Ruben Amorim - Manchester United Head Coach

[red_de_pologne]

what a mess he's walked into

- asked to play his 3-4-3
- zero wingbacks, one winger capable of playing the role (but needed elsewhere)
- paper thin midfield options
- severe lack of goalscorers, two strikers who wouldn't start for ANY team in the league
- a group of highest earners literally offering nothing whether through chronic injuries, zero effort or being well past it
- lack of athletic, physical players
- team already low in confidence

wonder what did he think this will play out like

 

[Oranges038]

Alternative view. He can believe this and not talk about in public.

I made the point like last week that we often heap unnecessary pressure on ourselves and invite high levels of scrutiny for no reason.

Assuming Rashford is sold this week and a replacement comes in at some point over the next 6 months. That new player is gonna be under intense pressure early doors otherwise the "Rashford was dropped for less than this" will start very quickly. The other side of this is that in the unlikely event that he does come back, they will both be slated unless he's delivering Ronaldo 2008 style numbers.

Amorim is saying a lot of the right things but the media in this country are very different to Portugal. He needs to be smarter. The story today should be about a hard fought win at a potentially difficult away ground backed by thousands of passionate reds. Instead, he's given this saga more oxygen and it will dominate the press until transfer deadline day. In addition, teams will know we're a) desperate to sell him so his value will drop and b) desperate for a replacement so the value of even average players will go up by 10-15%.

Nobody wants him, so his value doesn't matter.

All players Utd are linked with a bid for go up by 20% anyway, look at that Dorgu guy, Utd might bid and all you hear about is he'll cost 40m .

Napoli about half that and Juve could probably get him on a 5 year loan, no money up front, no obligation to buy and Lecce would still pay all his wages.

 

[Denis' cuff]

Rangnick haters must already despise Amorim.

Very glad he isn't sugarcoating this. Call the shitters out.

.

Shitters

 

[Ayoba]

what a mess he's walked into

- asked to play his 3-4-3
- zero wingbacks, one winger capable of playing the role (but needed elsewhere)
- paper thin midfield options
- severe lack of goalscorers, two strikers who wouldn't start for ANY team in the league
- a group of highest earners literally offering nothing whether through chronic injuries, zero effort or being well past it
- lack of athletic, physical players
- team already low in confidence

wonder what did he think this will play out like

No wonder he feels 50!

 

[swooshboy]

Nobody wants him, so his value doesn't matter.

All players Utd are linked with a bid for go up by 20% anyway, look at that Dorgu guy, Utd might bid and all you hear about is he'll cost 40m .

Napoli about half that and Juve could probably get him on a 5 year loan, no money up front, no obligation to buy and Lecce would still pay all his wages.

Not sure why people keep repeating this! He was offered to other clubs for €40m – his price didn't go up because we were interested.

 

[Robertd0803]

Im hoping the request for a day off was tounge in cheek by the players because its the bosses birthday.

 

[GaryLifo]

Are the people who were calling him stubborn and saying he needs to do whatever it takes to get results happy now? We were set up last night to be defensively solid and try to grind out the win. It worked but it wasn't pretty.

He said himself after the game that the plan is not to play like that in future.. think he actually said we can't play like that in future.

I want this fella to be given a lot of time and backing because he's definitely got something about him.

 

[P-Nut]

Sporting fans said that he would work on getting us solid first and then look to improve other areas after.

I think it's pretty clear once he finished rotating through the heavy xmas fixtures that we have become tough to beat, the defence is quite settled and the players know their roles now.
I expect we'll stay at this level until the summer when some additions may help us to start controlling games and having an attacking threat. Next season is when we should be seeing the patterns of play building and an attacking style that can be built upon.

 

[MO_Football92]

This season was sabotaged by not sacking ETH in June. Already by the end of September you could see that this season wilm be done in EPL. You see in recent seasons Arsenal and Chelsea had seasons when they finished in lower half and they are doing better now.
Just by default Man Utd doesn't finish in higher places, so maybe this season could be a catalyst to do a reset in many ways.
1. Letting the players know that wages are not only to be collected.
2. Not paying over the top for players that may end up useless (Antony biggest example)
3. Instilling a desire to win

Arsenal never finished in lower half

 

[The Firestarter]

That was brutal...and might I say unnecessary. I get that he is irritated by the persistent questioning on Rashford in every press conference, but that is why he gets paid the big bucks. This is part of the job and intense scrutiny comes with the territory. A manager has to be diplomatic too, not every occasion demands brutal honesty.

About time somebody burst Rashy's bubble.

 

[LordSpud]

Sporting fans said that he would work on getting us solid first and then look to improve other areas after.

Yeah I remember when Klopp took over a mess at Liverpool he started work on the attack first so they started to score more but were still so bad at the back. Then he got Van Dijk and Allison and they were a completely different team.

Seems Amorim has done the opposite and stopped the leaky defence first before hopefully finding an attack that actually threatens instead of what we've got currently.

 

[diarm]

A large part of Amorims job is to motivate footballers. Rashfords motivation doesn’t lie in football - it lies in his public image. He is a celebrity first and a footballer second and has been for some time.

Amorim merely understands how unlikely it is that Marcus will move on this window, and realises that with traditional attempts to motivate him on the training ground or behind closed doors not working, he needs to try and use the only avenue to which Rashford pays attention - his public perception.

If he can leave zero room for interpretation or spin, Rashford will have no choice but to knuckle down and work to rebuild his precious image. He can hate Amorim and be fuming on the inside, but for the next few months he will have to get on board and look to earn a decent move in the summer.

 

[bringbackbebe]

What's Rashford's plan B? Is it his intention to just sit out his contract rather than change his ways? He doesn't seem to care much about being a footballer any more, so maybe he's happy not playing and picking up his obscene wages, regardless of what his PR people say about wanting a new challenge. If he does actually see himself moving to another top club, the longer he's frozen out and not playing, the less chance there is of that. Ultimately, it's his career going down the toilet right now. The club's on the hook for his wages either way, so letting him continue to stink up the team and make it like starting every game with ten men seems counterproductive.

So he's on a 15m/year contract for three and a half more years. Who do you think loses out if he's struck with us for a few more years playing U21s and pocketing his pay? He can very well do a Bogarde. All this drama isn't really helping anyone. Sure, maybe it shows Amorim's macho and a strict disciplinarian but it doesn't change the fact that we're paying free yet humongous wages for someone who can at least contribute as a backup if all this drama didn't exist. Right now, what's unfolding is a lose-lose situation.

 

[MikeUpNorth]

It’s also worth bearing in mind how differently he’s treated Garnacho, who has obviously reacted to a shot across his bows the right way.

Yeah, Garnacho's response seemed to get his head down, delete his Twitter account, and run harder.

If Rashford had wanted to prove he was willing to change his ways he could have, uh, not given an interview saying he wanted a new challenge. Not called in sick for a week of training. And ideally he would sack his brother and get a real agent.

 

[P-Nut]

So he's on a 15m/year contract for three and a half more years. Who do you think loses out if he's struck with us for a few more years playing U21s and pocketing his pay? He can very well do a Bogarde. All this drama isn't really helping anyone. Sure, maybe it shows Amorim's macho and a strict disciplinarian but it doesn't change the fact that we're paying free yet humongous wages for someone who can at least contribute as a backup if all this drama didn't exist. Right now, what's unfolding is a lose-lose situation.

I'm sure Amorim would love to have someone of Rashfords potential, but if he isn't willing to work or drop his wages to get a move then he should sit out until he changes his tune. There really is nothing else the club can do that doesn't undermine Amorim unless we want to pay Rashford to play for another side.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

Under Ten Hag every team looked like scoring at least 5 against us.
He was one lucky manager.. Highlights include a very narrow offside to save us from getting humiliating 3-0 to 3-4 against fecking Coventry, that 1-1 vs Brentford with Mount scoring where they tore us a new one and it could have been 5-1, losing 4-0 to Palace when it could and should have been another 7-0...

Amorim improves our defending and overall stability massively. We are lacking attacking threat but it's mainly because frustratingly 90% of our crosses from the wing hit the first man.
It's not like the strikers are late or early to the ball, the ball never arrives.

It's clear that we have great options in this formation when we play through the middle, with 1 CB always running in from behind, noticeably and most effectively Licha.

It's clear that defenders are the first to understand their roles and and positions in his system, when the attack starts clicking, we'll see exciting stuff.
Amorim is trying to coach Garnacho and Amad into being smarter players and it will happen. But the striker issue is a major one.

Interesting take. Personally
I'm convinced the striker issue is over blown. Currently The entire attacking system of the team is thoroughly under developed in this formatiom. We don't pass the ball quick enough, not at a consistent enough tempo to exploit switches of play to over load opponents nor utilise any pace or trickery we do have upfront. In addition our attackers do not understand each other enough for them to play to the varrying strengths of Zirkzee or Hoijlund. Things that won't change till we have more training ground time to work on attacking patterns and partnerships in this formation

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Yeah, Garnacho's response seemed to get his head down, delete his Twitter account, and run harder.

If Rashford had wanted to prove he was willing to change his ways he could have, uh, not given an interview saying he wanted a new challenge. Not called in sick for a week of training. And ideally he would sack his brother and get a real agent.

Yup. And it’s not like Rashford doesn’t have a track record of reacting poorly to being confronted about his attitude. After the whole Belfast fiasco I was expecting him to play like a man possessed, to prove all the haters wrong. Even if only for his first two or three games back. But he served up the exact same half-arsed shite that got him in the manager’s (and fans) bad books to begin with.

 

[justsomebloke]

Alternative view. He can believe this and not talk about in public.

I made the point like last week that we often heap unnecessary pressure on ourselves and invite high levels of scrutiny for no reason.

Assuming Rashford is sold this week and a replacement comes in at some point over the next 6 months. That new player is gonna be under intense pressure early doors otherwise the "Rashford was dropped for less than this" will start very quickly. The other side of this is that in the unlikely event that he does come back, they will both be slated unless he's delivering Ronaldo 2008 style numbers.

Amorim is saying a lot of the right things but the media in this country are very different to Portugal. He needs to be smarter. The story today should be about a hard fought win at a potentially difficult away ground backed by thousands of passionate reds. Instead, he's given this saga more oxygen and it will dominate the press until transfer deadline day. In addition, teams will know we're a) desperate to sell him so his value will drop and b) desperate for a replacement so the value of even average players will go up by 10-15%.

I think there's a small but important nuance here. He didn't actually say he'd rather have the goaltending coach on the bench than Rashford. He said he'd put the goaltending coach there before he selected a player who didn't make the full effort in training. In other words, he's primarily making a point about standards. It doesn't get reported that way (which I think is at best borderline accurate, even though the context clearly makes it reasonable to see it also as an allusion to Rashford), but it still matters. And that is the sort of point you can't just make once, and then it's done.

 

[youngrell]

The problem is, there IS NO OFFER on the table!

There surely will be though if he lowers his demands and adjusts his expectations inline with reality.

 

[Idxomer]

Well, his words about Rashford have moved the conversation from how woeful the team looked.

That was the worst performance of the season, and they won due to luck and Fulham not performing any better.

 

[diarm]

There surely will be though if he lowers his demands and adjusts his expectations inline with reality.

That’s not going to happen. His perception of reality is not the same as yours. He believes he is world class and has a £300k+ a week contract to cement his belief.

 

[youngrell]

That’s not going to happen. His perception of reality is not the same as yours. He believes he is world class and has a £300k+ a week contract to cement his belief.

Well, his situation isn’t going to change anytime soon then.

 

[giggs-beckham]

Hmm. Won't help us loan him out. Although looks like we're probably stuck with him anyway.

Yea i think you can be too honest

 

[justsomebloke]

So he's on a 15m/year contract for three and a half more years. Who do you think loses out if he's struck with us for a few more years playing U21s and pocketing his pay? He can very well do a Bogarde. All this drama isn't really helping anyone. Sure, maybe it shows Amorim's macho and a strict disciplinarian but it doesn't change the fact that we're paying free yet humongous wages for someone who can at least contribute as a backup if all this drama didn't exist. Right now, what's unfolding is a lose-lose situation.

Sorry, but I don't think you're competent to have a meaningful opinion about that. I'm not either. It's up to the manager to weigh those consequences against the impact on the squad of accepting that level of commitment and effort, and you can't really judge that equation from the outside.

 

[OsloRed]

Well, his words about Rashford have moved the conversation from how woeful the team looked.

That was the worst performance of the season, and they won due to luck and Fulham not performing any better.

This was not the worst performance of the season. It was pretty boring, not much threat from either team, but United were pretty solid defensively at least.

 

[justsomebloke]

This was not the worst performance of the season. It was pretty boring, not much threat from either team, but United were pretty solid defensively at least.

That wasn't even in the worst half of the performances this season. Which admittedly says more about the season than the game, but still.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Well, his words about Rashford have moved the conversation from how woeful the team looked.

That was the worst performance of the season, and they won due to luck and Fulham not performing any better.

A football team won a match due to the opposition team not performing any better? Surely not?

That definitely wasn’t the worst performance of the season, by the way. Not sure it even makes top ten.

 

[ManWithoutTies]

Amorim is an absolute supreme narcissist. He does not care about Manchester united. He didn't care about Sporting. What he cares the most is being in the spotlight - whether positively or negatively. He wanted to join us mid-season: not because he wanted to manage us, but because he wanted to be the sole focus of attention in the most popular league in the world.

He is destruction. And because he loves himself unconditionally, he will never change, he will take never responsibility. After the Ipswich match, he told the sport pundits that "no more press conferences after this one - I've done more in my first week of England than my whole time with sporting." This was just deflection from his true intention: to be a complete media whore.

He might bring some success, but my oh my, he doesn't give a damn about the club or the players. Those rumours of him flying over to west ham last season during midseason are true - he'll do anything to be the focus of attention. He'll say anything, do anything (even be sacked) to make sure his name is the headlines.

 

[MinGin]

The problem is, there IS NO OFFER on the table!

It has, the oil money, but he want to play at competition club
And all competition clubs have none interest to get a player with this attitude and salary

 

[AltiUn]

Arsenal never finished in lower half

You were so shit you may as well have though

 

[hellhunter]

Arsenal never finished in lower half

He meant in the lower half of our hearts

 

[Escobar]

Well, his words about Rashford have moved the conversation from how woeful the team looked.

That was the worst performance of the season, and they won due to luck and Fulham not performing any better.

Whilst it was a poor game, we should also consider that Fulham have scored at least 2 goals in the last 5 games. Grinding out a result like that can be seen as positive as we used to lose this games.
He is a straight shooter so he would not need to mention Rashford to distract from the game, he will say that himself. But he was asked again and he is slowly but surely adding the pressure for Rashford.

 

[Escobar]

He meant in the lower half of our hearts

Rather lower part of the body

 

[hellhunter]

Whilst it was a poor game, we should also consider that Fulham have scored at least 2 goals in the last 5 games. Grinding out a result like that can be seen as positive as we used to lose this games.
He is a straight shooter so he would not need to mention Rashford to distract from the game, he will say that himself. But he was asked again and he is slowly but surely adding the pressure for Rashford.

It was a poor performance, but worth keeping in mind that Fulham got results vs Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea if memory serves.

 

[OsloRed]

Amorim is an absolute supreme narcissist. He does not care about Manchester united. He didn't care about Sporting. What he cares the most is being in the spotlight - whether positively or negatively. He wanted to join us mid-season: not because he wanted to manage us, but because he wanted to be the sole focus of attention in the most popular league in the world.

He is destruction. And because he loves himself unconditionally, he will never change, he will take never responsibility. After the Ipswich match, he told the sport pundits that "no more press conferences after this one - I've done more in my first week of England than my whole time with sporting." This was just deflection from his true intention: to be a complete media whore.

He might bring some success, but my oh my, he doesn't give a damn about the club or the players. Those rumours of him flying over to west ham last season during midseason are true - he'll do anything to be the focus of attention. He'll say anything, do anything (even be sacked) to make sure his name is the headlines.

This is satire, right?

 

[Leftback99]

Amorim is an absolute supreme narcissist. He does not care about Manchester united. He didn't care about Sporting. What he cares the most is being in the spotlight - whether positively or negatively. He wanted to join us mid-season: not because he wanted to manage us, but because he wanted to be the sole focus of attention in the most popular league in the world.

He is destruction. And because he loves himself unconditionally, he will never change, he will take never responsibility. After the Ipswich match, he told the sport pundits that "no more press conferences after this one - I've done more in my first week of England than my whole time with sporting." This was just deflection from his true intention: to be a complete media whore.

He might bring some success, but my oh my, he doesn't give a damn about the club or the players. Those rumours of him flying over to west ham last season during midseason are true - he'll do anything to be the focus of attention. He'll say anything, do anything (even be sacked) to make sure his name is the headlines.

Not a fan then?

 

[diarm]

Amorim is an absolute supreme narcissist. He does not care about Manchester united. He didn't care about Sporting. What he cares the most is being in the spotlight - whether positively or negatively. He wanted to join us mid-season: not because he wanted to manage us, but because he wanted to be the sole focus of attention in the most popular league in the world.

He is destruction. And because he loves himself unconditionally, he will never change, he will take never responsibility. After the Ipswich match, he told the sport pundits that "no more press conferences after this one - I've done more in my first week of England than my whole time with sporting." This was just deflection from his true intention: to be a complete media whore.

He might bring some success, but my oh my, he doesn't give a damn about the club or the players. Those rumours of him flying over to west ham last season during midseason are true - he'll do anything to be the focus of attention. He'll say anything, do anything (even be sacked) to make sure his name is the headlines.

Morning Henry!

 

[Ayoba]

Amorim is an absolute supreme narcissist. He does not care about Manchester united. He didn't care about Sporting. What he cares the most is being in the spotlight - whether positively or negatively. He wanted to join us mid-season: not because he wanted to manage us, but because he wanted to be the sole focus of attention in the most popular league in the world.

He is destruction. And because he loves himself unconditionally, he will never change, he will take never responsibility. After the Ipswich match, he told the sport pundits that "no more press conferences after this one - I've done more in my first week of England than my whole time with sporting." This was just deflection from his true intention: to be a complete media whore.

He might bring some success, but my oh my, he doesn't give a damn about the club or the players. Those rumours of him flying over to west ham last season during midseason are true - he'll do anything to be the focus of attention. He'll say anything, do anything (even be sacked) to make sure his name is the headlines.

 

[Slevs]

Amorim is an absolute supreme narcissist. He does not care about Manchester united. He didn't care about Sporting. What he cares the most is being in the spotlight - whether positively or negatively. He wanted to join us mid-season: not because he wanted to manage us, but because he wanted to be the sole focus of attention in the most popular league in the world.

He is destruction. And because he loves himself unconditionally, he will never change, he will take never responsibility. After the Ipswich match, he told the sport pundits that "no more press conferences after this one - I've done more in my first week of England than my whole time with sporting." This was just deflection from his true intention: to be a complete media whore.

He might bring some success, but my oh my, he doesn't give a damn about the club or the players. Those rumours of him flying over to west ham last season during midseason are true - he'll do anything to be the focus of attention. He'll say anything, do anything (even be sacked) to make sure his name is the headlines.

I'm, I'm just gob-smacked.

Get back to training please Marcus.

 

[bringbackbebe]

Sorry, but I don't think you're competent to have a meaningful opinion about that. I'm not either. It's up to the manager to weigh those consequences against the impact on the squad of accepting that level of commitment and effort, and you can't really judge that equation from the outside.

Well, last I saw, this was a discussion forum about United...