Ruben Amorim has come in for a kicking after he oversaw one of the most embarrassing defeats in Manchester United’s history at the hands of League Two Grimsby Town.
Every United fan’s worst fears came true at a rain-soaked Blundell Park as Grimsby not only outfought their opponents but for 75 minutes were the better team.
A late United comeback only served to set up more embarrassment as they were eliminated on penalties and the picture of a drenched Amorim fiddling with a tactics board has been blasted as the beginning of the end by fans and pundits alike.
Former Chelsea and Derby midfielder Craig Burley went in two-footed, slamming ‘right plonker’ Amorim.
“Embarrassing isn’t strong enough, is it? It’s not, I can’t swear on TV, but embarrassing isn’t strong enough. Just awful, absolutely awful,” Burley said on ESPN’s coverage in the US.
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“Ruben Amorim. Do you remember after the Arsenal game? He said we’ve shown today we can beat anybody. Well, they lost to Arsenal on that day. They drew to Fulham. Lost to Grimsby Town.
“During the second half, we have this Man United manager on a tactics board, one of these little things with his coaches, right? Looking like a right plonker, right? You know, you know you’re playing Grimsby Town, and you need to go to a tactics board to figure out where the space is and how to beat them.
“The whole thing is just it’s utterly embarrassing. Even if you’re a Man United fan, you must be sitting here thinking, this is a shambles, an absolute shambles, from back to front and the goalkeeper and manager.
“I don’t know what the worst result in Man United’s history is but this has to be arguably it, or certainly up there.”
Jobi McAnuff was the man in the studio for Sky’s UK broadcast and said Amorim’s insistence on sticking to a 3-4-3 formation was “crazy.”
“How many times was that spare man De Ligt, for example, in that build-up?
“He’d be the one joining in, and with the greatest respect to him, he should have an attacking player getting into the box, where a lot of the time it was a defender, an extra man.
“It just seems crazy that he’s so wedded to this formation, at all costs and at any circumstance in a match.
“He’s almost forcing people into positions, whatever the state of the game is, it just seems absolutely baffling to me, that there’s just no flex at all, and I just feel that that is definitely something.
“Yes, application, understanding of what the game was about.
“I thought they were miles off it in that first half in particular, as if they rolled up today and just had no idea of what’s going to be expected at Grimsby Town away on a wet Wednesday night.”
Danny Murphy also critiqued Amorim’s approach, going as far as saying there was ‘no chance’ he would want to play for the Portuguese boss.
“I think that squad is able to compete,” Murphy said on TalkSport. “I just think his system is the problem, I’ve said it from day one.
“I wouldn’t like playing that system as a midfielder, no chance.”
Phil Jones also questioned what the point of having an extra man is if your opponents are so tightly packed in.
“When he changed and put Mason Mount in that position, they still went with a back five, but they were building with a back five against Grimsby, who were sitting on the edge of the box,” the former United defender said on Sky.
“Your spare man was almost in build-up when you needed that spare man sort of further higher up the pitch to make an overload out wide or through the middle.”
Jones’ defensive partner Rio Ferdinand was in for a rude awakening on Thursday morning after tweeting that he was going to bed before full-time.
“Breathe. Going bed. WhatsApp notifications off,” Ferdinand tweeted when Grimsby were 2-0 up. Tough one to wake up to.
The BBC’s Simon Stone meanwhile argued that questions need to be answered not by Amorim but by the United hierarchy,
“They are not supposed to finish 15th, not in this Premier League era where finances are skewed so extraordinarily in favour of the biggest and most popular clubs.
“Yet that is where United trailed home last season. Has anything changed for the better since? There is little to suggest so.
“And the big question is this: what do they do about it?
“It is not Amorim who must find the answer. Minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, chief executive Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox are the ones who must decide United’s future direction.”
One person who did at least enjoy it was Jason Cundy:
HAAAS ANYONE SEEN
✅ MAN UNITED
✅ RUBEN AMORIM
✅ ANDY GOLDSTEIN
✅ ANDY GOLDSTEIN
✅ ANDY GOLDSTEIN
✅ OLLY MURS
✅ LEAKY ROOF
✅ THE OVERLAP
✅ ALEX CROOK
This Has Anyone Seen from Cundy needs no words… 🤣 pic.twitter.com/EHrm1cWGQz
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) August 27, 2025
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