Ruben Amorim - Manchester United Head Coach

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

Is anyone doing that though? The result yesterday is meaningless but the 20 odd games prior where we've taken as many points or whatever it is, is the worrying part that people have every right to critique.

Critique what exactly? We have folks blatantly lying that we are playing an overtly defensive formation. Blatantly lying the coach is tacticallly inflexible. Acting like this squad has not struggled for a season and a half before his arrival, especially on the goals front, with this feigned surprise that things have gotten kinda tougher post ETH than better. EVEN after the coach himself predicted this is EXACTLY what would occur! All to butress their inane narrative that supposedly 3-4-3 is an out of date formation no elite team uses or can use. Plus that we should be looking to replace Amorim already for "shocking results/no progress". All whilst ignoring all the mitigating circumstance as to why the club is going through what it is going through on pitch.

All claiming to be 'critiquing" and the truly sane one surrounded by "cult members" .....lmao

 

[bond19821982]

Who is the right one then?

Keep looking for the right one until we hit one.

 

[Licha-Vidic]

This is just rewriting history. You personally seemed to agree that he wasn't our only issue, but many were much more short sighted. Interestingly, this isn't your first post pretending that the more rabid members of the ETH out crowd never existed, it's a pattern that goes back a while. Presumably you feel it undermined the credibility of the stance, but it doesn't, ironically what does undermine credibility more is pretending the plethora of irrational posts never happened.

Loads of posters would point to De Zerbi, Ange, etc with comments like "look how quickly [insert manager name] has [insert team name] playing his style of football". What we needed was "coaching". It was frustrating how misguided those posts were, as evidenced by us bringing in one of the most promising coaches in Europe in Amorim and going backwards.

This is an issue because now we've got lots of posts with the same shallow thinking, a lot of folks need one big bogeyman to point to, under Amorim the system/formation has been a big target, now more folks are attacking the manager directly. But again as I've stated time and again, there isn't a manager in the world who will turn our squad of unathletic and not very talented players into world beaters. You were right that ETH wasn't the man to take us forward, it might be also that Amorim isn't (although I'd suggest it's too early to make that determination), but prime SAF wouldn't be getting much out of a United squad that's physically dominated by almost every team it comes up against.

Nobody is asking for Maguire to turn into Prime Vidic.
Or Ugarte to turn into prime Carrick.

We just need to win some fcukin games.
In the last 12 weeks we have won 2 league games. Against Ipswich and Leicester.
Our last win league before those two were in 26 January, 2025.

Or we need prime Rio to win the third game?

Ipswich have lost 19 league games this season.
Manchester United has lost 14 league games this season. Ipswich will get relegated.

Westham have lost 15 league games. United are 14 games. Just 1 more loss we tie with Westham.
You dont need 11 new players for you not to lose such many games. Thats what people are saying.

 

[TrivelaDeBruno]

Thank you for bringing this up.

So when we played so well at Anfield in 10 years, was it because of Players brilliance or Amorim brilliance.

If its Amorim brilliance then why doesn't he replicate it in most matches.
If it's Players brilliance then it means the notion that we have poor squad is wrong. Because a poor squad can't get 'best performance at Anfield in 10 years'.

It can not be when we play so well at Anfield it's Amorim brilliance but when we lose against Bournemouth and Wolves in 2 games before Anfield, it's we have poor squad.

Dont come to me with players raised their game argument. It's managers job to raise our game. If we can play well at Anfield then it means we can play well at every other ground.

So the question is, why can't we

Is this a recent question? It's been this case under the last 3 full time managers. The major difference now is the squad, especially in attack. Ole's saving grace was Rashford, Martial and Greenwood loved playing for him, and a motivated version of any of them is light years better than our current attackers, and that includes 24/25 Rashford. That's before we even get into Pogba, Ander Herrera, Matic at the end of his prime, Luke Shaw being relatively fit and oh by the way, Bruno Fernandes entering his prime. Ole's teams went toe to toe against the at the time big 6 in some matches, and had complete meltdown in others. The season we finished second under him we dropped points to 8 out of 10 bottom half teams iirc. In Ten Hag's first season we saw the same inconsistencies and we were just about sneaking into the title race around midseason, with similar inconsistencies.

None of this is a coincidence, but now the squad is worse to compound things. How hard is it to see the real problems are intangible and psychological, and have been for years. Now we just don't have the players to make up for it.

 

[Flavius]

It's quite predictable that a host of average minds have piled in on Amorim. The BBC has Clinton Morrison and Nigel Reo-Coker amongst others telling people he is not good enough. ESPN have obviously hired loads of idiots who have all been anti-United for the last few years. MEN have Luckhurst who can't wait to undermine a manager here. Then there are the fans. The supporters who think they want a long-term approach but go apoplectic when a manager doesn't compromise his vision for the sake of the short-term.

For those with eyes they can see that our squad is average, low footballing IQ, low on athleticism, comprised of two quick centre backs, both of whom are teenagers, with not one proper full back/wing back in the whole squad, a dodgy GK and no fire power up front. And the club has been hollowed out by the scum who somehow own it despite not being able to afford it.

This manager has despite all that repeatedly said the right things, kept his course, and we have seen green shoots of recovery in the last month or two, still with the chance of CL qualification.

The task of resurrecting this club destroyed ETH and he made many enormously terrible decisions in the market, on the back of a decade of having the worst in class at the helm here recruiting players and giving them contracts. The job here just becomes more and more difficult.

This summer they'd do well getting rid of almost half the squad. We've seen Amorim throw a teenage centre back in at the deep end, with no experience, and he's done really well. He knows what he is doing and he'll make huge strides forward when he gets the 4-5 players he, Wilcox and co decide on in the summer.

 

[Dans]

Might as well have kept Moyes then. After all any manager given time will be as good as Alex Ferguson.

The point was really that 6 months isn't enough. Moyes, ETH etc all had much longer.

 

[Frank White]

Critique what exactly? We have folks blatantly lying that we are playing an overtly defensive formation. Blatantly lying the coach is tacticallly inflexible. Acting like this squad has not struggled for a season and a half before his arrival, especially on the goals front, with this feigned surprise that things have gotten kinda tougher post ETH than better. EVEN after the coach himself predicted this is EXACTLY what would occur! All to butress their inane narrative that supposedly 3-4-3 is an out of date formation no elite team uses or can use. Plus that we should be looking to replace Amorim already for "shocking results/no progress". All whilst ignoring all the mitigating circumstance as to why the club is going through what it is going through on pitch.

All claiming to be 'critiquing" and the truly sane one surrounded by "cult members" .....lmao

Which is? He's probably one of least to blame for the results but he should, as manager shoulder some blame and it's pretty fair if some people don't have unwavering faith in him at this moment in time.

 

[RuudTom83]

Take away Rashy’s 30 goal season and United have been awful at putting the ball in the net for as long as I can remember.

I can’t see how playing 2 or 3 at the back would have any big difference to the goals scored column.

Pundits are just being lazy…like always.

 

[dubplate warrior]

He hasn’t improved us at all. Which is the most disappointing thing about his tenure. We look no better at all.

Not sure about that. We're far better in possession and in terms of shape. There's no doubt about that, but we simply cannot score goals and it's massively highlighted the lack of quality in the team.

We used to bemoan the days of individual brilliance bailing our poor performances, but there's been times where we've actually been decent and don't look like scoring at all.

There is no manager who is going to come and move the needle substantially with this squad. We need investment.

 

[McLvnsMuse]

On loan at Villa

Funny. You mean the caveat forward?

He’s a 20 goal forward..

• On his day
• When he’s not playing at CF
• When he’s happy
• When he plays with the right fullback
• A few years ago
• When he’s on form
• With the right manager
• Not every season
• When the pressure to be our best player is off

 

[dubplate warrior]

This is just rewriting history. You personally seemed to agree that he wasn't our only issue, but many were much more short sighted. Interestingly, this isn't your first post pretending that the more rabid members of the ETH out crowd never existed, it's a pattern that goes back a while. Presumably you feel it undermined the credibility of the stance, but it doesn't, ironically what does undermine credibility more is pretending the plethora of irrational posts never happened.

Loads of posters would point to De Zerbi, Ange, etc with comments like "look how quickly [insert manager name] has [insert team name] playing his style of football". What we needed was "coaching". It was frustrating how misguided those posts were, as evidenced by us bringing in one of the most promising coaches in Europe in Amorim and going backwards.

This is an issue because now we've got lots of posts with the same shallow thinking, a lot of folks need one big bogeyman to point to, under Amorim the system/formation has been a big target, now more folks are attacking the manager directly. But again as I've stated time and again, there isn't a manager in the world who will turn our squad of unathletic and not very talented players into world beaters. You were right that ETH wasn't the man to take us forward, it might be also that Amorim isn't (although I'd suggest it's too early to make that determination), but prime SAF wouldn't be getting much out of a United squad that's physically dominated by almost every team it comes up against.

I was very much vehemently ETH out. But the rest of the season has really highlighted the lack of quality in the team.

 

[silvercre]

My worry about the 3-4-3 is that we're going to turf out Garnacho and Mainoo for not fitting into any role in it and they're going to go elsewhere and be good, then Amorim will flop anyway and we'll sack him in October for a manager who goes back to playing a back 4.

You know "cream rises to the top", players should also adapt to formations. Tbh both have also shown some great promise, but there were also weaknesses and they still have pöenty to prove.
But trying to fit in a performing and quality player is a good problem to have?
Just as a reminder Garnacho was not a starter this season under ETH, so it's something to be mindful of when accusing Amorim of not having space for Garnacho.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Funny. You mean the caveat forward?

He’s a 20 goal forward..

• On his day
• When he’s not playing at CF
• When he’s happy
• When he plays with the right fullback
• A few years ago
• When he’s on form
• With the right manager
• Not every season
• When the pressure to be our best player is off

• When he's got a girlfriend

 

[Arcane Desires]

We have got to ask ourselves if these results would fly at Bayern, Real and Barca? 6 wins in 21 games and we are falling over ourselves to justify this relegation form record pretending in the summer it's going to come to a stop with a couple of preseason games in America and in 3 years this system is going to help us challenge for the league.

Villa Boas went undefeated in Portugal with Porto and was highly touted to be Jose's successor. Chelsea ended up sacking him 9 months later as he proved to be out of his depth at premier league level. We seem to be the only club in the world that needs 3 years to find out that a manager is not the right appointment.

 

[Frank White]

Not sure about that. We're far better in possession and in terms of shape. There's no doubt about that, but we simply cannot score goals and it's massively highlighted the lack of quality in the team.

We used to bemoan the days of individual brilliance bailing our poor performances, but there's been times where we've actually been decent and don't look like scoring at all.

There is no manager who is going to come and move the needle substantially with this squad. We need investment.

When people say that aren't still routinely destroyed in the midfield by nearly every team we play? The defensive shape isn't much better either aren't we pretty high up on the most goals conceded from set piece list?

 

[Herschel Krustofsky]

I'm truly marveling at some fans declaring losing 4-1 to this Newcastle, with a rotated team "shocking". It's like they post match developed acute amesia about the season, this Newcastle United side and our own! There is little chance in a million years this current United side not at full strength and fitness, before this match were going to get anything less than a pasting by a 2 or 3 goal margin.

Agree with this, expected to lose 3 - 0 coming into the game, more once I saw the line up.

Was pleasantly surprised by hoe we played first half, considering what we had on the pitch.

That we were eventually overran doesn’t really deserve the histrionics seen in this thread, really juvenile and short sighted.

 

[soapythecat]

Who is the right one then?

Why do people insist on naming an alternative as if the lack of a name suggests Amorim is the right guy?
There is a structure at the club to find the right manager, but they have just fecked this up.
A manager who has taken us backwards in every footballing metric and further down the table clearly isn’t the right man, regardless of playing squad. We have got worse.

 

[AjaxCunian]

Take away Rashy’s 30 goal season and United have been awful at putting the ball in the net for as long as I can remember.

I can’t see how playing 2 or 3 at the back would have any big difference to the goals scored column.

Pundits are just being lazy…like always.

Our xG is less under Amorim than any manager I think, so yes, probably makes some difference. It's a defensive set up.

 

[Ronaldo's Love Child]

Because that's generally how you improve a bad team. You go and buy better players.

It's not a guarantee of winning the top trophies but it'll be a success in terms of making the team much better.

Your word "generally" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that statement.

Real life is not like Football Manager where new transfers necessarily revolutionises a team. We can bring 6 new players in and they may all stink.

There should have been some improvement with the current team at some point and I don't even mean results-wise but in terms of performance.

 

[Redstain]

Who is the right one then?

Whoever succeeds. Amorim is in the exact same position as Erik at the start of the season, where because of such a bad former season Erik needed to hit the ground running to galvanise not only himself but his future.

The ratios for Amorim are so slim it's unrealistic to expect him to produce any other than failure. He needs a good summer, new players will need to be embedded and off to a good start immediately, the team will need to be in a top 6 / 4 position by at least November (26) for his tenure to be deemed acceptable. He has asserted he will not be given the time Arteta was meaning he's likely been advised by the hierarchy.

It's a situation where everything needs to be perfect next season.

 

[Bright_Eyes]

On loan at Villa

He's never hit 20g/10a in the PL and only twice in a decade in all comps, don't think he's good enough consistently at all

 

[NinjaZombie]

We were okay in that first half. Away at Newcastle, with one eye on an important midweek game. Add the fact that tactically, we've looked okay for the past couple of months. I don't think tactics is the biggest issue here.

On the Newcastle game, we sabotaged ourselves. All 3 of their 2nd half goals were individual errors.

 

[RuudTom83]

Our xG is less under Amorim than any manager I think, so yes, probably makes some difference. It's a defensive set up.

So are you saying the formation is the no.1 cause for a lack of goals?

 

[stepic]

Our xG is less under Amorim than any manager I think, so yes, probably makes some difference. It's a defensive set up.

Our xg is lower than last years but so is our opponents’ xg. In fact the gap between the two has halved if you compare this seasons to last years.

 

[Lash]

My worry about the 3-4-3 is that we're going to turf out Garnacho and Mainoo for not fitting into any role in it and they're going to go elsewhere and be good, then Amorim will flop anyway and we'll sack him in October for a manager who goes back to playing a back 4.

Why is that the fault of the formation and not the players? Think of the reasons why they don't fit into a role within it, it's a red flag if they can't adapt or have glaring weaknesses being highlighted by a formation.

Mainoo's physicality is still going to be a problem in different formations and Garnachos poor overall awareness on the pitch, erratic shooting, will also persist.

 

[TsuWave]

Still no back-to-back league wins under him. He took over in November.

He’s likeable and came under tough conditions, but man - this is rough

 

[Woziak]

No idea what point you’re trying to make.

He’s a rookie to the EPL that’s my point I don’t doubt he will be a fantastic Manager but he had not even managed in the PL previously and only managed in Portugal for 4-5 years.

I’ll ask you this question?

Surely whatever the scenario, whatever situation the club is in, it still remains easily one of the top 5 or 6 jobs available for an elite coach in world football?


Fans complain, rightly so about our new recruitment policy of only buying young players of 18-24 so they have a resale value however, to develop a successful side that can compete domestically and in Europe you need a blend of youthful signings, 21-24 year olds, some 25-28 year old and the odd over 30 year old like Cavani or Zlatan.

I think this board under INEOS clearly don’t know what they are doing, INEOS have had 5 or 6 years in France and can’t get Nice into the CL, they will barely scrape Conference League this season. They are constantly changing and never getting any of the big decisions right, we had to pay ETH off for wining an Fa Cup and Coming 8th, this year we will be at least 10 points worse off and no trophy because we recruited maybe the best young coach out there but he hadn’t finished his apprenticeship and has only ever been to one Europa League 1/4 Final previously, he’s a rookie and he’s hugely out of his depth in the EPL!

Like he said he could have earned more from other clubs, so united got a rookie on probably £6m per year to save money hoping that it couldn’t get any worse and he would be a miracle worker!

He’s not, I like Ruben a lot and I reiterate he needs to be given a full transfer window and pre season to get his ideas across, even if he gets knocked out on Thursday as I expect.

However if he can not achieve a simple 1.8 points per game target after 10-12 PL games then we should have no hesitation in sacking him, none whatsoever because in my opinion he would have had a full season of 38 PL games and if we are not seeing a huge improvement from 1.09 Points per game he has to go, surely you agree with that statement, that’s how big clubs operate?

Imagine allowing him to continue for a full season with that KPI that’s 42 points over a season for Man United and 11 victories,
8 draws and 19 losses, but fans would be all for giving him more time?

One of his back room staff just celebrated his 30th birthday, none of his back room staff have any experience in the EPL, no high level experience in Europe and have contributed to a 48% loss rate under his tenure in the EPL and we should keep them all on, even Oliver Glasner who uses the exact same formation and has won a major European trophy would be an obvious replacement playing 3421 if we sack him, so is Thomas Frank or Raiola, they are all more experienced and are currently better and here’s the key word more Flexible than Ruben.

I repeat even if we lose on Thursday, we should not sack him however he has put pressure on himself going into next season because like he said ; “You have to win matches to win Time!” And Ruben has lost matches so he’s lost time!

 

[DJ Jeff]

Why is that the fault of the formation and not the players? Think of the reasons why they don't fit into a role within it, it's a red flag if they can't adapt or have glaring weaknesses being highlighted by a formation.

Mainoo's physicality is still going to be a problem in different formations and Garnachos poor overall awareness on the pitch, erratic shooting, will also persist.

I agree they're not these great players that he must be getting something out of, I'm just worried about making transfer decisions around the very specific squad requirements of a manager who in all likelihood will be sacked at some point next season. I guess the alternative is NOT to back him which is twice as mad, but Garnacho and Mainoo are two of the only green shoots we have in the squad and it seems like we'll be turfing them out to back Amorim when its already pretty clear what way its going to go.

 

[dubplate warrior]

When people say that aren't still routinely destroyed in the midfield by nearly every team we play? The defensive shape isn't much better either aren't we pretty high up on the most goals conceded from set piece list?

you forget the donut midfield under ETH bro?

The gaps are no longer there. The sheer lack of ability of our players to run beyond 60 minutes compared to their Premier league counterparts is very apparent.

 

[AjaxCunian]

Our xg is lower than last years but so is our opponents’ xg. In fact the gap between the two has halved if you compare this seasons to last years.

True but that isnt the point that was being made.. we concede less shots and chances that's true.

Playing 7 defensive and recycling the ball a lot more helps in that regard.

 

[AjaxCunian]

So are you saying the formation is the no.1 cause for a lack of goals?

Nope I don't. We don't really have world class forwards but he's not getting the best out of them or the midfield with this negative setup either.

343 doesn't have to be negative.. his 5221 in practice is negative.

 

[Licha-Vidic]

Is this a recent question? It's been this case under the last 3 full time managers.

No manager was good enough before. Accepted. Sealed.
Amorim is doing as previous managers as you say.. so why the shift in manager evaluation

The major difference now is the squad, especially in attack. Ole's saving grace was Rashford, Martial and Greenwood loved playing for him, and a motivated version of any of them is light years better than our current attackers, and that includes 24/25 Rashford. That's before we even get into Pogba, Ander Herrera, Matic at the end of his prime, Luke Shaw being relatively fit and oh by the way, Bruno Fernandes entering his prime. Ole's teams went toe to toe against the at the time big 6 in some matches, and had complete meltdown in others. The season we finished second under him we dropped points to 8 out of 10 bottom half teams iirc. In Ten Hag's first season we saw the same inconsistencies and we were just about sneaking into the title race around midseason, with similar inconsistencies.

None of this is a coincidence, but now the squad is worse to compound things. How hard is it to see the real problems are intangible and psychological, and have been for years. Now we just don't have the players to make up for it.

One thing. Amorim took the team when it was 4 points behind 4th place.
Now the team is 3 point ahead of 17 place.

Same season. Same players. Explain that.

 

[RuudTom83]

Nope I don't. We don't really have world class forwards but he's not getting the best out of them or the midfield with this negative setup either.

343 doesn't have to be negative.. his 5221 in practice is negative.

I can’t really see any combination working if the pieces you have are Hojlund, Zirkzee and Garnacho.

He has tried Bruno as a false 9. He has tried playing one of Hojlund/Zirkzee, he has tried playing them both. He has tried Garnacho on the left and right. Plus when they are fit he has tried Mount/Mainoo in the no.10.

Which is why imo it’s lazy punditry to just say he is too rigid and a slave to the formation.

 

[TrivelaDeBruno]

No manager was good enough before. Accepted. Sealed.
Amorim is doing as previous managers as you say.. so why the shift in manager evaluation


One thing. Amorim took the team when it was 4 points behind 4th place.
Now the team is 3 point ahead of 17 place.

Same season. Same players. Explain that.

It’s not a basis for sacking him given the 5-6 years of context I just gave you before you conveniently narrowed it down to a few months.

 

[Superunknown]

I'm truly marveling at some fans declaring losing 4-1 to this Newcastle, with a rotated team "shocking". It's like they post match developed acute amesia about the season, this Newcastle United side and our own! There is little chance in a million years this current United side not at full strength and fitness, before this match were going to get anything less than a pasting by a 2 or 3 goal margin.

Sorry, but this just isn't acceptable. Accepting a loss by 2 or 3 goals going into a game will never be ok at this club and is always going to be a very tough sell to any fan. If this is the case, then the coach has to be pragmatic. If we're not going to win the game, then don't lose. If you're going to lose, then make it hard for the opponent. Don't go fecking gifting them goals. It has become all too acceptable to lose under successive managers, and it's now the same under Amorim. The players are making the same mistakes every week and aren't having this coached out of them.

We can talk about formations all we want until the cows come home. There isn't one magic formation that will guarantee titles or success, just like there isn't one formation that will doom us. I'm going to leave that and talk about mentality, pragmatism, tenacity, and aggression, all of which are things that Amorim 100% has to also take responsibility for as a coach. He has to instil all of these characteristics in these players just as much as he has to train them to use whichever formation he wants them to play. If we're not going to have any of those characteristics when we face opponents in this league, then it really doesn't matter who plays up front for us or in midfield, or anywhere else. All I saw in that second half was a team that came out and rolled over, with the score at fecking 1-1. Teams now know how to beat us and are able to do so because we don't put up a fight. And the ones that don't know are mostly going down anyway and won't be there next season.

 

[Jim Beam]

All eggs are in Europa League. I said I want bother too much with yesterday's game and that he should rotate, so all fine with me. We even had a pretty solid first half. However, we badly need to go through in Europa and that's where all eyes will be. As for progress, it's not big but we definitely look more comfortable in this formation with our passing being better in recent month (not a big achievement but it's been better). There is still massive question marks over how much this formation and Amorim himself can succeed as it's massively dependent on our wingbacks in attacking area.

What I do not understand is people saying he shouldn't be under any pressure. He is and he should. He is managing Man Utd, the pressure goes by design here as it should be in any big club. To say otherwise is absurd, could lead to complacency and if we made the wrong choice the effects on the club by giving manager more time becomes only negative. I mean, you can argue that every single manager we had got way more time than he should or even that sacking each one of them brought huge relief and was one of brighter moments since Fergie left. And we still have posts that say he should be given 2 or 3 years of free reign. What saves him so far in my eyes, despite the awful results, is that there are signs of improvement, he has been dealt with an awful hand in attacking area and has a clear philosophy/principle which for me is positive. He also tries to clear rotten culture in the club, so that's another plus.

But he needs to start getting better results and we need go past Lyon in Europa or otherwise the pressure will mount. That's just natural and goes with a job he has.

 

[roseguy64]

Not that he needs to be sacked today but that's indefensible.

 

[AjaxCunian]

I can’t really see any combination working if the pieces you have are Hojlund, Zirkzee and Garnacho.

He

I can’t really see any combination working if the pieces you have are Hojlund, Zirkzee and Garnacho.

He has tried Bruno as a false 9. He has tried playing one of Hojlund/Zirkzee, he has tried playing them both. He has tried Garnacho on the left and right. Plus when they are fit he has tried Mount/Mainoo in the no.10.

Which is why imo it’s lazy punditry to just say he is too rigid and a slave to the formation.

Even when we had Amad there, he persisted with playing Mazraoui en Dalot as full backs nearly every game. Meanwhile we only ever looked threatening when we'd be behind and he put at least one offensive player on the wingback.

Now he's gone and bought Dorgu, great kid but no standout offensive player to occupy the wing. I really doubt next season will be any different.

 

[stepic]

One thing. Amorim took the team when it was 4 points behind 4th place.
Now the team is 3 point ahead of 17 place.

Same season. Same players. Explain that.

We were 13th when he arrived and we’re now 14th. That’s the facts. This is despite 1) implementing a new system 2) losing our best attacker in amad 3) losing forward depth in Rashford and Antony 4) only being able to sign one player thus far

the earlier you are in the season the closer all teams’ points are to eachother, so using it as some kind of evidence we were performing better at that point is disingenuous.

 

[acnumber9]

Our xG is less under Amorim than any manager I think, so yes, probably makes some difference. It's a defensive set up.

Don’t be silly. Having more attackers makes no difference. That’s why teams don’t play any.