The Guardian: Amorim Taking Over Red Devils Faces Significant Risks, His Tactics Do Not Align with Current Manchester United Squad

The Guardian: Amorim Taking Over Red Devils Faces Significant Risks, His Tactics Do Not Align with Current Manchester United Squad

Jonathan Wilson, a columnist for The Guardian, believes that taking over as the manager of Manchester United will be a significant risk for Rúben Amorim.

Wilson writes, “The club’s preferred candidate enjoys an excellent reputation, but rebuilding an incoherent squad and team culture is a daunting task.”

“Rúben Amorim, the head coach of Sporting CP, was widely expected to take over from Pep Guardiola next summer, especially after Hugo Viana, the club’s football director, was appointed as the successor to Manchester City’s football director Txiki Begiristain. However, on Monday, Amorim emerged as the top choice to replace the sacked Erik ten Hag.”

“Amorim is not Cristiano Ronaldo. When Ronaldo returned to Manchester United in 2021, his career was already in its twilight, and he did not fit into Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s favored fast counter-attacking style or Ralf Rangnick’s high-intensity pressing. Being able to let him go relatively cleanly may have been Ten Hag’s greatest achievement at Old Trafford. In contrast, Amorim is a rising coach. The 39-year-old is arguably the most promising of Portugal’s young generation of coaches, and besides being linked with Manchester City, he was also considered by Liverpool in the summer, although they ultimately chose Jurgen Klopp.”

“After ending a 19-year title drought for Sporting CP in the 2020-21 season, Amorim won the title again last season, and his team started this season with nine consecutive wins. It was originally thought that Amorim would stay until the end of the season to defend the title, a feat Sporting CP has not achieved in 70 years.”

“Idealism has become unpopular among modern coaches, and Amorim clearly has a pragmatic approach. He will adopt a low block when necessary, but his preference is for aggressive pressing. This raises an obvious question: how will he handle this Manchester United? Ten Hag also arrived here with a reputation for high pressing, but had to make major adjustments after losing the first two matches. The message was clear: you cannot press with Ronaldo, and you cannot play a high defensive line with De Gea.”

“Even after these two left, Ten Hag’s team never convincingly pressed. There were often individual players chasing the ball alone, leading to Manchester United’s ‘doughnut’ phenomenon: half the team pressing high for possession, half the team defending deep, leaving a huge gap for opponents to exploit. Casemiro and Christian Eriksen are no longer capable of high-intensity pressing, Menno is only 18 and it is unreasonable to expect him to shoulder tactical responsibilities, and Ugarte has just arrived and seems (understandably) bewildered by the chaos around him.”

“Whether at Braga or Sporting CP, Amorim’s preference has been the 3-4-3 formation, although he interprets it in two ways. The more common variant features two mobile central midfielders, recently Morten Thorsby and Yuta Nagatomo, positioned in front of three center-backs—this is a shortcut used by coaches to combat counterattacks with a 3-2 defensive diamond. This system places high demands on the wing-backs as offensive threats. It was in this system that Pedro Porro (now at Tottenham) first truly caught people’s attention.”

“But while Manchester United has many players who can attack from wide positions behind the striker—Rashford, Diallo, or Garnacho could excel in such roles—none of them look like natural wing-backs. And in this system, Bruno Fernandes does not have an obvious position.”

“If Amorim takes the job, this might force him to adopt his other option in the short term: a 3-4-3 with a diamond midfield. At the base of the diamond is a player who can effectively drop back to form a back four, with two players who can run up and down on either side, and at the top of the diamond is a Bruno Fernandes-style player, with two wingers behind the striker. It is not unreasonable to point out that a diamond midfield formed by Casemiro, Menno, Ugarte, and Bruno Fernandes looks unstable, but currently, there may be no reasonable combination of Manchester United’s midfielders.”

“This is the problem, whoever takes over. This is an expensive squad assembled without a clear effect. Which pieces should fit together? What is the underlying philosophy? This is why extending Ten Hag’s contract looks so costly; not only his salary or the compensation he received, but the £200 million spent on players this summer, clearly intended to fit the system Ten Hag believed he could impose.”

“Not only is this squad so incoherent, but it has now become accustomed to managerial changes, thus resisting the implementation of authority. There is a culture that needs to change. Rebuilding Manchester United is a massive task, and recently, this task has been devouring managers. Manchester United is still Manchester United, and there is a certain appeal to being the one who gets everything running again, but for a rising coach, it is also a significant risk. If Amorim has other options, he should seriously consider them.”

The Guardian: Amorim Taking Over Red Devils Faces Significant Risks, His Tactics Do Not Align with Current Manchester United Squad. Author:Sports UEFA.Please indicate the source when reproduced:https://www.sportsuefa.com/football-world/the-guardian-amorim-taking-over-red-devils-faces-significant-risks-his-tactics-do-not-align-with-current-manchester-united-squad.html

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