Gary Neville reveals next ‘big job’ for Ruben Amorim after his ‘best week’ at Man Utd
Former Man Utd defender Gary Neville has revealed that Ruben Amorim has another “big job over the next couple of weeks” after guiding the Red Devils to three wins in a row.
The Red Devils won their first back-to-back Premier League matches under Amorim when they beat Liverpool last weekend and their 4-2 win over Brighton on Saturday saw them take that run of victories to three on the bounce.
Amorim has spent much of this season under pressure but those three wins saw them fly above defending champions Liverpool in the table and into fourth position.
And Neville has hailed it as Amorim’s “best week in the job” but warns the Man Utd head coach that he’s “not out of the woods yet”.
Neville told Sky Sports: “I think that it feels like his best week in the job.
“I think where we’ve all been with it, I wouldn’t have been surprised if we talked about him losing his job. I was thinking he was under massive pressure after going into the international break in October. I felt as though that change could be imminent.
“But the victory at Anfield shows you how things can turn around and then obviously this was so important today.
“He’s not out of the woods yet and it’s certainly not time to get carried away but I think Manchester United are now where they thought they probably would be.
“They’ll slip down a couple of places after the rest of the teams play and they’ll end up in sixth or seventh but that’s where I think everyone thought they would be.
“So, look, this has been a very important week for the manager and for the club and you can see the celebration at the end there was more than just a little bit of relief that, yeah, we needed this badly.
“A few weeks ago I was a little bit worried that the players didn’t believe in Ruben Amorim’s system, that maybe there was an element of them not winning matches and starting to question it, listening to the noise that all of us, including myself, had added to that.
“However, one thing that’s been absolutely not in doubt when you speak to people in and around the club is that the players really like him as a person and that does count for a lot.
“Because I think there’s no doubt he’s not lost the dressing room in terms of spirit and energy and how they feel towards him. They want to play for him, they’re desperate to win and you’ve seen that coming together a little bit in the last week.
“I mean, winning at Anfield in any season is special but for Ruben Amorim to win at Anfield when it was so unexpected, that has given them such a big lift.
“We’ll look forward to the game next week against Nottingham Forest, Tottenham away the week after. There’s still a big job to do in this month but I felt as though it was a month of reckoning. If it had started badly last week at Liverpool, it could have gone a different way.
“It feels very different, it feels like the momentum’s with them a little bit and the spirit’s good.”
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Neville reckons Amorim still needs to get the best out of Benjamin Sesko over the next couple of weeks with Mbeumo and Cunha now firing.
The Man Utd legend added: “There’s question marks over Sesko. I think he was a bigger risk as a signing. It doesn’t look like he’s quite settled in yet. It would be nice if it could start to look like a front three. It still feels like a front two, with him stood up there. I think that’s the big job over the next couple of weeks.
“It’s more than the goals; it’s the inclusion within the combinations that you see from the others. You see Bruno Fernandes and Mason Mount, who wasn’t playing today, linking very successfully with Mbeumo and Cunha. You don’t quite see Sesko being part of that mix yet.
“He’s not got up to the pace of it, with how quickly they’re playing with each other. He needs to get his game up to speed and that will only come through time. Obviously, he’s still quite young but he just needs to get there.
“He’s a big signing, and if they can become a front three, that will be huge. It still feels like a two with another guy stood up there occupying space.”
