MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 01: Ruben Amorim, Head Coach of Manchester United, looks on as he walks towards the tunnel at half-time during the Premier League match between Manchester United FC and Everton FC at Old Trafford on December 01, 2024 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Manchester United legend Gary Neville advises Ruben Amorim to find an ideal lineup and stick to it rather than changing personnel every weekend.
The 39-year-old has kept his 3-4-2-1 formation since his arrival, but has been experimenting with the players, as he tries to figure out the perfect combination.
But while last weekend’s large victory over Everton suggested the club is finally on the right track, back-to-back defeats against Arsenal and Nottingham Forest pegged the Red Devils back to Square One, while Amorim’s selections remain all over the place.
Therefore, Neville feels that the new manager is walking dangerously close to the footsteps of his predecessor Erik ten Hag who also enjoyed tinkering with his starting lineup.
“When you keep changing players and you keep changing your back three and you take five players off, you’re basically saying to all of them.” argued the retired full-back in his appearance on NBC Sports.
“Because they’ve obviously been taken off at the start of the game, that you don’t trust them.
‘Ten Hag kept doing that a few weeks ago when he kept changing the back players, changing the midfield.
“All of a sudden you’ve got a completely different system, a completely different set of players on the pitch at the end of the game. You can never get consistency.
“It looked really scruffy. They looked a mess at the end United with no real shape. In the first half they weren’t brilliant but at least they had a shape to them.”
Garry Neville tells Man United boss Ruben Amorim to follow Enzo Maresca’s example
Therefore, Neville invites Amorim to pay heed to what Enzo Marseco is doing at Chelsea, as the Italian manager has seemingly found a consistent formula that is yielding positive results.
“Pick an XI that you think are the best. Almost give that XI the faith and trust.
“[Enzo] Maresca’s doing it now at Chelsea – he’s playing an XI on a Sunday or a Saturday and then he’s playing a different XI in midweek.
“He’s sending some messages to the players that there’s stability here and this is what we’re going to do.
“When you change players all the time you’re just spinning plates and there’s no consistency.
“You need to build patterns together. You need to build that idea of what you are doing together.”
Finally, Neville touched on Man United’s lack of effort on the pitch which has been portrayed by the statistics.
“Manchester United are 13th in the league. Their running stats, their distance covered is 16th in the league.
“You don’t deserve anything if you’re being outrun every single week.”