THE BIG DEBATE: Manchester United fell to a disappointing defeat in the Manchester derby and questions are being asked of Ruben Amorim in the wake of their poor start to the season
At the end of derby day, Manchester was blue. And you could probably use the same word to describe Ruben Amorim as the Manchester United head coach reflects on another sobering afternoon in the Premier League.
United were comprehensively beaten 3-0 by Manchester City at The Etihad courtesy of goals from Phil Foden and Erling Haaland, who scored twice to clinch the derby day bragging rights. It’s a result which means United have made their worst start to a season in 33 years after collecting just four points from their opening four Premier League games.
While it’s still early in the new season, Amorim’s record is cause for concern. He has won just eight of the 31 top-flight games he has overseen since taking charge at Old Trafford last November and questions are being asked of the former Sporting Lisbon boss. United spent over £200million in the summer transfer window on a new attack but things are seemingly no closer to clicking for Amorim, though he has yet to start his three new attacking signings together in the Premier League. With the scrutiny over Amorim growing, we asked the Mirror Football team if the time is right for United to make a change or if they think the former Sporting Lisbon man should be given more time to get things right…
READ MORE: Man Utd fans spot what Kobbie Mainoo did seconds after coming on vs Man CityREAD MORE: Why time is running out for Ruben Amorim to show he is the man to turn Man Utd around
John Cross
The clock should be ticking on Ruben Amorim.
And Manchester United fans have every right to be worried about whether their manager can turn things around at Old Trafford.
Confession time: I thought United would have a brilliant season, upset the odds and maybe even get back into the Champions League places.
They have done brilliant business in signing Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha and they have backed their manager to the hilt.
Of course they are still lacking in midfield and messing around signing back-up keepers when they needed a proper No1 is beyond a joke.
While Manchester City spent £27m on Gianluigi Donnarumma, United bought Senne Lammens for £18m and stuck with Altay Bayindir for the derby. Bayindir is nowhere near good enough for United.
But that is part of the problem for Amorim. He has become stubborn and his blind loyalty and faith towards his keepers and his ridiculous formation is tactics is the reason why the alarm bells should be ringing.
Amorim looks out of his depth right now. He looks like a young coach, drowning in expectation in a club he is struggling to turn around.
His record is not good enough. The Manchester derby showed how far United are behind City… and Pep Guardiola’s men were not even at their best.
That stubbornness is what will get Amorim the sack if he is not careful. The system is not suited to the players that he has. It is not working.
The back three with wing backs and a lopsided midfield which is not getting the best out of their best player Bruno Fernandes.
And yet if you pick a United team in a 4-2-3-1 system – let’s gloss over the keeper but Dalot, De Ligt, Yoro, Shaw; Ugarte, Mainoo; Mbeumo, Fernandes, Cunha; Sesko – suddenly you have a team.
That is better than the utter shambles of 3-4-2-1 which is not working. It is not a quality in a manager to be strong and insist he will not change his system. Why on earth not? It’s not working.
It’s actually a sign of weakness. A coach is showing his own flaws by not being able to change or adapt.
There is still time for Amorim. But he must change soon. Or that system and his own stubbornness – together with some bad recruitment – will cost him his job and his career.
James Whaling
I find it amazing just how easy a ride Ruben Amorim has had at Manchester United. From fans, pundits, the press – everybody.
Any of his predecessors would have been quite rightly out on their backsides by now. Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal, Erik ten Hag and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer were all moved on for less.
Yes – he walked into a mess. A mess that shows no signs of abating behind the scenes. But even so, the tools at his disposal are better than a 15th-placed finish and better than we have seen so far this term. But for a last-gasp win over Burnley, United would be sat on two points and marooned in the bottom three, and frankly their performances show that’s where they deserve to be.
They will have to stick with a manager at some point, and I can see why they want it to be this one. But he should be put out of his misery and make way for the next man to take on what is quickly becoming the most poisoned chalice in English football.
Dan Marsh
I’ve advocated for Manchester United sticking with Ruben Amorim previously and it’s clear the issues at Old Trafford go beyond their head coach. But we’re surely now fast approaching the point of no return with Amorim, if we’re not already there.
His record of eight wins from 31 Premier League games is absolutely ghastly. Yes, he was dealt a tough hand. But he’s shown little to suggest that he is, in fact, the right man to take Manchester United back to where they belong and is absolutely killing himself with his refusal to deviate from his preferred system.
United will probably back him for now and part of me thinks that stance is admirable. And fans deserve credit for sticking with him. But the fact of the matter is Amorim and United are simply not working and the latter needs to make a change sooner rather than later.
Josh Holland
United are backing Amorim and they have to after the disaster around Erik ten Hag. After backing him in the summer, it would be rash to act now, but something has to change from within.
Amorim did well, I thought, to play down talk that the system is the problem. When it works, it is difficult to break down and provides a threat good enough to beat teams. The problem he has is he is selecting individuals who either don’t fit the roles being asked of them or just aren’t up to scratch. The obvious one of using Bruno Fernandes deeper and keeping Kobbie Mainoo out.
Amorim has to find a solution before he’s sacked. One of them could be a change in personnel. Putting Mainoo in midfield and pushing Fernandes into one of the No.10s with Bryan Mbeumo or Matheus Cunha playing through the middle would provide more security that could be key in the turnaround.
If he continues to play Fernandes out of position and leave his defence exposed by the lack of midfield, he could be made to pay for it. After Chelsea, they have Brentford and Sunderland, two games they should be earning wins in.
Kieran King
I think United should sack Ruben Amorim now and give a potential new manager the best chance of saving their season. The Reds have been dire so far and I don’t think it’s going to get better anytime soon.
Yes, United have signed and offloaded players to suit Amorim and his 3-4-2-1 system, but do I believe that someone else can get more from that group of players? I definitely think so.
For example, Kobbie Mainoo SHOULD be in that starting XI, it’s as simple as that. A midfield three of him, Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro or Manuel Ugarte need to be the base for the Reds going forward, if they want to be successful from now until the end of the campaign. Unfortunately, Amorim will not do that.
I would bring back Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and look to get the feel-good factor back to Old Trafford for the rest of the season and next summer look to bring Oliver Glasner to Manchester.
Amie Wilson
Since moving to United from Sporting last season, I think it’s fair to say that Amorim has not had the impact that the club would have hoped. Last season, he had the excuse that the squad wasn’t his own, and he was working with a group of players low on confidence after a poor start to the season.
But he has been backed by United in the summer window. A total spend of around £200 million has seen the arrivals of the likes of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko. It’s because of that, I feel that Amorim should be given more time. Sacking a manager just a matter of weeks after spending that money in the transfer window feels like taking another major step back.
It does feel like Amorim needs to be a bit less stubborn to change United’s fortunes, but if he can successfully bed in the new signings, it could help him to turn the season around. However, If things don’t change around Christmas, then that’s when the club may have to take another look before the January window.
Nathan Ridley
Square peg, meet round hole. That’s what Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United have looked like for much of the past 10 months.
The Portuguese has comfortably been United’s worst permanent manager of the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era. But he’s probably been dealt the toughest hand.
I’m torn over whether I think he’ll be a success. On one hand, I admire his disciplined approach when it comes to the likes of Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho, which suggests to me there’s more to the Kobbie Mainoo problem. You can’t be leaving a player of his quality out of a dysfunctional midfield without good reason.
But his system isn’t working. It’s the kind that can function when you have the league’s best players (like at Sporting Lisbon) but not with such stern competition as the Premier League. Right now, I’d stick with him, hoping he can change and stop United from throwing away another season.
Tom Victor
In season nine of The Simpsons, Krusty the Clown’s announcement that he is quitting showbusiness is met with a question of ‘Why now? Why not 20 years ago?’.
Just say, for one second, that Manchester United decide to cut ties with Ruben Amorim after losing 3-0 to Manchester City. What’s special about this reverse to give it final straw status?
You’d like to think United knew what the deal was when they chose to appoint Amorim in November last year. The hire was meant to be a move away from an overnight fix and towards more of a project, similar to Arsenal’s move from Unai Emery to Mikel Arteta. This isn’t a Jose Mourinho or an Antonio Conte, someone who teams turn to when they aggressively target instant results at the expense of longer-term stability. Equally, though, that doesn’t mean Amorim should be considered safe no matter what.
Even during the low moments in the league, there was progress in Europe last term. Now, after that early Carabao Cup exit, there’s nowhere to hide. Losing to an expensively-assembled City side, still just 16 months out from a title win, isn’t the result which should spell the end for Amorim. There was an argument for it last season, even if it’s one you might not agree with, while there may well be further arguments in the coming weeks. But why now?
Connor O’Neill
Ruben Amorim currently retains the support of the Manchester United hierarchy despite the club’s worst start to a season in 33 years. However, one thing is for certain: what is happening on the pitch can not go on.United are a mess. And it looks like it is going to be another tough season for them already; any hope of getting back into Europe, let alone the Champions League, already appears gone. The 3-0 defeat at Manchester City on Sunday leaves Amorim with a horrendous record of eight wins from 31 Premier League games. That is not good enough for any club in the top-flight, let alone United.For me, I feel like Amorim has the next three games to save his job. If United can’t pick up at least seven points against Chelsea, Brentford and Sunderland, then Amorim could be sacked at the start of the October international break.There is no ideal time to sack your manager during the season, but if you are going to do it, then doing it at the start of an international break is probably the best time.
Abbie Meehan
Manchester United have proven in the past that sacking managers left, right and centre doesn’t get them anywhere. While the outlook now is gloomy, there is a cycle that the club seems to follow when things aren’t going well. If they sack Ruben Amorim now, then all the current players are signings of his or disgruntled stars who have fallen out of favour with the Portuguese boss.
It will take until the next transfer window in January for a new manager to get any sort of rhythm out of a team that is not is, and implement yet another style that the players aren’t used to. Then, this new boss will bring in some of his own transfers and boot out others who have yet to showcase their full potential under any management.
This cycle will repeat until the club realises that it is taking one step forward and three steps back. Therefore, it is in the club’s best interests in the long run to stick with Amorim for longer than a year to give him half a chance of getting the team into a consistent form.
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