Ruben Amorim - Manchester United Head Coach

On the question of if Amorim at risk of the sack if results don’t improve before the summer, he said this today:

"That is clear, is also exciting, I know when I choose this profession that you have the risk of results and I knew when I came here I look at the schedule, I look at the team, my decision changing everything in the middle of the season without new signings is a danger for a coach, but I have a clear idea of what I want to do and I take these risks because in the end it's going to pay off but l'm not naive, I said that many times, this is a sport of results and we are in a difficult situation.”

“Like we said before, we are fighting for our jobs until the summer.“
 
Hammondo said:
Peps fullbacks for city are usually defensive.
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He's not arguing that (i think). Gavrdiol, by the way, is one of his main attacking outlets this season. Rodri, who had played as much (or more) as a centre-half before Pep signed him, shows the point he's trying to make. It's not about goals and assists.

The midfield areas have become so congested that centre-halves, one way or another, have to operate as playmakers/quarterbacks because they get more time on the ball and the privilege of facing toward the goal most of the time. Fullbacks with their ball-carrying abilities are also being utilized in roles that take them out of their initial position a lot of the time.

I think people often don't look beyond a player's role on paper. How much space you can cover and how well (attacking and defending) is far more important. In the CL final they won, City fielded a back three that consisted of Akanji, Dias, Ake with Rodri and Stones ahead of them. It allowed them to have numbers in the midfield and deploy Grealish and Silva as their wide players, positioned above the halfway line and supporting Haaland with Gundogan and KdB behind him. On paper, that's basically 5 centre-halves. In reality, it allowed them to have control and be expansive. There are reasons why such an experiment would fail miserably at United, and most of them haven't much to do with a "defensive setup". We wouldn't be able to even defend properly in such scenario.
 
crossy1686 said:
Defenders aren’t defenders any more, they’re midfielders. One of our CB’s pushes up into the midfield, how many goals has Martinez scored this season? How defensive are Pep’s fullbacks? This isn’t the 90’s, football has moved on massively. These aren’t defensive players, your attitude to ‘defenders’ is what’s stopping you from seeing this.
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So your saying Nottingham Forests two centrebacks are midfielders?
 
By the same argument of our home form being super bad and expecting us to lose most of the remaining games, can't we make an argument that we may be more likely to win /draw the majority of the away games?

Draw with Ipswich, Liverpool, (Arsenal in the cup)
Beat Fulham and City
Lost to Wolves and Arsenal

Could see us winning away to at least two of Leicester, Everton, Villa, Brentford and even Chelsea. Agree that Newcastle, Forest, Bournemouth are almost nailed on losses.

At home we should beat Ipswich, but you can't also rule out wins over West ham or Wolves given both teams are pretty shite, and with City being very odd this season, and it being a derby, we may even get points from them (albeit losing heavily to City with their new signings and a point to prove wouldn't shock me either).

Even 12 points from 14 games would mean Ipswich need 25 points from 14 games..... which is more akin to a team in 8-12th than one that has won about 3 games all season.
 
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Yeah we're not getting relegated. We're just not.

I know we're shite and if it was a season where the teams at the bottom were a bit better then people might have more of a point, but I refuse to believe Ipswich or Leicester are getting 13/14 more points than us (which they would need with goal difference) between now and May. These are really poor Premier League teams.
 
AndyMUFC said:
Yeah we're not getting relegated. We're just not.

I know we're shite and if it was a season where the teams at the bottom were a bit better then people might have more of a point, but I refuse to believe Ipswich or Leicester are getting 13/14 more points than us (which they would need with goal difference) between now and May. These are really poor Premier League teams.
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It would also require Wolves to outperform us too
 
MikeUpNorth said:
On the question of if Amorim at risk of the sack if results don’t improve before the summer, he said this today:

"That is clear, is also exciting, I know when I choose this profession that you have the risk of results and I knew when I came here I look at the schedule, I look at the team, my decision changing everything in the middle of the season without new signings is a danger for a coach, but I have a clear idea of what I want to do and I take these risks because in the end it's going to pay off but l'm not naive, I said that many times, this is a sport of results and we are in a difficult situation.”

“Like we said before, we are fighting for our jobs until the summer.“
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I think it's been clear for a while that there's pressure surrounding results with Amorim. The whole write the season off is peddled by fan sentiment but there's likely criteria around what INEOS / Berrada would deem unacceptable. Either way silence from the hierarchy certainly gives the indication they aren't content with where things stand.
 
Redstain said:
I think it's been clear for a while that there's pressure surrounding results with Amorim. The whole write the season off is peddled by fan sentiment but there's likely criteria around what INEOS / Berrada would deem unacceptable. Either way silence from the hierarchy certainly gives the indication they aren't content with where things stand.
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I'd be more concerned if they publicly came out with the dreaded "vote of confidence". Silence is fine and expected IMO.
 
INEOS are absolutely not going to accept poor results if this continues into the beginning of next season.
I think Rubin will be given until Winter 2025. If things continue to be like this, he'll be fired.
 
sunama said:
INEOS are absolutely not going to accept poor results if this continues into the beginning of next season.
I think Rubin will be given until Winter 2025. If things continue to be like this, he'll be fired.
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They best get backing him then or alls that will happen is the fans will turn on them.
 
Judas said:
If anyone is worried about relegation, it’s simply because they want to be worried about it. It’s not reality at all.
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that southampton game was prob the last time it was a reality that we could be in a real relegation battle. Had we not stormed back on that and then had the same result at brighton the next game i think things wouldve been tight as hell.
 


feck me... can they just stop, hate journalists. Headline chasing/clickbait assholes.
 
sunama said:
INEOS are absolutely not going to accept poor results if this continues into the beginning of next season.
I think Rubin will be given until Winter 2025. If things continue to be like this, he'll be fired.
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Sure, but "poor results" is relative.

If we finish around 13th this season, what are the club actually happy to accept as sufficient progress next season?
 
sunama said:
INEOS are absolutely not going to accept poor results if this continues into the beginning of next season.
I think Rubin will be given until Winter 2025. If things continue to be like this, he'll be fired.
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If we continue to average just one point per game until the end of the season and get knocked out of the cups, I wouldn't be surprised if the summer starts with the same stories about talking to other managers that we saw last year.

I think Amorim will have to show a genuine upturn in performances on the pitch if the club is going to commit significant transfer spend to his (fairly unique) vision of football.

I hope we do turn a corner soon because I like the cut of his jib, so to speak.
 
sunama said:
INEOS are absolutely not going to accept poor results if this continues into the beginning of next season.
I think Rubin will be given until Winter 2025. If things continue to be like this, he'll be fired.
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I think it's fair to say that INEOS has been a big part of the problem here.

Bringing in a manager to play one style when the squad has been put together for another in the middle of the season and with no funds available was an act of sabotage

It wouldn't surprise me to discover that INEOS was less than honest about the status quo

And it wouldn't surprise me to discover that Ashworth told them what the result would be
 
Big Andy said:
The trouble is, do you really think that a 4 week training regime in pre-season is suddenly enough to turn this team into a 3-4-3 machine? I don't as the majority of our players are thick.
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I doubt that our players are less intelligent than the other 19 teams in the league who manage to play the systems of their managers.
 
Daengophile said:
I think it's fair to say that INEOS has been a big part of the problem here.

Bringing in a manager to play one style when the squad has been put together for another in the middle of the season and with no funds available was an act of sabotage

It wouldn't surprise me to discover that INEOS was less than honest about the status quo

And it wouldn't surprise me to discover that Ashworth told them what the result would be
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It is quite obvious that from the way Amorim is talking in the presser's, he and the board knew that it wont be plain sailing.

Amorim doesn't need to say mistakes have been made in the past, they have probably had a honest discussion about funds and lack of in January.

We are also forgetting why Amorim was brought in, his ability to improve players. Most managers have one style of play, it is what makes them what they are. I can't think of a manager who has different styles of play in the modern era.

So this nonsense that people keep saying that about one style of play... that is how 80% of managers are now.

There is a reason why we have brought in a manager mid way through the season, its not to get us challenging this season, its to conduct a review of the squad and get rid of non performing players by the summer, when the real squad building will take place.
 
GaryLifo said:
By the same argument of our home form being super bad and expecting us to lose most of the remaining games, can't we make an argument that we may be more likely to win /draw the majority of the away games?

Draw with Ipswich, Liverpool, (Arsenal in the cup)
Beat Fulham and City
Lost to Wolves and Arsenal

Could see us winning away to at least two of Leicester, Everton, Villa, Brentford and even Chelsea. Agree that Newcastle, Forest, Bournemouth are almost nailed on losses.

At home we should beat Ipswich, but you can't also rule out wins over West ham or Wolves given both teams are pretty shite, and with City being very odd this season, and it being a derby, we may even get points from them (albeit losing heavily to City with their new signings and a point to prove wouldn't shock me either).

Even 12 points from 14 games would mean Ipswich need 25 points from 14 games..... which is more akin to a team in 8-12th than one that has won about 3 games all season.
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Ah, feck. We've to play that lot again.
 
GaryLifo said:
By the same argument of our home form being super bad and expecting us to lose most of the remaining games, can't we make an argument that we may be more likely to win /draw the majority of the away games?

Draw with Ipswich, Liverpool, (Arsenal in the cup)
Beat Fulham and City
Lost to Wolves and Arsenal

Could see us winning away to at least two of Leicester, Everton, Villa, Brentford and even Chelsea. Agree that Newcastle, Forest, Bournemouth are almost nailed on losses.

At home we should beat Ipswich, but you can't also rule out wins over West ham or Wolves given both teams are pretty shite, and with City being very odd this season, and it being a derby, we may even get points from them (albeit losing heavily to City with their new signings and a point to prove wouldn't shock me either).

Even 12 points from 14 games would mean Ipswich need 25 points from 14 games..... which is more akin to a team in 8-12th than one that has won about 3 games all season.
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JBG said:


feck me... can they just stop, hate journalists. Headline chasing/clickbait assholes.
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Oh he deserves these questions every single interview he attends. He is the one froze him out and wanted rid after all
 
roseguy64 said:
I doubt that our players are less intelligent than the other 19 teams in the league who manage to play the systems of their managers.
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Not content with signing the slowest, weakest squad of players we could find, it also appears to be the dumbest. :rolleyes:
 
lsd said:
Oh he deserves these questions every single interview he attends. He is the one froze him out and wanted rid after all
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Rashford was the one who apparently thought he was too good to adapt his game, and then did an interview saying he'd be up for a new challenge.

If he'd been willing to give it a proper go under Amorim he'd still be at the club, and probably playing every week, given our lethargy up front
 
MikeUpNorth said:
On the question of if Amorim at risk of the sack if results don’t improve before the summer, he said this today:

"That is clear, is also exciting, I know when I choose this profession that you have the risk of results and I knew when I came here I look at the schedule, I look at the team, my decision changing everything in the middle of the season without new signings is a danger for a coach, but I have a clear idea of what I want to do and I take these risks because in the end it's going to pay off but l'm not naive, I said that many times, this is a sport of results and we are in a difficult situation.”

“Like we said before, we are fighting for our jobs until the summer.“
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It's fairly mad that this has to be spelled out by the coach himself before it becomes the consensus. All this talk of INEOS writing off the season is a Caf only sentiment and doesn't reflect reality at all. No manager at this level is safe when he's losing nearly every week.
 
Insanity said:
Nice to see it laid out, but it has been obvious to anyone who has been paying attention to games that our play and attacking threat have gone to shit since we decided to start with five defenders on the pitch. It is okay to play it in games against big opposition where we are deeper than we usually are and are trying to hit teams on the transition more than trying to build up play. However, it totally kills our attacking impetus in games against lower opposition where we are supposed to take the initiative.

I guess it was necessitated when Mount went of injured and Rashford+Garnacho were in the doghouse. We needed Amad to play as one of the #10's and Antony wasn't deemed good enough to start the position on a regular basis. I hope it changes now and we push back Amad to the RWB spot with Dorgu at LWB. Garnacho paired with Mainoo should be the two #10's for the time being with Bruno partnering Ugarte in the midfield. Maz should be exclusively played at RCB unless there is a huge injury problem.
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It's not that interesting. The sample size is tiny and it doesn't take into account what the rest of the team looks like or who the opposition is.
 
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