Ruben Amorim - Manchester United Head Coach

We have gone from being unable to defend set pieces to now being a genuine threat from our own attacking set pieces.

It's the one improvement Amorin can point to I guess.

That complete lack of threat from open play is still a massive concern though.
 
Wednesday at Stoke said:
This team is night and day defensively when playing in a low block vs when asked to maintain a high line.
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It has been obvious from day one. One of the major reasons we have failed every time we have tried to play front foot football under any manager from Ole to Amo is that slowness of our defense. Still we see weekly sin graphs of 'Arry's performance discussions on here. I am glad Ruben finally expressed it so explicitly what many have been saying from the day he was bought. Or for that matter from the time we were linked with de Ligt this past summer. Those two simply cannot play in a high line due to their slowness and lack of agility. Playing in a high line requires you to cover large spaces and that will not happen with one or both of them in the team.

I hope we are in the market for a beast of a player to play CCB this summer window. Without that Ruben, or any other progressive manager, is not going to succeed at this club. They'd all eventually would have to resort to a low block in order to get results.

Anyway, that solution will only come out in the transfer window. Until then I hope he keeps experimenting in the league as we are relegation safe, but goes with a low to mid block in both the cup competitions. We have to try to win one of Europa or the FA cup, and we can only win either playing in a low block.
 
reelworld said:
Those who think Amorim isn't an improvement from ETH or does not show something to be positive for is clearly just forget how awful we were under Ten Hag. I mean the 7-0 alone deserve a sacking, let alone having that result against Liverpool and losing to another rival 6-3
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That 7-0 was a freak result. Had the same xg as the 0-0 the year after basically (ie 3-0 type result).
 
Ronaldo's ego said:
No, worse.
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Unsure what you're trying to debate. I'm not saying we are struggling to create. I am saying we are not depending on counter attacks by design, nor were we trying to be too defensive before the red card.
 
Eugenius said:
That 7-0 was a freak result. Had the same xg as the 0-0 the year after basically (ie 3-0 type result).
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Yeah, I don't know why the 7-0 keeps getting brought up. A bunch of ricochets ended up exactly where they wanted and they made the most of it. We've had far worse performances under ETH.
 
Regalia said:
Hilarious watching the Amorim-haters still falling over themselves trying to discredit him after this result. Such pathetic cretins. Save it for when we lose at least. If our players (Onana and Dorgu) didn't go through their usual brain fart moments, we'd have won this comfortably. Great set pieces, system worked, made the right subs taking off Garnacho (he even talked about why in the presser later), and team showed great resilience playing with 10 men. Morons who get off when we lose didn't get what they wanted, how sad.
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It's weird for anyone trying to use yesterday to push a narrative in either direction. We played half the game with 10 and went into a very low block which we obviously won't do next game. Equally the first goal was completely a screw up. 2nd goal easy to say "doesn't count" but Delap was close to touching and scoring it anyway.

Calling people Amorim haters when our league form has been worse it's ever been post SAF is an odd take. Blaming players for everything bad (goals) and giving credit to Amorim for everything good yesterday (including scoring scrappy set pieces and own goals) is also biased.

I'm glad we won, we looked pretty solid even with 10, and showed fight. But we played one of the 3 worst teams in the league and again struggled to score from open play. Not much new to see.
 
DevilRed said:
De Ligt really has made a huge difference. For the first time in years, we seem like a threat from set pieces because of him.

Amorim has improved us in this area.
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We're a big team now depending who we pick.

Last nights back three, the two up front, both wingbacks good in the air. Chuck in Casemiro when he's on.

Can't get much stronger in the air than that. Let's absolutely use that between now and end of season.
 
Ted Lasso said:
A painful history of fan commentary on managers:

LVG: football is too boring.
Jose: no low block. Manchester United is expansive fast attacking football!
Ole: why did he revert to low block counter attacking?!
ETH: why isn't he implementing positive football!? No more low block.

Amorim: why isn't he going with low block!!??

Fecking mental.
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They all had around £300m to build whatever team they wanted.

The football is only a problem when we give you the resources and you still fail to adopt the United philosophy which is fast attacking football.

There’s no mental gymnastics at all. Amorim has time to build a team but if he thinks results aren’t important then I’m sure he will find out.
 
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reelworld said:
Those who think Amorim isn't an improvement from ETH or does not show something to be positive for is clearly just forget how awful we were under Ten Hag. I mean the 7-0 alone deserve a sacking, let alone having that result against Liverpool and losing to another rival 6-3
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Pretty sure Liverpool had better xG in the 2-2 this year than the 7-0 for context
 
DevilRed said:
De Ligt really has made a huge difference. For the first time in years, we seem like a threat from set pieces because of him.

Amorim has improved us in this area.
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Casemiro was really good at set pieces too tbf. Maguire would always get his head to the ball but he can't really aim. At least the period of us almost conceding from every opposition set piece seems to be at an end.
 
Uncle Mainoo said:
They all had around £300m to build whatever team they wanted.

The football is only a problem when we give you the resources and you still fail to adopt the United philosophy which is fast attacking football.

There’s no mental gymnastics at all. Amorim has time to build a team but if he thinks results aren’t important then I’m sure he will find out.
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This isn’t a thing btw. The United philosophy usually means a winning philosophy.

Fergie was always happy to completely change the team and tactics if it meant winning the big games.
 
Aaaand now people try to brush off the most humiliating loss in our entire history.

Next level mental gymnastics.
 
343 said:
7 wins, 2 draws, and 3 defeats since the turn of the year while juggling a poor squad, managing prima donnas (Rashford), and injuries to key players (Amad). Yup, those asking for a change in system, including Neville, Scholes, Savage (what illustrious company), and others, are morons.
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but somehow the narrative is that he should be sacked and he's done nothing well. We are still in two cups and those games will be crucial to the narrative surrounding Amorim. Whatever happens I think it's clear he will be the manager come the start of next season and that's when the real pressure will arrive.
 
You cannot legislate for the individual errors and goals we concede almost every game, sometimes 2-3 per game. Any manager would struggle against that, and our players have shown that, irrespective of the manager they have played under at Utd, they simply cannot stem the flow of catastrophic individual errors leading to goals.

I do have a great deal of sympathy for the managers as it totally throws any control you may want to exert on the game, out the window. I cannot explain why only Utd players have this tendency, more than any other team in the PL, but I guess they don't have the mental fortitude to play for this club, that's the only thing I can put it down to.
 
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
This isn’t a thing btw. The United philosophy usually means a winning philosophy.

Fergie was always happy to completely change the team and tactics if it meant winning the big games.
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There's a reason the fans sing playing football the Busby way. It was Busby that cemented the idea that United play entertaining attacking football, and apart from a few managers between him and Sir Alex we have adopted that. The Doc and Atkinson both played attacking football for example. It's absolutely the tradition of the club stretching back decades to play fast attacking football.
 
These red cards and silly mistakes at the back are killing us.

We looked much better in possession this game but are still lacking that attacking threat.

Onana needs to go, if Amorim wants to succeed, he must know that you cannot have this guy in goal, he is rubbish. Its so frustrating watching him because he is meant to be good on the ball but when we play it around the back, he just lumps it to no one and we are defending again.
 
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
This isn’t a thing btw. The United philosophy usually means a winning philosophy.

Fergie was always happy to completely change the team and tactics if it meant winning the big games.
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At certain times yes, but generally under SAF there was effort made to play attacking and entertaining football most of the time.
 
stevoc said:
At certain times yes, but generally under SAF there was effort made to play attacking and entertaining football most of the time.
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Thats all good but football has changed, its not the same anymore.

Where United under Fergie would come against teams in the PL that sat back most of the time, you can play attacking but not when 70% of the PL now presses high and on the front foot.
 
Eugenius said:
It's weird for anyone trying to use yesterday to push a narrative in either direction. We played half the game with 10 and went into a very low block which we obviously won't do next game. Equally the first goal was completely a screw up. 2nd goal easy to say "doesn't count" but Delap was close to touching and scoring it anyway.

Calling people Amorim haters when our league form has been worse it's ever been post SAF is an odd take. Blaming players for everything bad (goals) and giving credit to Amorim for everything good yesterday (including scoring scrappy set pieces and own goals) is also biased.

I'm glad we won, we looked pretty solid even with 10, and showed fight. But we played one of the 3 worst teams in the league and again struggled to score from open play. Not much new to see.
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While I agree with the overarching idea. For the first time since maybe the first or second game under Amorim, I lliked some clear things. At 11 we pressed well in pack and with layers, the last part is important because it was one of the flaws in ETH's pressing scheme and we moved the ball vertically well, now the issue is that all of that only happened on the left half, the right half was useless. If we can reproduce that regularly I will be quite happy because it opens the doors for clear ways to improve the team.
 
romufc said:
Thats all good but football has changed, its not the same anymore.

Where United under Fergie would come against teams in the PL that sat back most of the time, you can play attacking but not when 70% of the PL now presses high and on the front foot.
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Perhaps but the present doesn't alter the past. Which is what I was referring to.
 
romufc said:
Thats all good but football has changed, its not the same anymore.

Where United under Fergie would come against teams in the PL that sat back most of the time, you can play attacking but not when 70% of the PL now presses high and on the front foot.
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So you would say that at least 100% of games have neither teams playing attacking Football?
 
Interesting post-match comments from Bruno, "we have to stick with what we do in training and what we are supposed to do (on the pitch). You could feel in moments that it's not working but for some reason the manager wants us to do that and if he wants us to do that... we have a big staff and they watch so many games and prepare themselves and if they do that in the right way, we (players) have to come on the pitch and show it."
 
Infra-red said:
Interesting post-match comments from Bruno, "we have to stick with what we do in training and what we are supposed to do (on the pitch). You could feel in moments that it's not working but for some reason the manager wants us to do that and if he wants us to do that... we have a big staff and they watch so many games and prepare themselves and if they do that in the right way, we (players) have to come on the pitch and show it."
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This isn't literally what he said, right? "for some reason the manager wants us to do that"
 
Regalia said:
Hilarious watching the Amorim-haters still falling over themselves trying to discredit him after this MAGNIFICENT result. Such pathetic cretins. Save it for when we lose at least. If our players (Onana and Dorgu) didn't go through their usual brain fart moments, we'd have won this comfortably. Great set pieces, system worked, made the right subs taking off Garnacho (he even talked about why in the presser later), and team showed great resilience playing with 10 men. Morons who get off when we lose didn't get what they wanted, how sad.
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This the correct way of putting it.
 
romufc said:
Thats all good but football has changed, its not the same anymore.

Where United under Fergie would come against teams in the PL that sat back most of the time, you can play attacking but not when 70% of the PL now presses high and on the front foot.
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That’s a wild exaggeration:

The following clubs do not press high or play on the front foot and the majority are all give up possession, counter, low blocking sides.

Forest
Brentford(less so at home)
Palace
Everton
West ham
Wolves
Ipswich
Leicester (until Ruud came in at least)
Southampton
United

A bit more than 30%.

Even the likes of Fulham Bournemouth and Newcastle. I’d argue they’re a lot more counter press.
 
The Firestarter said:
This isn't literally what he said, right? "for some reason the manager wants us to do that"
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I just watched it and he did literally say that, but it sounds different from what's implied when you write it down. I think it comes across more like the manager knows better than we do in the moments when "it's not working".
 
Infra-red said:
Interesting post-match comments from Bruno, "we have to stick with what we do in training and what we are supposed to do (on the pitch). You could feel in moments that it's not working but for some reason the manager wants us to do that and if he wants us to do that... we have a big staff and they watch so many games and prepare themselves and if they do that in the right way, we (players) have to come on the pitch and show it."
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The Firestarter said:
This isn't literally what he said, right? "for some reason the manager wants us to do that"
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The phrase “for some moments” is key here. Although it hasn’t stopped the media having a field day with UNITED PLAYERS DON’T TRUST THE MANAGER headlines. He’s just saying you have to be patient and stick with the plan, even in difficult periods of a game where teams get on top of you or you’re struggling to break them down. It’s really standard stuff in any sport. Keeping your head and concentrating on the process when things aren’t going well. Which is obviously going to be front and centre in his mind after an exhausting match when they were a man down before half time. Nothing controversial there at all. At least there shouldn’t be.
 
romufc said:
Thats all good but football has changed, its not the same anymore.

Where United under Fergie would come against teams in the PL that sat back most of the time, you can play attacking but not when 70% of the PL now presses high and on the front foot.
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They press us because they know a mistake is very likely. You don't see the small teams pressing the top teams.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
The phrase “for some moments” is key here. Although it hasn’t stopped the media having a field day with UNITED PLAYERS DON’T TRUST THE MANAGER headlines. He’s just saying you have to be patient and stick with the plan, even in difficult periods of a game where teams get on top of you or you’re struggling to break them down. It’s really standard stuff in any sport. Keeping your head and concentrating on the process when things aren’t going well. Nothing controversial there at all. At least there shouldn’t be.
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If he literally said what I quoted, it's really not standard at all . Even with the extra qualifier you mentioned. It means basically "Sometimes I have no idea why he wants to play like that, but we still need to do it". It's not a disrespectful quote, but still shows what we kind of got hints about, that the players really have some skepticism about Amorim's setups. And that was alluded to by the coach himself several times.
 
The Firestarter said:
If he literally said what I quoted, it's really not standard at all . Even with the extra qualifier you mentioned. It means basically "Sometimes I have no idea why he wants to play like that, but we still need to do it". It's not a disrespectful quote, but still shows what we kind of got hints about, that the players really have some skepticism about Amorim's setups. And that was alluded to by the coach himself several times.
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It’s a nothing quote. They’re being asked to play a new system and they need to stick with it even when things are going against them in matches. That’s all he said. It’s entirely normal. They’ve been used to playing in a certain way for years they’re obviously going to have wobbles about a new, different approach for “moments” in a game when things aren’t going well. Especially when confidence is low because of a run of crap results. It would be weird if they felt any different. He then goes on to stress at length why they trust in this new approach, even in adversity.
 
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
This isn’t a thing btw. The United philosophy usually means a winning philosophy.

Fergie was always happy to completely change the team and tactics if it meant winning the big games.
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You haven’t changed my view. I didn’t say the philosophy has to be consistent game by game. But there should be a distinct way in which we play, which is fast and attacking. Changing tactics to win big games or certain competitions is completely fine. Which is what we did.

So it is a thing.
 
If there's one thing I've learned over the last few months it's this fanbase does not have the stomach for a rebuild.
 
Tom Van Persie said:
If there's one thing I've learned over the last few months it's this fanbase does not have the stomach for a rebuild.
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We can surely rebuild without almost entering a relegation battle and putting in dire performances for months on end. United's fan base is incredibly patient if anything because little to no managers get a free pass like ours do before they're judged.
 
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Tom Van Persie said:
If there's one thing I've learned over the last few months it's this fanbase does not have the stomach for a rebuild.
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For the last few years, when fans have been talking about 'clearing out the deadwood', 'open heart surgery' or rebuilding, they actually expect that to happen within one summer I think. I think this stuff sounds great in their heads, parroting what others say like sheep, but when it comes to it, they can't hack us not being that good whilst we go through the process.
 
Eugenius said:
It's weird for anyone trying to use yesterday to push a narrative in either direction. We played half the game with 10 and went into a very low block which we obviously won't do next game. Equally the first goal was completely a screw up. 2nd goal easy to say "doesn't count" but Delap was close to touching and scoring it anyway.

Calling people Amorim haters when our league form has been worse it's ever been post SAF is an odd take. Blaming players for everything bad (goals) and giving credit to Amorim for everything good yesterday (including scoring scrappy set pieces and own goals) is also biased.

I'm glad we won, we looked pretty solid even with 10, and showed fight. But we played one of the 3 worst teams in the league and again struggled to score from open play. Not much new to see.
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Couldn’t agree more.
 
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