Man Utd face Brighton in the Premier League this weekend before a trip to face Nottingham Forest next week.
Manchester United’s victory over Liverpool proved just how quickly opinions can change in football. Ruben Amorim was tipped with the sack earlier this month but has since recorded consecutive victories in the Premier League and been backed by co-owner Jim Ratcliffe to stay in the job for three years.
Amorim heads into the weekend match against Brighton with renewed optimism in his approach, though United know there will be more pressure on beating them at home than there was at Anfield over the weekend. It would not be a surprise if the same questions are asked of Amorim again if United lose on Saturday evening, though he will hope to avoid that scenario with another win.
It will be a different type of pressure when they travel to Nottingham Forest next week, and Amorim gets the chance to face a manager who claimed he would win more matches in charge of the club than him.
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Dyche bet he would win more matches than Amorim
Sean Dyche is back in management after he was appointed as the new head coach of Nottingham Forest on Tuesday morning. It means the 54-year-old will take charge of his first Premier League home match against Manchester United next week, after they face FC Porto on Thursday night and Bournemouth this weekend.
Dyche will no doubt be asked about his United comments ahead of the match after he claimed back in August that he would win more games than Ruben Amorim with his squad of players.
"I may get hammered for it, but I bet I could win more games with that squad playing a 4-4-2," Dyche told Sam Allardyce on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast. "People keep talking about his [Amorim's] philosophy and it isn't working. It's fine getting to five or 10 games, but once you get to 20 games, it clearly isn't working."
"I might be wrong because they've brought in three big hitters this summer, so it wouldn't work with the players they had, but maybe the new players will do better. On the one hand, I like the fact they're sticking with it, and it is Man United. You're under massive pressure to get it right. But on the other hand, you wouldn't normally survive that situation. Amorim's been given more time than most.
"People forget that in Pep's first season, he made so many changes to the squad and played so many formations and finished 13 points off the top, nobody blinked. If he was at Real Madrid, he would have been sacked. But he learned and won the Premier League the next season."
Sean Dyche record vs Manchester United
Ruben Amorim might have been more fearful had Ange Postecoglou still been Nottingham Forest manager for their clash next week. The former boss famously beat United four times with Tottenham Hotspur last season, including the Europa League final.
United boast an impressive record against Dyche across his managerial career. He has taken charge of 18 matches against them, with just one win, five draws and 12 defeats.
The solitary win came at Old Trafford as Burnley manager in January 2020 thanks to goals from Chris Wood and Jay Rodriguez. Dyche has lost his last four matches against United, including a 4-0 defeat to Amorim as Everton boss last December.
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