The Portuguese manager has had quite the tenure at United in these four months. Several ups, several (several) downs and a hell of a lot in between.
He came to the club mid-season at a time when there was a lot of turmoil post the sacking of Erik ten Hag.
Amorim arrived with a lot of optimism given the football we saw at his former club Sporting Lisbon. They were one of the hottest properties in Europe whilst he was in charge.
His time in Lisbon ended with that 4-1 hiding of Guardiola’s Shitty making him a United legend already even though he hadn't actually taken over!
We were in love 😍.
However, this was a similar feeling amongst the fans when ten Hag arrived at Old Trafford yet we saw how that went. So while there was that excitement and hope, there was also a good deal of scepticism.
First 4 months
Anyways, to the tenure. It might as well be ten years because it’s felt like that!
The then 39-year-old came to Old Trafford with one of the biggest smiles on one’s face. Amorim was beaming from ear to ear like a kid in a candy store. It was refreshing to see.
Knowing what our club is like though, us fans thought ‘yeah bro, your smile will probably disappear soon.’
His smile disappeared soon 😐.
It wasn’t straight away but all too quickly, the Portuguese realized that United wasn’t all that it seemed. Hell, he turned 40 two months after joining and said he turned 50! A sign of just how straining the job was.
He has stated on several occasions that he knew this position would be hard, but this hard? Yeah nobody could’ve predicted that.
Before touching down in Manchester, Amorim was given an ultimatum by United's board: join now, or never. The Portuguese obviously accepted and now wishes he hasn't given how things have panned out.
I don't know whether that's true or not but you wouldn't blame him if he felt like that anyway🤷♂️.
This decision did go against what he wanted however, as Amorim preferred to take over at the end of the season rather than in the middle. As he himself stated though, it was an opportunity he couldn't turn down: "After Sporting I wanted that one, Manchester, and I want that context because that context allows me to do things my way and the club believes me that way."
Always great to hear this as a United fan but Amorim was probably a little annoyed that he couldn't join at the end of the campaign.
Becoming the manager of a new club (and one the size of United) mid-campaign and hoping he would turn things around was a tough ask. He would have no pre-season, no chance to get rid of players, no chance to sign players and no time to get things up and running. Everything needed to click right away.
The pressure he had from the moment he stepped in was ridiculous and for him to try and implement a completely new system and style made the task even harder.
These players couldn't even play in a formation that they'd been used to for many years when looking at the football they were playing under ten Hag so how would they be able to do something entirely unknown to them?
This was the hardest part of it all.
Maybe this is why he wanted to come in at the end of the season?
The Reign
Things got of to an okay start? A draw away to Ipswich is not really the result one would've wanted considering he faced a relegation-threatened opponent in his first game as Man Utd manager, but at least he didn't lose. That was already an improvement to Erik ten Hag.
When Rashford scored that first goal inside 2 minutes, that was when belief came in that we were going to win the Champions League, even though we aren't in it.
That's what us United fans do though. Blow things out of proportion one way or the other 🤷♂️.
The rest of that match was kind of a sign of things to come as it was very boring at times, very hit and miss at others, and no trust in those players to actually go on and win a game they should.
While Amorim may have known that it was going to be an arduous task at United, nobody thought he was going to struggle as much with this team as he has. He probably didn't know that either.
Countless average performances, some where we didn't show up (which is new because we always tend to do so for a new manager), but others where we played like a house on fire which questioned why do these players show up at certain times but not all?
There then was a period where Amorim lost three league games in a row without scoring which was a terrible time and probably the moment when he knew, 'I fucked up.'
Things managed to change for the better in the new year as United picked up the unlikeliest of points at Anfield in a match that we all that we were going to get our arses handed to us. That was followed by a courageous and gritty win over Arsenal to start off our FA Cup title defense in a tie that saw United go down to 10 men as well as play against the referee who was massively in favor of the Gunners.
Amorim and skipper Bruno Fernandes were angry at such performances which sort of confused everyone as it was our two best but that is exactly why they were upset. How can we perform like this in these two toughest of games but against all else, act like we've never seen a football before?
They were right.
With two memorable performances and even better results like that, this had (had) to be the point where things changed for the better.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case as more inconsistent performances and results as well as being knocked out in both domestic cup competitions took away all that positivity we had from the games at Liverpool and Arsenal.
There always seemed to be a time when things looked to be turning a corner but all too soon, a poor performance and result followed putting us back in our place, with that place being 13th in the league, a position we've seemed to be in all campaign.
In fact, we actually dropped lower down the table to the point where the 'R' word was being mentioned.
Things were so bad that Man United were being talked about as relegation candidates.
😐.
With the way we were carrying on, that wasn't entirely false. We were/are just lucky that there are three worse teams otherwise, we probably could've gone down.
Hell, we were so bad even Southampton and Ipswich caused us problems. Somehow, we managed to get the wins but boy, was it squeaky bum.
Squaeky bum against those teams?! Good Lord we're crap!
Things were made even worse when everyone decided to get injured.
The butcher Lisandro Martinez picked up an ACL injruy in the defeat to Palace which has ruled him out for the rest of the season and maybe for a couple of months of next. This came after the defender started to shows signs of coming into his own in Amorim's system which he struggled to in the first couple of months under the Portuguese. The Argentine was a key player in that XI.
Valentine's weekend was not one to celebrate for us as more major injuries to major players came about as all of Manuel Ugarte, Kobbie Mainoo and Amad were ruled out for the foreseeable future after issues picked up in training.
What the fuck were they doing at Carrington? A Royal Rumble?
That Amad one in particular was a big blow as until this point, he was player of the season. To then have reports suggest that his ankle problem could be a season-ender, was the cherrie on the cake.
Losing four key players made us all feel like we were cursed, just as David de Gea said a few years ago. This could've been the end of our season.
Amorim had to get creative with some of his tactics and selections with him having to have a bench full of academy players at one point just to fill up the matchday squad.
Thankfully, there were no new injury concerns and those players that he sort of cast aside, came back into the team with a point to prove, Casemiro chief amongst them. The Brazilian hadn't featured in seven consecutive games with Amorim confining him to the bench before he was recalled to the starting lineup during this period of injuries. He has then played in the next nine with him showing his class once more as he has become somewhat undroppable thanks to his performances.
The United boss must be truly greatful for this upturn in form for the 32-year-old midfielder.
And it wasn't just an upturn in form for Casemiro but United overall even with all of these injuries.
In just over the last month, there has been some light at the end of the tunnel for Ruben Amorim as his side have gone unbeaten in their last seven although there was a penalty shootout loss to Fulham in the FA Cup. Other than that, unbeaten in regular time.
What's more is that in these last four matches in particular, we've been starting to see some form of consistency and more importantly, improvement in the style of play as these players look to be getting accustomed to Amorim's 3-4-3 system.
United were struggling for goals and conceding too many for most of the campaign but in this period, we've scored 15 and conceded 8 and even managed to keep a clean sheet (Leicester 0-3 United) which was our first since FCSB at the end of January. The previous seven had seen just 8 scored and 8 conceded.
This tells me that we were never bad defensively but just had issues going forward. Sort that out, and we'll win more than not.
Not only have we scored more, it's the manner of goals and who's scored them that has added more positivity to United. We've seen direct free-kicks, set-piece headers, penalties and the most satisfying of them all, wonderfully crafted open play goals that would've gotten Amorim hard.
Having not scored since the 1800s, even Rasmus Hojlund got on the scoresheet in the recent 3-0 win over Leicester. The Dane also had an assist in the 4-1 victory over Real Sociedad in the Europa League round of 16 second leg at Old Trafford. He then went on to score for Denmark in the international break.
Hopefully he can continue that form because we'll need him to for this final run-in.
Other players who would've made the manager happy would be Zirkzee, Garnacho, Dorgu, Heaven (who's unfortunately also caught the injury bug and will be out for a period) and of course, captain magnifico Bruno Fernandes.
The United skipper seems to have gone up a level in recent weeks as the consistent with which he's playing at at the moment is a throwback to COVID-era Bruno.
The Portuguese has had 11 goals and assists in his last seven in all competitions and furthermore, he's doing a lot of this from a deeper position as Amorim has opted for Zirkzee and Garnacho as his two number 10s with the captain dropping to one of the midfield pivots.
Could things be turning around at just the right time for the manager and team?
Other matters
While things have not gone according to plan which will have no doubt disappointed Amorim, I feel as though as much as the players have let him down, so has the club.
A gut feeling of mine is that they didn't keep their end of the bargain when speaking to Amorim about becoming United boss. I believe he would've wanted players in and out in January but the board didn't deliver. In fact, his squad got even worse as although they were all not performing, to lose Marcus Rashford, Antony and Tyrell Malacia without proper replacements (although Dorgu could be considered one for Malacia), would've upset him.
The amount of interviews he's having to do almost every match is ridiculous and annoying. Even as a fan, I'm fed up with the amount of time he's in front of a camera. I can only imagine what it's like for him. The club haven't helped him in this aspect as he is always the one doing interviews.
One thing the club has given him a reassurance with is that they back him in saying that they would like him to be the manager when the new stadium opens. CEO Omar Berrada said that "We would like to inaugurate the new stadium with Ruben [Amorim] at the helm of the team." The new stadium is proposed to be open in 2030 meaning that the club see Amorim in charge for the next five years.
That is encouraging because most managers don't last longer than 2 years. Amorim's current deal ends in June 2027.
When it comes to injuries, he isn't the first manager to be having to deal with so many. The difference is having to do so in your first season, mid-season, whilst there is so much going on on and off the pitch. That made things much more difficult especially to whom the injuries have occurred to.
I honestly feel like a lot of these things were out of his control. The injuries, the issues off the field with the owners and board, and even the players playing as badly as they have. Having one of these things would've made things difficult but all of them...
On top of this, you have the expectations of the fans and the scrutiny of the Bristish media. Wanting him to change his tactics to suit the players was one of their biggest issues with Amorim when everything went to shit.
I actually love the fact that he's stuck to his guns. It was the one major downfalls of Erik ten Hag's in my opinion. I was never a fan of him abandoning his approach just a couple of games in because things weren't going right. He was brought in to play a certain way and if he couldn't do that with the current players, they needed to be moved on and new ones needed to come in.
ten Hag never really attempted to play 'ten Hag' ball after his opening two defeats and ultimately, we never got to see any good football during his time at United.
This is why I was really happy with Amorim saying that he won't change and that if he does and in a year's time when he wants to play 'Amorim ball' and these players can't do it, what then? Try to sort the issue out now so we don't have it in the future.
His tactics and system also wasn't the problem as we've seen whilst he was at Sporting. Even in a few games at United, we saw that it could work even with these seemingly incapable players. It really was all about the application and attitude from them. How much do they want it?
I love how he's handled tough situations. Amorim always tries to be very positive regardless of the circumstances. How he's handled some players by dropping them in order to make them feel like they either have to prove him wrong or they need to be moved on.
I also like some of the quotes he's given us as they are brutally honest.
"We are maybe the worst Man United side in history" is perhaps the most brutal yet honest of them all.
For him to stick to his principles all the while (trying) to maintain that smile despite how difficult that must have been, for me, Amorim has been superb. There's very little that he's done wrong in my opinon. The only thing that I could put against him is that I do find him to be a little in favor of his fellow Portugueses, Dalot and Bruno.
Other than that though, he's been a breath of fresh air and a manager who is hellbent on putting his plan to action, no matter the cost.
I would rate Ruben Amorim as a manager an 8/10. With the factors of the season and all the other issues (injuries, player/s form, off-field matters), all of this together, 6.5/10.
He has done as much as he can with what he has and he's managed to keep our season alive as we are still in the Europa League regardless of the quality of his players.
How would you rate Ruben Amorim's four months in charge of United?
Background Image: Ruben Amorim | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)