Amorim tactical rigidity not the problem – Manchester United players ‘are knowingly failing to perform’

Ruben Amorim is tactically rigid but players should be able to learn new formations and styles easily. This Manchester United squad is too ‘arrogant’.

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Make it make sense
By all that is holy, how the hell do United not have any midfielders or defenders in the worst XI of the weekend??? And how bad do those others have to have been that someone thinks Casemiro and Martinez were better?

Or are F365 just being nice to us and don’t want to kick a dying dog? So many questions but it’s the pity I can’t take.

Happy new year everyone
Steve (ex-Flixton Red), Ontario

Discipline, not punishment
The issues with the playing staff in footballing terms are clear and obvious but are merely symptomatic of a fundamental lack of discipline at Manchester United.

Don’t conflate this with punishment. Hauling off players early, sacking managers, banishing players to the reserves or stands is punishment, not discipline.

Discipline is consistently doing the right things in the right way, whatever tasks are required. Discipline builds values which build behaviours which become habits.

The behaviours and habits at Old Trafford are the issue.

A lack of discipline is the cause but it appears that punishment is being used instead of tackling the core issue.

Any team, regardless of the sport, can’t have complacency, can’t have selfishness and can’t lose their accountability. Manchester United currently have all three.

This is going to get worse before it gets better.
Eoin (it’s not rocket surgery) Ireland. 

Learning new formations and playing styles and adapting to them quickly should be easily achievable for professional footballers.

Man Utd are paying these players handsomely so by definition they are not amateurs, nobody is holding down a second job to pay the bills.

The combination of players extensive coaching and training, their experience, and the football environment they operate in from a young age all contribute to making the learning of new formations and playing styles not just achievable but expected at the professional level.

Switching formations should be possible during actual matches, it should never require structural and strategic change to the club itself in order to be implemented so this is not a valid excuse with which to beat the Man Utd ownership or the team management.

This is the fault of players who are knowingly failing to perform to the minimum levels required of professional athletes and employees. It is a clear example of arrogant and obstructive behaviour.

Such blatant obtusenees wouldn’t be tolerated by any other employer, not even by a local pub league team.
Eoin (Interested to see just how far Man Utd will fall) Ireland

MORE ON THE MANCHESTER UNITED MESS FROM F365
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👉 Amorim must stop copying ‘shamelessly negligent’ relegated manager and be more like O’Neill

Give Ruben a chance
“If Amorim is finally going to change the system why not change to the 4-3-3 that this squad is used to playing, and maximizes what ever talents this squad possesses?” It’s like being in the twilight zone.

This is the main reason it didn’t work for Ten Hag, bending his own footballing philosophy to suit an underachieving rag tag bunch of players gathered by previous managers. And instead of using the transfer windows to row back to his tried and trusted approach, he doubled down and ran with a different approach but ultimately couldn’t make it work.

Amorim was brought in to implement his system. If we have to eat some sh*t pie until he gets a fair crack at it then so be it. Pass out the spoons (forks?) and sup it up – give him some time to build a team before judging whether he is capable of making us challengers again.

As bad as he was the other night, and he was poor, Zirkzee did not deserve to be heckled off. The change was correct, as we needed more legs in mf, but he wasn’t alone in being poor so it wasn’t the right way to react, as frustrated as we all felt. And we wonder why players often look low in confidence ffs, that’s hardly going to make him play better is it?

So strap your big boy and girl pants on and let the boss get on with it. He has a belief in a system and it will take time to get right. Whoever eventually does crack the seemingly impossible code that is post-Fergie’s Utd will not do it overnight.

Here’s to a happy 2025 one and all!
Garey Vance, MUFC

Poisoned chalice? Pah
About 5 or 6 years after fergie retired and it became clear united of old had died and had been replaced (at all levels) by a wish version of itself in conversation with a friend I said that it would be hard to get a good manager to come to United because it’s essentially an unsolvable problem.

If you’re a young manager it would ruin your momentum and an established one would see his reputation in tatters. That’s literally happened to every manager.

But last night I realised, United is actually the best job in world football..it used to be chelsea. You might wondering what size of ketamine line I snorted before coming to that conclusion.. but let me explain.

In the past, a Chelsea manager, got paid well almost always walked away with a trophy or two and never got the blame because Roman essentially assassinated managers for no reason most of the time. And then you walked away with an even bigger payday. Successes were yours and failures were blamed on the club, owner and system.

Now the same can be said of United. Young or old, no matter what level of manager you are you will be well paid for minimum of two years, when it all falls apart (it definitely will) there are multiple different things which will protect your reputation. Players with no heart or discipline, probably the worst club management structure since that guy bought Portsmouth for a quid, a rickety stadium which contained a venemous fan base whom you cannot ever please because they’re trapped in the past. And then you’ll get fired, take a huge payday and walk away from the job after two years being able to say to future employers it wasn’t your fault because the club is schizophrenic top to bottom.

Quite a few also walk away with trophies , van gaal, Jose, Eth all walked away with at least a trophy.

It’s probably the best job in world football. Amorim could play onana up front and put Martinez in goal lose 4-0 all season gets fired with a £7m payday and when he says “can anyone else do better? That club is unmanageable” would anyone disagree?
Lee

Manchester United’s season write-off
The press’s laser focus on Manchester United’s loss (and not Newcastle United’s win) is a bit frustrating to this adopted Geordie, but it’s hardly surprising. It’s even forgiveable, as it appears that the Red Devils’ slow-motion, lurching, decade-long fall from the pinnacle — and perhaps more importantly, its position at the heart — of English football might finally be coming to the kind of ruinous end that’s more or less required for any phoenix narrative.

During the second half of the match, my son was speculating that Amorim — who as far as either of us can tell has actually made ManU worse — might face a quick sacking, but I don’t think he will. Those Manchester United supporters blaming him for the downturn in form are not wrong, in that the squad is and always was clearly unsuited to the system he’s so committed to playing, he’s willing to lose. However, it’s frankly unbelievable that Ratliffe and whoever else made the decision to hire him would not have understood that a complete squad rebuild would have to precede any hope of real success, above all under Ruben Amorim. Indeed, it would certainly have been in Amorim’s best interests to make that clear during the interview and hiring process.

So it seems to me that the board wrote this season off when they hired Amorim, and will ignore results until relegation becomes a clear risk. But the fact is that a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad December has already brought them almost to that point, with next Sunday holding little promise of points at Anfield. I imagine everybody at ManU is happy that the Arsenal match after that is in the FA Cup, not the league. By the time Southampton come to town, ManU may have unloaded a perceived waster or two and added an actual wingback. In any event, that match is starting to look like a six-pointer.

Newcastle, by contrast, had a rather good, very decent, nearly excellent December and are back roughly where we belong, and I have to stop being pleased when Forest win. Eddie Howe — who it must be said has evidently relieved all that pressure on him —has got the squad purring right now. As a Newcastle supporter, I have never gone into a match at Old Trafford with anything remotely like confidence. Until Monday, that is. I predicted 0-3, and twenty minutes in, it wasn’t hard to imagine repeating that 1996 5-0 at St. James.

Mainoo’s introduction certainly solved a problem with the team’s set-up, but it didn’t end Newcastle’s dominance. I was disappointed when we took our foot off the pedal, though it was certainly cagey game (and player) management against a team that seldom looked like scoring. Anybody else noticing that after months of being pulled by the 70th, Tonali is now going 90 minutes most every match? And Lewis Hall seems to get better every time he plays; he’s the secret sauce that lets a defensive pairing of Burn and Schar post clean sheets in four consecutive league matches.

January is unlikely to be a big month for Newcastle. I’d love to free some PSR room with some player sales, but the players we don’t mind selling aren’t worth a lot. Almiron is likely to go to MLS for not much money. Trippier, too, might exit for a pittance. Our best bet at significant money to spend is a rumored sale of Dubravka to Saudi, but given his form right now, I might prefer him between the sticks to Pope. Even selling Miggy and Trippier seems risky, if we can’t buy replacements. Some club would be smart to make an offer for Joe Willock, but there seems to be little interest.

Whatever else PSR, FFP, et al may or may not achieve, one thing is sure: they’ve made transfer windows a heck of a lot less exciting.
Chris C, Toon Army DC

One big difference
A “metric” I read on these hallowed pages and others is how a top team does against the rest of the big boys and against the rest of the pack.  Whether it’s a big four or six or eight, you hear different arguments like “They drew a lot of big games, but they won against the teams they should be beating” or “All the big teams did about the same vs. the 11-20 spots so it came down to who won the most in the head-to-head matches.”

One thing about being Manchester United or Liverpool or Arsenal that stands out though is how we have more than one big rival.  Manchester United have City and Liverpool; Liverpool have Everton too.  Nouveau riche teams like Manchester City and Chelsea have only one real rival with United and Arsenal respectively.  It’s especially challenging for Liverpool with Everton because it’s a team any other team “should be beating” at this low ebb in their storied history.

With Manchester United, Klopp won 7, drew 9, and lost 5.  This was a period that was better than now, but the “big rival” factor played its part in Klopp playing down to the opposition.  With Everton, Klopp’s issue was too many draws (6 out of 17 games I believe).  Without checking, I suspect Manchester City, Chelsea, and Arsenal did a bit better.

What I like about Slot is that his teams, while a bit less exciting, seem to play to a standard like a machine vs. playing with their emotions lifting them, but also dropping them at times.  Blood and guts, thunder and lightning football works against most teams, but not against your biggest rivals who are also well up for the matches.  While anything can happen on Sunday, I feel much more confident that we’ll hit our standard vs. United with Slot at the wheel.

After Sunday, I wish Manchester United fans a happy 2025 with more success than they’ve had this year.  The league is better with them near the top.  They are a great rival compared to Manchester City or Chelsea where it all feels a bit artificial and built up.  2019-20 was brilliant even with COVID, but beating something so rigged, however satisfying, isn’t the same as beating a long-time rival.  I suppose it’s like committing tax fraud and getting a few grand more back than you deserve.  Sure it feels good, but I’d rather just live in a country that’s fair where my successes and failures are my own and not due to a system designed to extract from the many to provide more than the few could ever need.

Both clubs playing on Sunday surely have tossers in their ranks, but on the whole, there is nothing better than the banter and good conversations between both sets of fans as we tuck into a nice pint to put a quick end to all and any resolutions we might have made last night.  YNWA and Glory Glory – bring on Sunday!
Niall, Annapolis

Ange in (for now)
Dr Oyvind, Earth, is right about us over at Spurs. He hits the nail on the head that Ange may not be the right manager but he is the right type. That’s why Spurs fans are generally still supportive of a man who has the team in what is at best mid-table form over the past year. There is absolutely no point sacking Ange and pivoting again to someone defensive or risk-averse who will undo what good work Ange actually has achieved.

But as I see it, there is another issue on the pitch that has been woefully unaddressed for too long. There are no leaders in this squad. There’s nobody there who will keep everyone calm, gee up the youngsters and put the ‘wiser’ heads back into shape. Our captain is Son Heung-Min, who has undoubtedly been a brilliant player for us, but is a quiet lead-by-professionalism kind of guy. He sets a good example, but he’s not setting anyone straight. Romero is calmer now than many seem to have realised in the media, but he’s still prone to absolute madness. And who else is there? This is a team that is absolutely crying out for Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg back again, and there’s not a Spurs fan in the country who wouldn’t sell their grandmother for Alderweireld and Vertonghen back in their 2016 pomp.

What we’re missing is in the infamous intangibles. Until we have some real strength of character on the pitch again, we won’t be successful.
Harry, THFC (Iraola is either the next messiah or the next De Zerbi, but if Ange goes he’s my pick)

I enjoyed Dr Oyvind’s lengthy missive about Tottenham and I guess he must know much more about this than I will ever do but I couldn’t help but laugh when he said that Redknapp fitted the ‘Tottenham way’.

What he didn’t do is define what the ‘Tottenham way’ is. I’ve 40 years of watching under my belt and I have no idea what this is, as they don’t win anything or consistently challenge for any trophies. There is no style which defines them.

If ‘Tottenham way’ is failure then they have nailed it, so they should not be complaining about the manager or the owners or anything else.

Happy New Year.
Adam, LFC, Montreal

Good knight
English Knighthood? I don’t know about that but if Ireland did knighthoods, they should give him one. Totally convinced England would’ve won a major tournament over the last ten years if it wasn’t for Southgate.
Seamus, Sweden