Ruben Amorim | 2025-26

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Forest played their best game against us. Compared to Anfield, Forest game was more difficult. Forest played better than Liverpool and we had our off day. It happens when we are still very early at rebuild stage where it's hard to find the rhythm and consistency a top team has like Arsenal.

Having said that we played very well in the first half. We lost concentration for 5 mins in the second half and paid heavy price. Lessons learned. We have had chances late in the game to win it. Compared to last season, it was a huge improvement. Last season we would have lost the game by 2 or 3 goals considering Forest played so well.

Those that doubt Amorim or calling him out now, remember that we are only half way in our proper rebuild. We need 2 CMs and a LWB minimum next year to further strengthen our rebuild. We also need a big, tall CB to defend corners/crosses.

Just imagine, if Anderson played for us (instead of forest) as CM yesterday. We can also get someone like Wharton to partner him. Also, if we have proper LWB (Dalot was partly at fault for both goals and offered nothing in attack) the results would be different. Finally, we also conceded 2 goals from crosses where Maguire aerial availability was greatly missed. We may need a new CB too considering the long ball trend is coming back.
 
10 points In 4 games with Liverpool, Brighton and a high flying Sunderland.

Arsenal are out in front we are in the chasing pack a point off second.

There are clear weaknesses in the team and we lack depth but we knew that coming into the season. Very few of our subs except Mount and possibly Maguire are fighting to be starters.
 
stepic said:
and you wouldn’t have been bitching about the manager when we were briefly top I’m sure.

I know 10 points in the last 4 games must be really tough for you pal. Feel for ya
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Well i would because that manager should’ve been sacked at the end of the previous season. Much like this one.

I want to ask you a serious question. Are you twelve years old? Because your last paragraph has all the emotional maturity of a twelve year old.
 
Threadbare squad options and rigid tactical base.

Recipe for disaster.

Fair is fair, he's recovered well from an awful start but hasn't sorted our mentality issue. Collapses this week and last though we've got away with both.

Need to start seeing matches out, building on leads and stop switching off.

Feel we'll finish tenth.
 
Just watched the highlights and we had enough chances to win it. The second goal should have been defended better by dalot. You cant get away with such presents to the oppo
 
Disappointed with the lack of changes, bringing a defender on when you are losing doesn't make any sense to me. Not really changing anything in attack makes even less sense.

There was no real urgency to the attacking play, right wing kept getting isolated in 3v2 out wide.
It was brilliant defensively from Forest, but that's where you probably need to change the point of attack and start targeting the left, where the best chances came from when Dorgu came on. Or target central areas and maybe Zirkzee would have been a better option to play off there than Sesko, who's hold up play was very poor.
 
Vidooq said:
I doubt he would've picked United over Real Madrid. I also think we needed the money.
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We signed dorgu in January. It's not clear Madrid were definitely interested then and we also spent more money on dorgu than it would have cost us to buy alvaro back.
 
Yakuza_devils said:
Forest played their best game against us. Compared to Anfield, Forest game was more difficult. Forest played better than Liverpool and we had our off day. It happens when we are still very early at rebuild stage where it's hard to find the rhythm and consistency a top team has like Arsenal.

Having said that we played very well in the first half. We lost concentration for 5 mins in the second half and paid heavy price. Lessons learned. We have had chances late in the game to win it. Compared to last season, it was a huge improvement. Last season we would have lost the game by 2 or 3 goals considering Forest played so well.

Those that doubt Amorim or calling him out now, remember that we are only half way in our proper rebuild. We need 2 CMs and a LWB minimum next year to further strengthen our rebuild. We also need a big, tall CB to defend corners/crosses.

Just imagine, if Anderson played for us (instead of forest) as CM yesterday. We can also get someone like Wharton to partner him. Also, if we have proper LWB (Dalot was partly at fault for both goals and offered nothing in attack) the results would be different. Finally, we also conceded 2 goals from crosses where Maguire aerial availability was greatly missed. We may need a new CB too considering the long ball trend is coming back.
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DeLigt and Yoro are both 6'3'', lack of height isn't the reason we keep conceding from crosses.
 
His in game management is still poor, he's risk averse to the point where he seemed content with losing yesterday as he didn't make any attacking changes. There wasn't even that much of a change in set-up to go more attacking really.

Waited until the 70th minute to bring a Wing back on and then the 80th minute to change a centreback. That's poor however you spin it and let's be honest for anyone in the post match thread who said it was cowardly it's hard to argue against that.

He seems so enamoured with his system/set-up for each match I'm starting to wonder if he feels having to change it mid-game when it isn't working, is for him like losing face.

And changing a centreback every game regardless of the scoreline and whether or not we're chasing the game is getting old.
 
I've been critical of him but the reaction to yesterday is ridiculous. We've not won there since 2023. Our recent record at Anfield before this season (two draws) was better than the City Ground (two defeats).

With Dyche as manager, this was always going to be a more difficult match.

Aside from a very dodgy 15 minutes, this was a decent performance and on another day, we'd have won.

We've improved a lot but this is still going to be a very up and down season. If we can avoid defeat next week, we'd have picked up at least 8 points from the games between international breaks, which is probably 4 more than most envisioned.

Also, the bunch of teams between 2nd and 9th, everyone is gonna lack consistency.
 
ZorinGorilla said:
Threadbare squad options and rigid tactical base.

Recipe for disaster.

Fair is fair, he's recovered well from an awful start but hasn't sorted our mentality issue. Collapses this week and last though we've got away with both.

Need to start seeing matches out, building on leads and stop switching off.

Feel we'll finish tenth.
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Arguably we'd have crumbled and lost both games last season.
 
This team isn’t ready to win 1-0 or 2-0 on a regular basis.

Until we have a top midfield who can protect the defence and hold onto the ball we won’t be able to control games like yesterday.
 
Danny said:
Arguably we'd have crumbled and lost both games last season.
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Yep. And Liverpool before that aswell.

Every single United fan in the world would have taken seven points from these last three games.

To go mad with the criticism after a hard-fought point at a ground where we've struggled a lot feels very weird.
 
Pav1878 said:
This team isn’t ready to win 1-0 or 2-0 on a regular basis.

Until we have a top midfield who can protect the defence and hold onto the ball we won’t be able to control games like yesterday.
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Now this I'd agree with. But again, it's a massive improvement on five weeks ago nevermind last season.

I think the next three or four games will tell us whether this recent run has been an anamoly or the start of something bigger.

My biggest issue is that it still feels like we're two bad results from a crisis and a defeat next week going into the international break shifts the conversation again.

That being said, if we win next week, I think he deserves an additional element of trust from the board and fans and probably moves the dial drastically away from crisis mode and more into how can we improve the squad from a position of strength as opposed to desperation.
 
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
Yep. And Liverpool before that aswell.

Every single United fan in the world would have taken seven points from these last three games.

To go mad with the criticism after a hard-fought point at a ground where we've struggled a lot feels very weird.
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Yep. 7 points from the last 3 games is objectively a very good tally. If we had drawn at Anfield and beat Forest, everyone would be content.
 
He’s definitely on a good path to win me over. I was expecting dire 4 games between international games and we’ve largely been very solid. Still may issues to iron out, which has been obvious since the season started, but it’s looking far more promising than it has at any point during his tenure prior to October.
 
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
Yep. And Liverpool before that aswell.

Every single United fan in the world would have taken seven points from these last three games.

To go mad with the criticism after a hard-fought point at a ground where we've struggled a lot feels very weird.
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It's not just a reaction to yesterday though is it. The failings observed yesterday were ones we have seen throughout amorims tenure and the absolute inflexibility means we don't react to these failings in game. Many think that these factors will continue limit our progress even if things improve from last season
 
FortunaUtd said:
Yep. 7 points from the last 3 games is objectively a very good tally. If we had drawn at Anfield and beat Forest, everyone would be content.
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It's almost as if amorim has been in charge for more than three games
 
stepic said:
Literally anything but a win and all the Amorim haters come crawling out of their holes. It’s kinda hilarious tbh.
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It's just so tiresome.

I want to ban the words cowardly and coward on here because these enrage me the most.

They're having a go at his subs, and yet we massively stabilised defensively after the subs, we then equalised, and then were a goal line block, with the keeper beaten, away from winning it.

We had 59% possession, more goal attempts, more on target and forced their keeper into more saves than they did ours. We also hit the post and Casemiro nearly scored the rebound, and from a deflected shot that would have beaten the keeper if it hadn't gone over the bar.

Yes there are things that need to improve, such as mentality and concentration after half time, but this is still progress for me.
 
stevoc said:
His in game management is still poor, he's risk averse to the point where he seemed content with losing yesterday as he didn't make any attacking changes. There wasn't even that much of a change in set-up to go more attacking really.

Waited until the 70th minute to bring a Wing back on and then the 80th minute to change a centreback. That's poor however you spin it and let's be honest for anyone in the post match thread who said it was cowardly it's hard to argue against that.

He seems so enamoured with his system/set-up for each match I'm starting to wonder if he feels having to change it mid-game when it isn't working, is for him like losing face.

And changing a centreback every game regardless of the scoreline and whether or not we're chasing the game is getting old.
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I agree. Gotta day he is going to either shut up a lot of people (including myself) if he is successful constantly sticking to this shape, or look a fool. Even the likes of Pep adapts depending on the game state and he is on the more unflexible side. You'd imagine going two up top with Zirkzee and Sesko to go for a win would be an option, or taking a CB off for an attacker would be an option, but never seems the case.

Either way, a decent point. Although we really struggled to win the second balls and I don't think it was a physicality thing. Forest just seemed to be in better positions to pick up the ball. I'd like to see Amorim adjusting the positions or tactics when we seem to be losing battles in key areas. The better coaches know how and when to make small tweaks to their system in game.
 
Matt851 said:
It's not just a reaction to yesterday though is it. The failings observed yesterday were ones we have seen throughout amorims tenure and the absolute inflexibility means we don't react to these failings in game. Many think that these factors will continue limit our progress even if things improve from last season
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Matt851 said:
It's almost as if amorim has been in charge for more than three games
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It's fair concerns. But what I care about, after a year of losing games and hanging about fecking lower midtable, is to simply get the results that are in line with what we can expect. We have been getting them in the last weeks so that's relief to me.
 
GaryLifo said:
It's just so tiresome.

I want to ban the words cowardly and coward on here because these enrage me the most.

They're having a go at his subs, and yet we massively stabilised defensively after the subs, we then equalised, and then were a goal line block, with the keeper beaten, away from winning it.

We had 59% possession, more goal attempts, more on target and forced their keeper into more saves than they did ours. We also hit the post and Casemiro nearly scored the rebound, and from a deflected shot that would have beaten the keeper if it hadn't gone over the bar.

Yes there are things that need to improve, such as mentality and concentration after half time, but this is still progress for me.
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Do you know what is more tiresome? Posters trying to police others opinions.
 
GaryLifo said:
It's just so tiresome.

I want to ban the words cowardly and coward on here because these enrage me the most.

They're having a go at his subs, and yet we massively stabilised defensively after the subs, we then equalised, and then were a goal line block, with the keeper beaten, away from winning it.

We had 59% possession, more goal attempts, more on target and forced their keeper into more saves than they did ours. We also hit the post and Casemiro nearly scored the rebound, and from a deflected shot that would have beaten the keeper if it hadn't gone over the bar.

Yes there are things that need to improve, such as mentality and concentration after half time, but this is still progress for me.
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There are legitimate reasons why people are criticizing the manager, for this game and for past games. Talk about clutching at straws here, because we created next to nothing from open play, and a wonder goal from Amad had nothing to do with the poor subs. A United manager that doesn't do an attacking sub when losing...
 
Matt851 said:
It's not just a reaction to yesterday though is it. The failings observed yesterday were ones we have seen throughout amorims tenure and the absolute inflexibility means we don't react to these failings in game. Many think that these factors will continue limit our progress even if things improve from last season
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They're the same failure we've had for the best part of the last 12 years though.

I've been very critical of Amorim. I genuinely thought he should have been sacked after Grimsby but we now look a different side.

We're still a million miles from being a great side but we're good though, on current form, to finish in the top 5. That for me is good progress.

Whether he can now, sustain it (in the short term) and then improve on it (title challenge next season or the one after) are the two questions and indicators of the next level of progress. I think he's earned the right now to be able try and answer the first one without a complete meltdown after every dropped point.
 
Slightly dissapointing but that is also because of the way we looked at times against Brighton/Sunderland when we where playing some electrifying stuff (to his credit). We dropped our intensity a bit and it was obvious as soon as the game started. He recognized it and said about in the post conference as well. A bit strange we did it as we have only 1 game per week, so we shouldn't have problem with it. Think we will see that back against Spurs though. 2 other slight problems are that we were on our back foot at times and that we often do that once we have the lead.

Overall, he is hitting some obvious targets for me now. We do look better, more cohesive and far more threatening this season. Also, by the look of things we made OT a very difficult place to come again for away teams. In battle for Europe/CL... Wheather we can translate our form to away games and wheather we can actually be a top, top team under him will be mostly answered by the end of this season. And he earned the right to answer those questions without constant threat of sacking at this point unless some monemental collapse happens which doesn't some likely.
 
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
They're the same failure we've had for the best part of the last 12 years though.

I've been very critical of Amorim. I genuinely thought he should have been sacked after Grimsby but we now look a different side.

We're still a million miles from being a great side but we're good though, on current form, to finish in the top 5. That for me is good progress.

Whether he can now, sustain it (in the short term) and then improve on it (title challenge next season or the one after) are the two questions and indicators of the next level of progress. I think he's earned the right now to be able try and answer the first one without a complete meltdown after every dropped point.
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Spot on. Except for the first sentence, which I think is an unneccessary wide summary with a tinge of whataboutism, this sums up exactly how I feel.
 
Mickson said:
There are legitimate reasons why people are criticizing the manager, for this game and for past games. Talk about clutching at straws here, because we created next to nothing from open play, and a wonder goal from Amad had nothing to do with the poor subs. A United manager that doesn't do an attacking sub when losing...
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Spot on. I find the obsessive need to love the manager or be all in on him wierd. I called out someone on Friday who had apparently flipped from being all in, then out, then after 3 wins all in and apparently not for changing. I see nothing this season to change my view on Amorim. He is a character, for better or worse, and most of players seem still to be behind him. But his obsession with 3 at the back and terrible game management means he will have a low ceiling.

The answer to all our problems always seems to be spend another £200m and we might be able to challenge. One of my major issues with Amorim is who has he made better? I don't see anyone really, sure Amad overall has been good but we knew he was a good player that ETH refused to play. We signed two of the leagues best attackers and still struggle to create chances. Sesko was awful yesterday and really beginning to concern me, he is just too often invisible. Amorim's game management is awful. The weekly CB sub is just embarrassing. Forget the whining about a new manager bounce, we are playing one of the worst teams in the league and need to be able to beat teams like this. It was a goal from nowhere that gave us a point, at no time in the second half did we look in control or create good chances. Someone posted earlier that based on highlights we should have won. Well, the amazing xG stats from yesterday as 2 for Forecast and 1.15 for us, so on that basis a draw was lucky.

Of course when you are chasing a game you need to mix it up. Throw on Zirkzee, who offers something different and more movement, when its clear Sesko isnt working. Throw on Mount, go to 2 CBs and make the spare man a forward rathe than a CB. Then there is the system itself. We have 3 CBs but still seem to concede loads of goals around the 6 yard box. The second goal we had 7 players around the box and 3 Forest players, then 3 United players all went for the cross and the Forest player got to the second ball. For the first goal my immediate thought is why is the smallest player on the pitch defending a cross on the edge of the 6 yard box. We have 3 CBs, and one of them should be taking Gibbs-White. The point was made on MoTD as well. Amad is great going forward but is weak defensively and yet as a wing back he needs to spend a lot of time defending. It was clear from the MoTD analysis how Forest targeted him and that flank, but neither the CBs or the manager reacted.
 
Bit of positivity in terms of the fixture list when looking at last seasons table - we’ve played 8 of the top 11 from last year. 5 of those being away from home.
 
GaryLifo said:
It's just so tiresome.

I want to ban the words cowardly and coward on here because these enrage me the most.

They're having a go at his subs, and yet we massively stabilised defensively after the subs, we then equalised, and then were a goal line block, with the keeper beaten, away from winning it.

We had 59% possession, more goal attempts, more on target and forced their keeper into more saves than they did ours. We also hit the post and Casemiro nearly scored the rebound, and from a deflected shot that would have beaten the keeper if it hadn't gone over the bar.

Yes there are things that need to improve, such as mentality and concentration after half time, but this is still progress for me.
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If we want to look at stats, the one the Amorim fans have loved is Xg. Yesterday it was 2 to 1.15 in favour of Forest. There was also an interesting stat on MoTD, showing we we have far more points in games when we have lower possession than those where we have more. So yesterday no exception, we had a lot of ball but created very little. Our Xg from open play was only 0.54 whereas Forest was 1.7. So at least let's be honest about what happened. People are confusing possession with controlling the game, but when teams are ahead they sit back and let us have the ball, and we can't do much. Our wins against likes of Brighton involve moments of individual brilliance and some very short passing moves, not from great build up. I am seeing a more rigid version of Ole ball at the moment. Its certainly better than last season but when the bar is our worst run of form since 1931 its not really that hard.
 
stepic said:
Literally anything but a win and all the Amorim haters come crawling out of their holes. It’s kinda hilarious tbh.
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This is a very odd post. Did you think his doubters were converted after a 3 game run?

We have a team that should be finishing in the top 6 considering we only play once a week. There’s been improvement but it’s not like Amorim has been exceeding expectations this season.

While he’s improved in some areas, we still can’t keep stop conceding goals at a high rate, his in game management is really poor and he boxes himself and the team in with his insistence on never changing his formation. There’s nothing hilarious about the criticism he receives.
 
I don‘t see why some are criticizing Amorim’s subs so hard. Who could we have brought on that would have made an impact?

To be clear, I would have subbed off Šeško for Zirkzee, in addition to taking off Dalot. There‘s no big chance that would have worked better though.

We were creating chances to equalize and win the game, so I think Amorim called it right, or at least it wasn‘t a bad call.

Overall, we didn‘t play great, but weren‘t bad. A while ago we would have been bullied off the pitch, instead we competed and stayed in the game despite conceding two easy goals.

Going forward, I don‘t want to see Dalot start, and Šeško was poor as well. I‘d give Mount or Zirkzee a start.
 
He keeps on picking, Dalot. That was a bang average performance. We are porous at the back. Not great from, Amorim.
 
The drop off from casa to ugarte or mainoo was likely too big to ignore when a goal down and forest playing counter-attack game. Maz came on to shut off odoi free runs at defence. Dorgu helped. amorim should have brought on zirkzee as striker to try something different. NF mf had a good game, with ref card averse against us. As stated previously we need to work on plan B when chasing a game.
 
Rex Banner said:
Is it any weirder than thinking he'll win a league or Champions League? What has he shown for you to have any faith he'll be a success?
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Missing the point mate. I have no idea whether he'll win a league or Champions League - it's the notion that even if he did it wouldn't make you happy cos of 3 centre halves that is the weird thing.
 
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
Now this I'd agree with. But again, it's a massive improvement on five weeks ago nevermind last season.

I think the next three or four games will tell us whether this recent run has been an anamoly or the start of something bigger.

My biggest issue is that it still feels like we're two bad results from a crisis and a defeat next week going into the international break shifts the conversation again.

That being said, if we win next week, I think he deserves an additional element of trust from the board and fans and probably moves the dial drastically away from crisis mode and more into how can we improve the squad from a position of strength as opposed to desperation.
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Totally agree. It’s all a bit fragile confidence at the moment. We definitely need moments to go for us in the next few games.

But we are definitely way better than last season and the beginning of this season.
 
Ish said:
Really, really want this to work out for the team, and him. I'm not flip flopping on a day's result as I actually think, Ange aside, going to Forest will be a difficult place for teams this season (assuming they maintain this 'Dyche' type intensity). I've just never warmed to this formation or his 'in game management' style. Comes across way too conservative for a United manager, IMO (and not to mention, stubborn).

But when it comes to him as a manager/what he's identified as issues in the team and what he says - he's had my backing since basically day 1.
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Jim Beam said:
Slightly dissapointing but that is also because of the way we looked at times against Brighton/Sunderland when we where playing some electrifying stuff (to his credit). We dropped our intensity a bit and it was obvious as soon as the game started. He recognized it and said about in the post conference as well. A bit strange we did it as we have only 1 game per week, so we shouldn't have problem with it. Think we will see that back against Spurs though. 2 other slight problems are that we were on our back foot at times and that we often do that once we have the lead.

Overall, he is hitting some obvious targets for me now. We do look better, more cohesive and far more threatening this season. Also, by the look of things we made OT a very difficult place to come again for away teams. In battle for Europe/CL... Wheather we can translate our form to away games and wheather we can actually be a top, top team under him will be mostly answered by the end of this season. And he earned the right to answer those questions without constant threat of sacking at this point unless some monemental collapse happens which doesn't some likely.
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Agree with both of these posts so not going to add much else.

I think it’s clear Amorim is making mistakes and by his own admission is still learning. The club accepted this when they got him and have a long term plan in mind.

This team, and the manager, will frustrate us but what’s important is the overall trajectory is upwards rather than down.
 
If we were given a one goal headstart in all our games this season we'd only be 5 points better off compared to where we are now. Plus avoided our Grimbsy embarrassment in the cup (which is damning in itself)

If our opponents got a one goal headstart, we'd have lost 8 points and be just above the relegation zone.

Keep the goals out at the back and we will be ok
 
It's vital he gets something out of the next couple of fixtures with ACON looming. Losing Amad and Mbuemo is going to be a nightmare.
 
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