particular. So much better in not giving away possession daftly in stupid areas and actually created a lot of nice chances through clever, calm passing rather than trying to force things too much. If we can have more of that we'll become a force again.
Hope we have lots of training session until next week. Dont mind if we lose against setpiece shits next week.
You counter this by consistently beating teams and by going toe to toe with them when they are in this phase of the game. Against Newcastle people said they took their foot off the gas after 30 minutes and we got back into the game. Thats largely BS. Teams that bust a gut for the first part of a game rarely sustain that and its not because they have the game tied up. Its because you can't sustain that pace for 90 minutes. You have to settle down. Team have been richly rewarded for getting at us early in recent years because they are A) likely to score and B) they can then calm down a little because our spirit is broken.
Show teams that they can't bully us at the start of games and start beating them consistently and suddenly you find that teams aren't coming into games with the same expectations. As people said, during Unites hey day under Fergie teams would turn up already beaten. Losing 2-0 would be a good day at the office.
We need to see a much larger sample size of this though. Particularly over the next few league games starting with Southampton at home. We've been here before.
Not sure if people are being thick on purpose or just making up reasons to whine about Amorim. He didn't start Ugarte and Fernandes because they were both suspended for that game. So while he could have avoided having both Case and Eriksen on the field at the same time, it's not like he had much choice.
Liked that he waited until after a good performance to go for them a bit. They need to know the standards can't drop a millimetre if we are to keep going in the right direction.
At least he admits it and is open to change his mind. A lot of football fans today seem more obsessed with having their point proven right than actually discussing football with an open mind.
He’s doing all the right things, I think he’s got something special about him.
The last month has been brutal with the sacking talk, how easily they forgot the bald idiot put us against the wall after his long over welcomed stay.
yeah Ten Hag set us back quite a bit. Most of our squad regressed under him.
I don't think this was the same as the 4-3 against Liverpool at OT. People seem to forget how thoroughly we were being outplayed in that when the match was settled. Liverpool should have been out of sight but didn't take their chances. We only came into it as the game got frantic and tactics seem to go out the window.
What's encouraging about Amorim is that in these big games, we are not hanging on for dear life and trying for counter attack goals. This system appears to be providing a better platform to deliver performances. This wil breed more confidence and belief. Now we just need consistency from the players.
Goes without saying it’s dumb to change your mind, one way or another, after a single game. Besides there’s been loads of evidence that this system can work before yesterday. But only for periods within games. Yesterday was just the first time we kept it up for a full 90 minutes.
Maybe it was from having 6 days between games for the first time since Amorim came in.
Maybe it was Amorin telling these players some home truths after some terrible results.
Maybe it was less individual errors and more focus.
Maybe having your first choice midfielders out there helped.
Either way, the system works when the players are on it, even though we dont have all the profiles needed currently. They were on it yesterday.
You can play any formation and system you want, but if they players are off, it wont be a good day.
They were awful against Newcastle, but im adimient that had little to do with system - no first choice midfield and some bad individual mistakes / performances.
I like that the players and managers are not getting carried away, like maybe they did post City. In the long run, it may be better for us that we didn't nick it at the end with Maguire - even though that would have been legendary.
@pocco it can be done!!!!
343 can be done.
I think a lot of people needed convincing on the pitch. And it was delivered yesterday.
I believe any arguments about the tactics or not, has been closed.
Work now is on Amorim to construct a title winning squad. He should be given absolutely anything he needs.
Yes it was me
Ok fair enough, I hope we can all put that argument to bed then. Like you said, we need to back him and get our next few signings right and start moving in the right direction. Hopefully along the way some of these players surprise us and make a case for themselves in his team. It’d be great to talk again soon about an embarrassment of options rather than lack of.
Doesn't it feel so much better to watch too when the players are fired up and really going for it? That desire if we can have it in most matches would go a long way to making us a better team and one that's way more exciting for the fans.
Just when Liverpool are getting ready to climb back on their perch, in steams Amorim to knock em back off again. They ain't all that, we proved it yesterday.
More fit players on the pitch compared to last season, and upgrades like Ugarte and Mazraoui make a huge difference.
It really is mostly about performance and bravery though, and if Amorim can get them to show it in smaller games, he‘s the one.
the one change in his system that i don't like is the defending in the 541 with a flat 4 midfield. I would much prefer he stuck to that 523 defensive structure like he did wiht Sporting against City
If I was INEOS I'd back him fully in the next window. The reason is, he's different in a way that he inherited a squad at their bottom confidence/mentality issues/skill issues. But he never looked out of place against big teams. We all know we need to "refresh" the club so he's the best man for it at the moment. The losses against smaller teams were clearly down to the players. I'm not trying to draw a parallel here but Klopp went through similar phases at the start but he knew what kind of football he wanted to play. He also lost 4 times in a row (including 6 home matches in a row) during covid, was a freak season but arguably still way better than what Amorim is going through.
Spot on.... all week he challenged the players to "be brave" on the ball. The times that Bruno, Ugarte and Mainoo broke through lines with short dribbles or forward passes was night and day to what we have seen in recent weeks.
Not necessarily vs Liverpool in the FA Cup and Community Shield vs City earlier.
We had more than 40% possession and matched them for shots and shots on target.
Not true for those matches apart from City final. Had over 40% possession and matched their shots number kr bettered them.
Yesterday Liverpool had significantly more shots, shots on target and xG, doesn't mean much though.
At last a manager who actually has high standards and doesn't just speak of them.
He needs patience. We shouldn't be massively concerned with a few dodgy results between now and the end of the season. The signs are there and have been from game one, slowly that improvement will come and with that some consistency. It's exciting to think ahead to next year with a full pre-season and a handful of signings that suit his system.
He needs patience. We shouldn't be massively concerned with a few dodgy results between now and the end of the season. The signs are there and have been from game one, slowly that improvement will come and with that some consistency. It's exciting to think ahead to next year with a full pre-season and a handful of signings that suit his system.
We deserved to win yesterday based on our intensity and desire.
If we show that in smaller games, xG will go up.
Yeah, it's a work in progress. But for me the signs in terms of overall play have been generally positive. Really need to see that level of intensity, discipline and desire.
I think the players generally look like they are on board with his ideas and are really trying to work to his requirements.
Every game/goal has been littered with individual mistakes, which for me aren't really system issues or tactical issues. Even yesterday De Ligt was poor for the first and makes a shit handball for the penalty.
Come on, that poster was obviously taking the piss.
Agreed, point I was trying to make is that these players have it in their locker. They are much better than they show for the majority of the time. Or let me put it that they have the qualities.
Agreed. It’s a mentality issue like people have said before and managers have pointed out. Game raisers. That’s what they are. Don’t realise to win the big trophies you have to beat smaller teams aswell as the bigger teams.
We’ve clearly set a new benchmark with that performance, and anyone who can’t bring that same level of intensity and focus to every league game will dropped I expect, regardless of who they are.