Over the past year, Manchester United have been acting like a proper football club in terms of the changes being made behind the scenes.
Ineos have overseen a complete overhaul in terms of the structure of the footballing department.
Jason Wilcox is the director of football, reporting to Omar Berrada as the club’s CEO but in terms of footballing decisions it is Wilcox leading the charge at Manchester United.
This was clear in 2024 when it was claimed that Wilcox had instructed Erik ten Hag on how United had to play football, which included playing in an attacking style. Since then, the club has appointed Ruben Amorim, who will hope to show a much greater attacking force in the 2025-26 season.
While exciting attacking football has yet to be implemented under Ineos, the academy have not had the same issues with the under-18s scoring 90 goals in 24 games last season.
Now, Wilcox has made a decision regarding the academy which should be beneficial to all parties.
Manchester United director of football Jason Wilcox during his time at Southampton.
Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
Jason Wilcox rejects academy-wide playing style at Manchester United
At Manchester United, the academy is as much a part of the club as the first team thanks to the storied past. There have been 254 academy graduates from United, with plenty more knocking on the door.
However, despite Amorim using a 3-4-2-1 system with the first team, last season did not see the academy using this formation. Many clubs do enforce a club-wide rule of playing the same system, but that won’t be the case at United.
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Writing for The Athletic, Laurie Whitwell has claimed this to be the case, with Wilcox making the decision.
On the instructions of Wilcox, academy teams will not be required to play with a back-three system going forward. The reason is that Wilcox wants the youth teams to focus on developing high-quality talent rather than imitating the first-team system.
So despite the benefits this would have in regards to preparing players to play in Amorim’s system, it is instead decided that simply letting players develop in a more simple four-at-the-back system is more beneficial.
Ruben Amorim has already made a clear point about the academy
Since taking the role in November, Amorim has proven willing to use the academy, with his record at Sporting also showing this to be the case.
Speaking in November with Gary Neville after arriving, Amorim was asked about the academy adopting his style, to which he explained why he wasn’t keen on this.
“For me, it has nothing to do with that. You have to have the same principles and understand the profile of the players. If I need the No. 6, when you go up the youth ranks, you have to work a little bit more specifically on the type of 6 you use.
“When they are in the academy, they can play in different systems. I think that helps them. They have to understand the game. It’s not about understanding a system. They have to understand the game.”
This makes sense, considering Amorim has consistently stated that his system is more than just a back five, which sees him want good footballers rather than just players who know the game model.