Manchester United are suffering from the predictable growing pains that Ruben Amorim himself prophecized when he first took over the job from Erik ten Hag (and Ruud van Nistelrooy).
After an excellent 4-0 win over Everton last weekend, Manchester United have fallen back to earth with poor results against much tougher tests, losing 2-0 to Arsenal at mid-week and then collapsing in a 3-2 loss against rising side Nottingham Forest.
In truth, only the Everton win was convincing, and the Toffees did just about everything they could to hand the result to Manchester United, who simply don’t have the quality to compete at the top of the table.
But now, Manchester United are in the bottom half of the table after Ten Hag’s latest disastrous management, as Amorim is saddled with a squad that was assembled for Ten Hag, who brought in all the wrong kinds of pieces and, most egregiously, pushed to keep players who are nowhere near the standard that should be set at Old Trafford.
One of those players is clearly Christian Eriksen, who hasn’t been worth starting at the highest level of European football in years. Really, he’s been poor since leaving Tottenham, and you can argue that outside of 10 strong games for Brentford in 2021/22 with 2.7 key passes per game, he hasn’t been remotely good since Tottenham reached the Champions League Final in the 2018/19 season.
Eriken started for Amorim and Manchester United on the Portuguese manager’s debut against Ipswich Town, in which Man United were legitimately lucky to have even gotten a point against arguably the worst team in the Premier League.
The Danish international hasn’t sniffed the Manchester United starting lineup since, and it’s quite obvious that the Red Devils have to give the 32-year-old the boot as the rebuild the midfield.
Long-term, the only base center midfielders with a future are marquee youngsters Kobbie Mainoo and Manuel Ugarte, and Manchester United need to push both Casemiro and Eriksen out of the squad to bring in a third top young player at the position.
Getting rid of Eriksen has to be the main priority. He offers nothing in defense, he is way too slow, and even his playmaking has fallen off a cliff now that he can no longer play in the attacking phases – and Man United already have two better playmakers in Bruno Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho.
By not giving Eriksen starts, Amorim is sending a message to Eriksen that it’s time for him to leave the club in 2025 and take a move to, say, Saudi Arabia. It’s time for a real midfield overhaul.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.