The head coach should consider changing formation to adapt to his players' strengths
The obvious problem with a vote of confidence is the need for one in the first place. Ruben Amorim survived his first crisis in the summer following Manchester United’s lowest Premier League finish. The worst start to a Premier League season has followed, prompting further questions about Amorim’s future.
For now he appears safe but the point per game he averages after 31 at the helm is clearly unsustainable. Amorim appears entangled in a mess of mixed messages. It’s not about formations. It’s not the players. It’s me, he says. I’m at fault. Honesty is at least the start of healing.
For the first time in the Pep Guardiola era, United were dominant in possession against City at the Etihad, just as they were against Arsenal at home in the season opener. Yet they lost both, and for the same reasons.
For all United’s control of the ball, they do not control a match. United have no consistent mechanism of scoring goals nor of keeping them out. This is because they do not have a proven No 9, a goalkeeper of sufficient quality nor a defensive midfielder to bolt the whole thing together. Matheus Cunha and Lisandro Martinez’s injuries have not helped matters, either.
Since the summer budget was spent on reinforcing the attack, Amorim was left with the same ill-fitting pegs at No 6, a rookie goalkeeper thus far too callow to use, and a rookie if expensive striker, which played out brutally against a sub-optimal City.
Pressure continues to mount on Ruben Amorim (Photo: Getty)
There is clearly no escape from a 3-0 scoreline, yet there was one obvious gain for Amorim with the introduction of Kobbie Mainoo for a 30-minute cameo of real promise.
We have been here before, I hear you say. Mainoo has all the attributes, the athleticism, the feet, the movement, the drive, the ambition, the elan, the flare. But, like lots of young players, he is probably a tad shy of being as good as he thinks he is.
Iain Dowie outlined his coaching philosophy during a successful spell at Oldham Athletic. Dowie was way brighter than he looked, an engineering graduate as well as a former Northern Ireland striker, who understood the benefit of clear signals and simple messages.
Footballers, he determined, aren’t always the brightest. They need discipline and instruction, to be told where to stand and what to do. The best adapt and work it out for themselves. Others need roles spelling out.
It might be that Mainoo evolves into a player capable of solving his own problems. At this stage he would benefit from the same post-it notes Dowie stuck to the lockers of the most needy, offering pithy guides to action.
Mainoo clearly has something, and when he was on the pitch against City, a switch flicked. United looked better, and City looked worried. He is a classic No 8, driving forward, opening the pitch, sweeping the ball wide. He just needs minor adjustments to be less wasteful, more efficient. That is about coaching.
For a No 6, Amorim must find a solution that does not include Casemiro, who simply can’t get about the pitch, nor Manuel Ugarte, who has neither the legs nor the footballing IQ to stop attacks or start them. One compromise would be to deploy Leny Yoro at six. He has clear libero potential, a red John Stones if you will, good feet, spots the danger, initiates with a big stride.
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Now the hard part. In the past when the game was in the balance, David De Gea would spare United from the kind of goals they’re letting in now by making great stops. So at least if you can’t win, you don’t lose. This United can’t even draw games.
Gianluigi Donnarumma had one big save to make and, boy, how he made it. He looked as big as a whale denying Bryan Mbeumo at full stretch. It doesn’t matter if he is Moby Dick with the ball at his feet if he makes interventions like that.
City weren’t superior in the way they were at their Guardiola peak, they didn’t function any better than United. They won because they had a shot stopper in goal, a lethal predator up front and a bloke at No 6, Rodri, who knows what he is doing even when not at his best.
Ultimately these are the three positions that Amorim has to get right. He hasn’t got the No 6 of his dreams but at least he can get Mainoo into the team. In goal, Amorim is going to have to gamble on Senne Lammens on the basis he knows what doesn’t work. There is no present, never mind future for Amorim with Altay Bayindir defending the empire.
Finally, Amorim must turn Benjamin Sesko into a replica of Erling Haaland instead of replicating the experience of Rasmus Hojlund, who, of course, scored a fine goal on his Napoli debut. For all his size, speed and touch, Sesko was a featherweight on his first Premier League start. Again this is a coaching issue, and one Amorim must solve if he is ever to find the key to unlocking United.
My Man Utd XI to save Amorim’s job
4-1-2-3: Lammens; Mazraoui, De Ligt, Heaven, Shaw; Yoro; Mainoo, Fernandes; Mbeumo, Sesko, Amad