I agree but also disagree. Heavily disagree.
The skipper was talking about new manager Ruben Amorim and how he's looking forward to working with him as well as talking about how good a job the Portuguese did at Sporting Lisbon.
Being a former player for Sporting himself, Bruno says that he watches all their games which would give him a better idea than most of the current squad (other than Ugarte who played for Amorim in Lisbon) what to expect from him in terms of his style of play.
As we've all been very well informed by various outlets, websites and content creators about how Amorim likes to set his team up and play, we know that he requires specific types of players to fit in into his ideal team.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Amorim said that he would like to bring in players with "intensity" to United, which were 'crucial words' in him joining the club.
Amorim also stated that we shouldn't be expecting what we saw at Sporting at United. Kinda sounds like Erik ten Hag 😳.
But it's not a style that I think we should be seeing straight away. It will take time as he also said that he would like to start off doing something he knows instead of changing styles.
For Bruno to say that "you can't bring or transform what he has done at Sporting into here, because you have different players, you have different ways of play and everything", I feel he is right because our players are different to that of Sporting's. We're also not used to the 3-4-3 formation that Amorim will bring and so again, will take time to implement.
But that's about all I agree with in this statement by the skipper.
I feel like that is the whole point of Amorim coming to United, I felt like style of play was the whole point of ten Hag coming to United. The Dutchman obviously never really tried to implement his Ajax style at Old Trafford which for me was a big no-no and one of the reasons as to why he ended up getting the sack.
If that happens to Amorim, I want him to go out doing things his way, trying to implement something we've never seen at United with his 3-4-3 formation. I'd rather he stick his own principles and beliefs and go out like that (if he does get sacked) than change and try to do something that suits these players instead.
That for me is still a form of player power as if they aren't willing or are incapable of adapting their game to suit the manager, then what the hell are we doing? If these players can't change then they need to go.
Now I don't think that all of them won't slot into Amorim's style but there are more that I worry about than not. Requiring both technicality and intensity is not something we would associate with United's current group of players. In fact, here's a post I did regarding which players I think have a chance under Amorim, at least from the get go.
We need Amorim to play 'Amorim ball.' Even if it fails and fails badly, STICK TO IT. The last thing I want is for him to revert to the usual 4-2-3-1 that these players have been used to for so long just because a few results and performances aren't going the way we want.
I think repeating the system and style regardless of what happens is so important because players will either start getting used to it or not and from that, we will be able to see who we should be keeping and who we should try to move on.
And if Amorim does end up adapting to his players, then we may as well have kept ten Hag because, what will be the difference?
Maybe Bruno himself knows that the squad isn't good enough (yet) to play Amorim ball. Maybe this is his way of saying that I don't think we have the players to do what Amorim did at Sporting 🤷♂️.
You can watch the full Bruno interview on Amorim on United's website, manutd.com.
But whatever Amorim does, all we want to see is a great style of football and success. But I do hope he sticks to his principles and pushes through even if things go south from the start. He cannot give up on it so easily.
I believe that the fans are also now a lot more open to the fact that more of the scrutiny needs to be on the players rather than the manager.
What do you think Ruben Amorim will do in terms of style of play and formation?
Background Image: Ruben Amorim | Creator: Emilio Andreoli | Credit: Getty Images Copyright: 2024 Getty Images via Man Utd News | Bruno Fernandes | Image credit: Getty Images via Goal