Having replaced Erik ten Hag as the manager at Manchester United, Ruben Amorim is showing great faith in his own skills and methods. Yet to take charge of the team in a match, he has, of course, spoken to the media already and his words have given an indication of what may be expected at the start of his tenure at Old Trafford.
Naturally, the reporters were anxious for the 39-year-old to give them a hint of the way he’ll set his team up for the upcoming matches, but quite understandably, he was rather reluctant to talk about that too much. He played down the talk of formations and systems and insisted that the focus will be on the spirit and character of the players representing Manchester United, still the only club with 20 league titles in England, despite the notable decline since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson.
“A lot of people now talk about the 3-4-3 and the 4-3-3 and all that stuff,” Amorim said. “But when I think of Manchester United, it is not a system of formation, it’s like the character of the players, the way they see the club.
“So we have to focus on that: how we play, how we press. The most important thing for me at this moment is to create the principles, the identity and the character that we had in the past. If you work as a team then the talent, individually, is going to shine. But if I have to explain the importance of everything, it is the character, the way we fight, the way we play, and we must have an identity.
“If our players take the shirt, they will know that it is the Manchester United team. Everybody thinks the same, running back, playing, enjoying. This is what drives me. I can say the popular thing, which is [I want] to win. Everybody wants to win and I want to win with my players, with the fans, but with an identity and one idea. That is the thing that I am focused on all the time.”
Looking back at the way things were under Ten Hag, especially towards the end of the Dutchman’s reign, United fans will surely find Amorim’s words encouraging, providing he sticks to them when the battles start. Earlier this season, many had noticed that United had no identity, even the former stars of the club currently working as pundits. It was hard to tell which way they wanted to play, what the idea was against a particular opponent. It led to some hugely disappointing results, from the pair of 0-3 thrashings at the hands of rivals Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, to failing to win any of their opening three Europa League fixtures.
With all that in mind, it’s surely good for the Red Devils that Amorim wants to instil an identity into the team, and to make players realize the significance of the shirt they wear, keeping the focus on his own work and his own team, as opposed to Ten Hag who spoke about ending the era for the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool when he came in back in 2022.
There is no hiding from the fact that Ten Hag left United with a mountain to climb if they aim to achieve anything significant this season. Sitting in 13h place in the Premier League table at the moment, 13 points behind leaders Liverpool, it makes no sense to talk about their chances of winning the title. Finishing inside the top four and qualifying for next season’s Champions League will be challenge enough, though a realistic one at this point. Chelsea, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Brighton, who share places three to six, are only four points ahead of United. There is also the Europa League, which, providing notable improvement comes swiftly under Amorim’s guidance, might just be another relatively realistic goal.
There is, of course, no way to tell what will happen in the future. The earliest signs appear positive and it seems Amorim is aware of what needs to be done to get something better from the players at the club, but there will, of course, be other factors at work too. Luck with injuries will play its part, as will the level of support the new coach gets from the club hierarchy, and many other things too.
Starting with small steps forward seems the best way to go, and it will begin when Amorim takes his team to face 17-th place Ipswich Town at the Portman Road on November 24th. Two games at Old Trafford follow that, with Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League and Everton visiting, before United travel to North London to square up to Arsenal at the Emirates.
