Manchester United’s director of recruitment, Christopher Vibel, reportedly warned club bosses this summer that Ruben Amorim’s tactical approach was becoming too predictable. According to the Daily Mail, the former Chelsea technical director shared the views of Fulham manager Marco Silva and midfielder Alex Iwobi, who discussed United’s predictability in a WhatsApp group after their side’s 1-1 draw.
Silva said after his team came from behind to claim a point against Craven Cottage. “We knew how they defended, and we knew they liked to squeeze out of the back five, and if you don’t give bodies to squeeze out of the back five, you can create an advantage in the middle. We know they play with two in the middle, we tried to overload with Alex (Iwobi) in the three and it was very easy.”
Meanwhile, Iwobi added: “We knew we would be able to get behind their two midfielders and their centre-backs would want to jump on. We took advantage of that today.”
The frank nature of Fulham’s tactical collapse reportedly irritated Vibel, who openly discussed dismantling Amorim’s system. United players have also addressed social media criticism directed at their Portuguese head coach. Manager Patrick Dorg liked an Instagram post from a supporter’s account that featured the comment, “Managers who see Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes as potential pivots are not serious.” The caption of the post read: “Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro cannot play together.”
In a now-deleted Instagram post from last month, Paul Scholes expressed his frustration with Koby Mainu’s situation at United, saying the player was “ruined by not being able to play for a team that can’t control the game of football”. The former United midfielder had previously expressed his displeasure to Sky Sports: “One of the biggest disappointments for me is that Koby Mainu is not involved in this Manchester United team. We saw from 18 months to two years ago how good he was and somehow that just never happened to him.”
“The manager doesn’t seem to like him very much, but we all know his qualities. The manager just prefers other players for some reason and that’s something he has to deal with. I think he’s coping well at the moment, but at some point he will… It would be frustrating. I also sometimes watch Manchester United and it’s frustrating, especially when it comes to Koby Mainu, because they have homegrown talent and we don’t have a lot of them anymore, so we want him in our team.
“He (Amorim) probably doesn’t trust him physically at the moment. Casemiro isn’t the most physical, but he’s good on the streets. He knows the position. He’s been in a great Real Madrid team for many years, so he has that experience. Coby doesn’t have that experience yet.”
“If Coby is going to play, I think he needs to play in a midfield three. The fact is, Manchester United don’t do that. They have two players in midfield with two 10 points. So for him to get one of those positions is something we have to work on now. We probably need two Bruno Fernandes.”
“You need Bruno Fernandes to be a playmaker, you need Bruno Fernandes to be a number 10. I think Coby Mainu is more than capable of being that playmaker next to Casemiro and[Manuel]Ugarte. I think he’s a smart enough player in possession, but somehow the manager doesn’t seem to think he’s the answer at the moment.”
