Ruben Amorim ‘asking for’ sack with Man Utd tactics v 10-man Everton

Editor F365 25 Nov 2025 8:21 AM

Ruben Amorim after defeat to Everton

Just when you thought Liverpool were the biggest mess, Manchester United have stepped up (or down) again. Ruben Amorim sack, is it?

The Premier League is fascinating right now. Send your views to theeditor@football365.com before the Champions League takes over.

Sack Ruben Amorim…now

I’d sack him now. He had a false dawn but tonight was the worst and against 10 men. Not a clue.
Tony Clarke

…After this performance I am questioning Amorim again. This defeat feels worse than some of the others. Everton down to 10 men for most of the game and were still the better team. Still playing 5 at the back when you are a man up?? Amorim’s substitutions are always suspect.

Every time we get near 4th or 5th we buckle and this one is on Amorim. How can you play with 5 at the back against 10 men and still lose the first ball 90 percent of the time? I’m really really disappointed tonight. What was it Einstein said about doing the same thing over and over again?
Kenneth, Dublin

…He’s just asking for it. A year on, Dalot at left wingback, when chasing a goal, against a 10 man David Moyes team. I don’t understand why it would or could work. Sure, not many other options, other then Shaw, who has scored In a Euro final.
Zdravko

No chance Amorim wins anything at Man Utd

Having watched United after ten or so games I was honestly expecting at least a slight upgrade to the absolute shambles that was last season. And frankly I can’t comprehend how we won the last few matches that we did. Once again, no definite style of play and no basic in-game strategies. A very basic for a decent coach.

No changes in formation to deal with the situational change after twenty minutes. But I guess it would have been foolhardy to expect anything such.

Midfielders playing as forwards, and defenders as wingers, again.

Absolutely no heart from any player, no desire to fight it out. Fernandes must be the worst captain we’ve ever had.

No confidence in any of the players still on the bench.

And I could go on.

Am just wondering how we have managed to end up having to endure something like this for the next three years. Insane!
Saby, Reading

Jamie Carragher is captain obvious

Good to see Jamie (bloody) Carragher out in full force again, after Utd lose, blaming the manager and system. “This is a bad night for the manager”; indeed it is. But it’s also a bad night for all of the players who didn’t play particularly well, and all of us supporters who had to struggle through that. Thanks captain obvious.

Although, of course losing 3-0 at home to a team in the relegation zone is a great day out for a manager whose system is (apparently) without flaw, and only needs to spend another half a billion in January – according to our Jamie. How is that system working for you Jamie?

Honestly, give me a quarter of his salary and I will give you better insight than him, will guarantee you better perspective than a half-burnt paper bag floating in the wind, and will generally just be better craic. “Forced fun” you say? It’s not my fault this guy has set the bar so low.

Bad result for Utd, we struggled to break down a resolute Everton. We didn’t carry the ball well enough, and Pickford made few decent saves. But that’s football. Some days it just doesn’t happen.
Garey Vance, MUFC

Man Utd: Armless

My brother, who was at Old Trafford tonight, simply texted me shortly after the match “tis but a scratch”.

Perfect.
Adam (it’s all looking rather Eze) Gooner in France

Tag Man Utd in…

Rock and Sock Connection. Harlem Heat. The New Age Outlaws. Degeneration X.

One of the finest sights in 90s sports (entertainment) was a wrestler taking masses of punishment, only to tag in their partner who then proceeded to take on all comers before ultimately taking the beating themselves. The odd chair shot or referee distraction was not out of place in the chaos.

Cue Man United, giving our scouse brethren a well earned rest. We’ll take it from here lads…
Parm, Gravesend

Let’s all laugh at Manchester United

Delectable.

Go on an unbeaten run just long enough to offer their fans some hope, hope that it might just be turning.

Then stink the place out against 10 man Everton at home and lose.

You can always rely on them to cheer you up when it comes to the crunch.
Andy H, Swansea

…Thank God of football that brings Man Utd back to crisis clubs, we welcome you back with open arms and your seat has not been occupied. Tottenham, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Leeds Utd tried to fits in but it is too big for us. If Man Utd not remember to be shit again how can I survive the whole week of different missiles from rival that will be throwing at Liverpool.
Mudashiru LFC, Ibadan (welcome back Man Utd this is your rightful throne plus this shit palace)

Football > cricket

I was very, very depressed after the cricket over the weekend.

I am now very, very not depressed.
Aidan, EFC, Hoxton

The very funny Premier League table

Never mind the fact that the other Big 5 are above Liverpool as we approach the busy Xmas period, it’s the fact that as of right now:

10 Manchester United
11 Everton
12 Liverpool

Now that is funny in anybody’s book.
Mike D (I jokingly suggested before the match Utd should lose 1nil on purpose just for the banter to make sure this happened – kudos to them)

Arsenal are the most LinkedIn football club

* There’s no getting away from it, there is something incredibly on-message about someone who supports Arsenal, the most LinkedIn of all football clubs, saying their signing of the season is their sporting director.

* It’s been the case for a long time that if you want a comment published in the BBC Sport’s live football feed, you have to make it as inane as possible, but Saturday stretched that with repeated messages of “Arne Slot must resign”. This misses the point that managers resign from jobs incredibly rarely, unless they have another job to go to, because they can stay and be paid to leave. That looks unlikely in Slot’s case because there doesn’t seem to be an obvious replacement out there for him.

It would be a bold decision on his part to leave at this very moment. The Premier League is mad this year in terms of how bunched up so many teams are. To use Crystal Palace as an example, before this season their best points return after 12 games was 19 (six wins and one draw, 2015-16), which put them in 10th place, and the only other time they’ve won as many as five games (with two draws), 2020-21, had them 11th with 17 points.

This year, with five wins (and five draws), they have 20 points and are 5th, one point behind Aston Villa in the final Champions League place. The three-point gap between Villa and Liverpool is comparable to the equivalents (final playoff place to 13th) in the Championship, League One and League Two, all of which are infamously built on shifting sands. It’s entirely conceivable that if Liverpool could turn things around in very short order and be right back in the mix for the top four. Automatic Champions League qualification would constitute a successful season (if not a successful title defence).

* Speaking of bold decisions to leave a club, Saturday saw Rob Edwards take charge of Wolves for the first time. Now, maybe it’s just me but I’ve never understood why people, and it tends to be a certain type of British manager more than most, would leave an environment where they are building something special and overachieving to move up the pecking order to a basket case club where it is incredibly likely they will fail. Graham Potter is a strong example here, leaving Brighton to go to a chaotic Chelsea where he was found to be out of his depth in fairly short order. His reputation took a hit and, following his time at West Ham, hasn’t really recovered.

Edwards, meanwhile, has just left a Middlesbrough side he got well on course for promotion to join a club looking incredibly likely to pass them going the other way. His old side have lost just two league games so far this season, his new side have lost all bar two. It will be a truly remarkable feat if Edwards can keep Wolves in the Premier League, but it’s easy to think his best chance of managing in the Premier League beyond this year would have been to stay with Boro.

* One of the reasons supporting Crystal Palace is rarely dull for long is that they keep defying expectations. That’s probably why so many of us expected them to lose to a Wolves team they should, on paper, beat comfortably. Instead, we were treated to the sort of professional performance that shouldn’t be an issue but too often is. Palace were, by some distance, the better team on Saturday afternoon and their win, combined with results elsewhere, took them temporarily to fourth in the table (they’ve since been overtaken by Aston Villa).

* During the international break the Athletic published two articles about Palace, one discussing their struggles to break down a low block and the other about how they had never won the first game back from an international break under Oliver Glasner. This, and the game against Wolves, highlight why Glasner is so well-liked amongst the fans in a way that many of his predecessors weren’t. He gets that it won’t be perfect, because it’s Palace, but he gets a lot right. He’s a planner but he’s also has good judgement about when to change the plan or when to stick to it.

The only concern fans do have is that he is exacerbating the lack of squad depth he has previously commented on by not rotating players or leaving it late to make substitutions. His first change on Saturday, Eddie Nketiah on for Jean-Philippe Mateta, was a subtle tactical shift even if it was one centre-forward for another, but a goal arrived a couple of minutes afterwards. Then, with the game at 2-0 and largely over as a contest, he waited a further 12 minutes to make any more substitutions.

It’s a minor thing, but the fresh legs in midfield being introduced straight after the goal, for example, would have sent a message to those players that they were being trusted to see out a winning position for an extended period. But as I say, it’s a very minor thing.
Ed Quoththeraven

Keep it simple on Arsenal

Amongst all the claptrap spoken about who will or won’t win the Premier League, nothing encapsulates the current situation more perfectly than those simple words from Winners & Losers: