Should Ruben Amorim stick to his principles or change things up? – Weekly Takeaway
Any Manchester United fan who uses social media platforms will know that the United fan base is an extremely reactionary one, so it will be no surprise to most that some fans are already demanding that Ruben Amorim abandon his principles and start a process of damage limitation. Once again, I struggle to agree with the majority of what is quite a divided fanbase.
Our recent defeat to Wolves makes it five defeats in our last seven matches in all competitions, meaning some United fans are starting to worry about what this could mean for our season, and are asking that we revert back to something the players are more used to, like a 4-2-3-1 formation. Whilst it is a bleak situation, we knew that this would not be a quick fix, as we were left in a mess by the previous manager, so a lot of patience will be needed from what is a fanbase with little to no tolerance. I also don’t think our recent slump in form is down to the system, but rather just very poor performances from a very poor set of players.
A big issue with a lot of United fans online is that after every sacking they ask for other fans to ‘trust the process’ and to ‘give him (the new manager) time’ because it’s a ‘long-term rebuild’, yet those same fans are usually the first to criticise at the first opportunity. In reality, most United fans are not ready for a proper rebuild and do not have the patience for it.
Amorim himself said after the game against Ipswich that he would stick to his principles no matter what, as ‘Next year, in the same stage, we will be here with the same problems or we start now … we risk a little bit, we suffer a little bit and in the next year we will be better.’. It’s hard to disagree with his thinking here, as INEOS would have brought Amorim in with the view that he was the best-suited manager for the long term, so it’s vital he sticks to what he knows to get the best out of our current squad. If the United hierarchy didn’t believe in Amorim’s philosophy or system, then they wouldn’t have brought him in, so he needs the full trust of the board to do things his way. This does not mean to give him control of recruitment, as we know how that worked previously.
Erik Ten Hag came in with a certain set of principles, but after back-to-back defeats in his opening games against Brighton and Brentford, he completely abandoned his principles and fans spent the best part of the next two years questioning what our style of play was. Since the Dutchman’s departure, people have talked about how far Ten Hag set us back despite winning two trophies, so there is no point in Amorim doing the same and us continuing a vicious circle that we’ve spent over 11 years in.
At some point, something has got to change for the better, and I think Amorim is our best chance at that, but he will have little chance at long-term success if he starts playing it safe after only ten games in charge. Thankfully, I think he has more about him than that.
- George Fairbairnhttps://www.downthewings.com/author/george-fairbairn/
- George Fairbairnhttps://www.downthewings.com/author/george-fairbairn/
- George Fairbairnhttps://www.downthewings.com/author/george-fairbairn/
- George Fairbairnhttps://www.downthewings.com/author/george-fairbairn/
