Six Manchester United stars ‘suit’ Amorim philosophy but some ‘key players are choosing not to’

Six Manchester United players have been named as ‘suiting’ what Ruben Amorim wants to do, but ‘for some reason key players are choosing not to’ listen.

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Problem solved
Don’t worry United fans, your saviour has finally realised the biggest problem at the club.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a billionaire with more money than you or your ancestors combined will ever earn or be worth, the sage we knew he would turn out to be.

Some Man utd players not good enough and are overpaid.

So wise. He really saw the true issue no one had noticed.

I’m assuming he couldn’t be accusing any players bought during his tenure, billionaires don’t make mistakes you see.
Will

Baby steps
Is anyone else getting George Graham vibes from the happiness at “1-0 to the Ar-sen-al” style play from their fans? Very nostalgic. Hopefully United will dredge up some nostalgic attacking before the end of the season.

So, on to that. There was an interesting mail about how Amorim should stick to his guns, and I don’t entirely disagree; we’re in for a penny, so it might as well be a pound.

Thing is, the argument about the players not suiting the style isn’t really true. Dalot *can* drive, cross and pass perfectly well. So can Garnacho for that matter. Mazra certainly can, and he also knows what Højlund looks like having assisted him earlier this season (it was this season, right? It feels like a year ago). Ugarte suits it fine. Mainoo and Amad do when they’re back.

The issue is that for some reason key players are choosing not to. Or at least, up until now.

Last match showed some signs that maybe the Amorim coaching has moved on to the crossing section. There was even a pass in to Højlund, although it was swiftly shut down by a team known for their defence. But that it even happened is maybe a glimmer of the dawn of a hope.

Bruno scored so naturally it glosses over the other issues for a game but there was a moment when he was on the ball and he’d usually give it away on a hopeful pass, but actually didn’t. So that’s positive too! Wow!

Now they just need to do it – and critically remember they they have a striker who’s job it is to feed chances – against every other team than Arsenal, Liverpool and City.

Let’s end with a prediction. 4-0 against Sociedad, Højlund hattrick, and Garnacho to score one off his ass. You heard it here first.
Badwolf

Lost in translation
People are getting very lost when it comes to the Amorim debate at United. It’s not just fans, pundits and so called experts are also missing the point. Where they’re getting lost is the difference between formation, system and style.

In the PL we see 4 formations used regularly. 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 and 3-4-3. This is literally the basic structure and most players are capable of playing in any of these. In fact, in many instances, all 4 can look very similar when a team is attacking or defending.

The system is a lot more complicated. This is how the players move within this formation. How they defend, attack and transition between the 2. It is the tactical plan, seen in paterns of attacking play or how opposition attacks are broken down.

Style is the overall philosophy. Be it possession based or counter attack, slow and thoughtful low intensity football or high intensity ‘heavy metal’.

I explain this to point out that it is not, nor ever has been, the formation or system that’s the issue at United. Changing the formation would have little to no impact on results. As for the system, given time the players can learn. The issues arise due to the mismatched squad not being suited to any particular style.

All top level managers/head coaches are capable of coaching their chosen formation and to a certain extent their system to any player. It’s what got them to the top. What no manager can do is coach players to fit all styles. No one can coach an adult player lacking the required stamina and speed to press with intensity, for example. You either have these traits or you do not.

This is where a good DoF is needed. They choose the style of play they want, they should then hire a manager who shares that philosophy and sign players to suit that style and the managers system. This way if the manager doesn’t work out you just hire another manager who fits the style. Tweaks may be needed to make the squad suitable to this new managers formation or system but it should only be tweaks. All this requires a plan though, put in place by the owners and CEO. This is where the Glazers have royally screwed the pooch. There was never any plan.

Within the last 12 years United have had so many different managers, with very different styles, that the squad, as a whole, cannot perform any modern style of football. There are a group of players within the squad such as Maguire and Casemiro who are suited to a low block defensive style, but others within the midfield/attack such as Erikson and Zirkzee who are not suited to the quick transitions this approach requires. They are more suited to a slower possession based approach, but this requires a higher line which in turn requires a more intense press, which few of the defenders are suited to.

So ultimately, no matter what style United play it won’t work because you will always have half the team struggling to adapt to it. The only way to fix this is to actually give a manager time so him and a DoF can build a squad capable of playing a particular style regardless of the formation or system. I still maintain this could have been EtH but it definitely should be Amorim.

Amorim certainly shouldn’t change his formation, it won’t improve results. Having watched all Amorims games I can see little tweeks to the system being implemented from game to game whether due to the opposition or the players available, as all top managers do. But the biggest issue is style, which as I’ve said, we do not have the squad to implement his or any other style successfully. What he should and actually is doing is look at all the players at his disposal in order to figure out which ones can do it. Because some have to do it for the next 3-5 years whilst the squad is rebuilt. A 25 man squad cannot be built in one summer after all.

What should not be allowed to happen is the rinse and repeat cycle we have been in for over a decade where the hierarchy bows to the pressure and sacks a manager before the squad is capable of performing their style successfully. We can’t sit here and say it will take 5 years to fix and then complain when it hasnt been fixed after 18 months and sack the manager within 30 months. Everyone involved with the club, from the owners to the fans, need to realise this and have the bottle to see it through. At least then we will have some stability and success should follow.
Richard, Manchester

MORE ON THE RATCLIFFE INTERVIEWS ON F365
👉 ‘Do you?!’ – Neville baffled by Ratcliffe’s Amorim assessment amid Man Utd ‘salary bill’ whataboutery
👉 Sir Jim Ratcliffe: Fact-checking the Man Utd co-owner’s interview bullsh*t

The surgery needs to be finished
I think 99% of sensible United fans agreed with Rangnick that the squad desperately needed open heart surgery. And as Noj correctly points out, a huge number of players have left United.

The trick with the surgery is you have to finish it. I think rather than open heart surgery Rangnick meant a transplant. So far, the INEOS doctors have successfully taken out the problem heart (largely) but haven’t put much back in yet.

I’ve had a couple emails (thanks!) published during ETH’s reign that fans were missing the issue with United’s spending: despite p*ssing half a billion up the proverbial wall, they only brought in a very small number of players. And when that small number includes Antony, Mount, Eriksen and Casemiro – all essentially non-players at this stage – you see the problem.

INEOS have made the right noises: sign more, younger players and if they’re not up to it in 2 years get rid. Let’s see what happens with Yoro/Dorgu/Heaven/Obi etc.
Ryan, Bermuda (Seriously, where is Mason Mount? Minor knock in December?)

Inzaghi shows the way
There’s a lot of talk surrounding Amorim and his system, whether he should bend it to the players or stick to it rigidly. I think much of this is because he plays a back 3, which is not currently en vogue in the upper reaches of the Premier League. However, there is a very successful coach over the last decade or so that’s been doing something very similar… Simone Inzaghi.

Inzaghi, like Amorim, plays a back 3. The idea of the system is that the wingbacks are multi-functional. They can effectively be wingers if you’re looking to attack, or can drop into play as full backs in a back 5 if you want to sit into a low block (something United have actually done well). The wingbacks are integral to the system and must be good in both directions, which Dumfries and Di Marco are.

With that defensive structure in place, the other five positions vary in their roles depending on the opposition, the game state etc. We’re seeing this at United, with Bruno sometimes operating as a 10, or sometimes deeper to make use of his passing range. Sometimes Hojlund starts with Zirkzee, who plays more like a second striker than a number 10. The manager then makes heavy use of rotation and substitutions to allow the team to run hard and alter the game mid-match. Inzaghi is famed for this in Italy and one of the things that’s been most noticeable about Amorim so far is willingness to change things around, for the better, mid game (let’s just set the fact we’ve invariably been wank from the kick off to one side for now).

For what he’s trying to do, I’m not sure you could have started out with a group of players less suited to delivering it than he’s inherited at United. However, his system is only rigid in so far as the back three, with the rest more fluid than many would have you believe. It’s also a system that is being used at a high level (Italy is still better than Portugal as a league and Inter are the best they’ve got) so he’s not some crackpot loon flying solo on this idea.

Will it work long term? Don’t know. Better to have a plan and try and execute it rather than have no plan at all which has been most of the last 20 years. So I remain cautiously optimistic.
Lewis, Busby Way

READ NEXT: Man Utd co-owner Ratcliffe reveals that he ‘likes’ it when Amorim tells him to ‘f**k off’

Is it just an excuse?
The almost daily dominance of the mailbox due to the sh*tshow that is Man U has now been replaced by a daily Arsenal discussion. Now I know statistics don’t always tell the full story and can often be manipulated to serve an agenda, but something has got me a little baffled and maybe the Arsenal fanbase can help me.

Bukayo Saka (a very, very good player) is listed as having made 16 Premier League appearances this season, if I assume that this is the first 16 then the following appears to be true.  In those 16 games. Arsenal failed to win 8 of them, 6 draws and 2 defeats, or 50%, in the subsequent 12 games, they have drew 4 and lost 1, or 41%.  They scored an average of 1.81 goals per game with him, but 1.91 without. They conceded .93 goals per game with and only .66 without.

So statistically, Arsenal have performed better without him. I realise that the “quality” of the opposition will have had an effect but it really does look as if the injury(s) have masked where the real problems exist and are being used as justification for Arsenal once again failing to amass enough points to win a title.
Howard (they were never getting 90+) Jones 

Underachieving Pep
That Ian Hewison is absolutely right when he says ‘’people don’t talk enough about how much Guardiola has underachieved given the resources at his disposal.”

Where was the opprobrium when he only managed a paltry FOUR PL Titles (and a Treble) in the five seasons between 2019/20 and 2023/24, a period where City with their UNLIMITED FUNDS had the 10th highest Net Spend Premier League?

And if that wasn’t bad enough, this season will be the second time in eight years where the Bald Fraud hasn’t managed to win the Premier League.

I’m so disgruntled that I’m seriously considering purchasing a large felt tip pen and writing ‘PEP OUT!’ on a public convenience wall.
Michael The Bert

Snowflake XI
Now that Football365 has gone all woke and that, I thought I’d do a ‘Football365 Has Gone All Woke and That XI’.

And here it is.

GK: Petr Cech
DF: Pascal Chimbonda
DF: Pascal Cygan
DF: Philippe Cristanval
MF: Paul Cannell
MF: Paul Cook
MF: Philippe Coutinho
FW: Pierluigi Casiraghi
FW: Peter Crouch
FW: Papiss Cisse
FW: Efan Ekwokeu

Man: Philippe Clement.

Obviously, I came up with Efan Ekwokeu first and wanted to do a team of players with puns on ‘woke’, but I couldn’t think of any more. You get what you pay for.
Alex Stokoe, Newcastle upon Tyne