Merson predicts Man Utd battering after Ipswich as pundits rails against ‘unconvincing’ Amorim system

Paul Merson believes Man Utd will be “destroyed by four or five goals” if they fail to improve after Ruben Amorim’s first two games in charge.

Ruben Amorim’s first game in charge of the Red Devils finished 1-1 at Portman Road last weekend, with Marcus Rashford’s early opener cancelled out by Omari Hutchinson.

The Portuguese boss got his first win against Bodo/Glimt, but Merson believes a battering at the hands of the Gunners is coming on Wednesday if United don’t up their game, with Everton on Sunday offering them a chance to hone their craft in Amorim’s 3-4-3 system that’s yet to convince the pundit.

“I think even Ruben Amorim was shocked by what happened [against Ipswich],” Merson told Sportskeeda. “If they don’t start winning games, Amorim will have to start answering a lot more questions whether he likes it or not.

“That is just how big this club is and how the Premier League is in a nutshell. I’m not entirely convinced about Manchester United’s new system under Amorim.

“After a point in that game, you would’ve thought Ipswich were the bigger club and not United, that’s how it went.

“You could say everyone was away on international duty, and he did not have enough time. But if that performance was against one of the big boys in the league, Manchester United would have been destroyed by four or five goals!”

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Owen Hargreaves agrees that United could come a cropper against Arsenal without “two super-athletes” as his midfield pairing.

“I think they’ve got a lot of good players. Do they have the players capable of winning the Premier League or Champions League? Probably not. That’s going to take time to sort the recruitment out,” Hargreaves told TNT Sports.

“The most important thing is that they get results. Obviously Everton at the weekend is a tough game but at home you’d expect them [United] to win that game.

“Tough fixtures, especially the Arsenal one coming up after that, but they need to find a way to get results. Today they didn’t play brilliantly but they found a way to win the game which is the most important thing.

“I don’t think he has the personnel that he had at Sporting.

“I think if you’re going to play two in there [midfield], they need to be two super-athletes and cover the distances.

“I’m not sure they have that as such. I think they’ve got some really good players, different players but he might have to tweak it that maybe one of the No.10s drops in and one of the wing-backs gets a little bit higher for the width.

“But I think playing two in there against an Arsenal or a [Manchester] City, I think that’s going to be really, really difficult.

“I think it’s a work in progress, we need to be patient but we’re getting there.”