Ruben Amorim is on track to achieve his best results as Manchester United manager, but claims Rio Ferdinand is playing risky games with his style and tactics
Rio Ferdinand claims Ruben Amorim is playing “Russian roulette at work” as he resists change at Manchester United, but is now seeing results after a period of turmoil.
The Portuguese manager has been in the spotlight for most of his time since taking over, having overseen the worst Premier League campaign in history last season. A constant talking point is Amorim’s 3-4-3 system, which he refuses to deviate from even after defeats.
The former Sporting Lisbon manager defended his system when it was cited as the main problem during United’s poor run of form, and even suggested he should be sacked if United want to see a different way of playing.
His commitment to staying true to his philosophy has paid off in recent weeks. After defeating Sunderland before the international break, the team returned to dominate Liverpool at Anfield. This was the first time under Amorim that they had won consecutive Premier League games, and since then they have won three in a row.
Ferdinand acknowledges that there is something to be admired about Amorim’s loyalty to his cause, but equally acknowledges that it may have been a terrible mistake not to start seeing results.
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He said this on the latest episode of Rio Ferdinand Presents. “I give him some credit, but like I said, I think he’s playing Russian roulette at work. I don’t think he’s changed dramatically. He’s just made some tweaks. That’s what a lot of fans were asking for. Just tweaking what he has. Maybe not getting too far forward and being a little more conservative when he doesn’t have the ball.”
“Unless you’re an absolute beast of a team, you can’t press, press, press for 90 minutes. You can do that at PSG. This manager couldn’t do it with this team.”
“That’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. If we look back in six months and Man Utd have won the Champions League or something like that, he might sit there confidently and say, ‘If I change, I’ll probably lose my job, because I’ve been doing things that are foreign to me.’
United have improved their form, winning four of their last five games and moving into sixth place, level on points with Manchester City. Amorim’s side are now part of the European conversation and have leapfrogged Liverpool despite their underperformance.
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