Former Manchester United defender Paul Parker has painted a bleak outlook for manager Ruben Amorim, as he has warned the Portuguese manager could be just a few games away from the sack.
Amorim failed to improve United’s results after he replaced Erik ten Hag last November and his revamped team has started this season indifferently, with the embarrassing Carabao Cup defeat against fourth tier side Grimsby a new low in his traumatic reign as the club’s manager.
Now Amorim faces a crucial few weeks, with Sunday’s local derby against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium followed by the visit of Chelsea to Old Trafford.
Speaking exclusively to Football365, Parker fears the clock is ticking on Amorim after he used up most of his credibility in his first ten months at Old Trafford.
“When you are managingManchester United, you are always three or four games away from the sack as you just can’t lose as many games as Amorim has lost since he arrived,” Parker told Football365 with WhichBookie.
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“If United were to lose against City, it would depend on the manner of the loss to an extent. Maybe if the performance was okay, you could take something from it.
“If Amorim then lost the Chelsea game the following week, there is only so far you can go in this job.
“The problem would be that sacking Amorim would be a massive turnover again. They would bring the old players back in who were not good enough to start with.
“It would be a change of manager, a change of style of play. They have brought players in to operate in Amorim’s system and to change it all now would be a massive upheaval.
“Changing another manager would be a panic situation. It would make the current owners look as bad as the decision makers who were there before them.
“There are still big problems at United and even if we take a positive view and say they win the two games against Manchester City and Chelsea, it doesn’t change everything that has been going wrong since Sir Alex left in 2013. There are still other issues there that need to be solved.”
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Parker, who won two Premier League titles in Sir Alex Ferguson’s first trophy-winning team at United, believes the positive comments following United’s opening game of the season against Arsenal may have disguised bigger issues in Amorim’s team, as he reflected on a challenging start to the season that included the horrible defeat at Grimsby.
“This season started encouragingly with an improved performance against Arsenal,” he added, reflecting on the 1-0 defeat against the Gunners. “That was probably a more uplifting performance than any we saw last season, when they only seemed to play well after a big setback or playing against a bigger team.
“What I would say is United have looked better when they play against a team that is very slow when they move the ball. Arsenal are very, very slow and it allowed Manchester United to overrun them at times.
“Going on to the Fulham game and the 1-1 draw. They stifled and matched United after the opening 15 minutes. In the end, Fulham could have won that match.
“Then you look at the last league game against Burnley (United won 3-2) and they played against a side that overpassed under Scott Parker. That’s what he does and that’s why I call him the poor man’s Pep.
“We know that if a team go direct, they will cause United a problem. If a team moves the ball quickly and attacks United, they don’t deal with that very well.
“We saw that in the Grimsby game. Amorim would have found out a lot about his players that night as they didn’t look like they fancied it. They played in front of passionate fans, not the Premier League fans who have popcorn on their lap. The United players didn’t like it.
“Now they head into the Manchester derby and it will be more what they are used to and I would expect them to be decent. They have played well against City in recent years, but you just don’t know what you are going to get from these United players from week to week.”