Manchester United Thread 25/26 - Teamtalk/Transfers/Gossip Mod Note in OP 26.09.24

Its literally in the post you made a point of saying you quoted. "Why Southgate or Potter? Why not just Amorim do that?".

I guess if you think its all just "nonsensical rants" you perhaps don't necessarily read my posts fully.

I don't agree with the stop gap stuff - I think you can and should build a squad independent of a manager these days. You should aim to be in a position where you can seamlessly transition between managers ala Liverpool with Klopp and Slott. A manager may end up becoming a stop gap because he fails to meet expectations ultimately or for other reasons, but it shouldn't be in the plan.

I think the briefings at the time RA was hired indicated that the hierarchy thought the squad was fairly suited to his system and that was a key reason why they hired him. But, if that is the case, that assessment looks to be wrong unless they think 3/4 additions of the right profiles can make it all click? I'm not sure they can be confident of that after everything we've seen.

That seems a hard one to believe.

As others have pointed out, forget positions and form, just from a pace and physicality point of view the squad is really badly suited to what Amiron wants. I don't know how anybody looks at the workrate and pressing from the past few years and thinks those players are suited to his system.

Players that don't work hard aren't suited to any (modern) system/style though

''Further background checks on Amorim’s style and relationship with his players had got those at the top of United enthusiastic about the prospect of bringing him to the club. They became confident his back-three formation could map onto the squad.''

I think all managers have to deal with setbacks and things not going to plan all the time but the best ones find a way to adapt and work their way out of it. I think it was silly of Amorim to proclaim early on that he'll never deviate away from the 3-4-3. René Meulensteen questioned him on this a few weeks ago too.

The other thing that worries me is I actually thought I saw a little bit of progress in his system early on - away to Arsenal in the league for eg. You could see some control and decent build up in the first phase in that game. But it seems to me that since the first few games (enough of a sample for PL teams to study what Amorim is trying to do with the team), they have been figuring out how to stop the system at a faster rate than Amorim is able to tweak it to retain the necessary amount of unpredictability. Our performance levels have been gradually deteriorating imo, and that was before the injuries. I have major doubts as to whether Amorim is actually cut out for the PL at this moment in time and fear he is consistently getting out-thought by other PL managers.

Big game at the weekend, hopefully Collyer and Ugarte are back in, and I would start both.

Onana, Yoro, Maguire, MDL, Dorgu, Dalot, Collyer, Ugarte, Bruno, Garnacho, Zirkzee.
Will be interesting to see if any of the young midfielders - Kone, Scanlon, Moorehouse - are on the bench or if Eriksen and Casemiro will take those spots.
Mazraoui, Lindelof, Heaven, Case, Eriksen, Hojlund all good bets for the bench plus (at least… sigh) one keeper - meaning two spots for the likes of Chido and the others mentioned.

Has Collyer won you over? I remember you were unsure on him in the summer.

I think Bruno usually gets the nod ahead of Casemiro in CM anyway but I agree with Mitch, I'd much rather see Collyer start.

Hes impressed me more than I thought tbf but yeh the running is well needed.

I know it's only three games, but Antony has scored more goals in February than United.

Is the club cursed?

Do you know if he made those changes regularly at Sporting? And was it a feature of his early days, or was it something he brought in over time?

I think there's an argument for him to be making less changes (injuries aside) until there is some sort of foundation to build on. It's a new system / formation, that can be hard enough to change in itself. Adding variables like switching Dorgu and Dalot around, by bringing in Collyer for certain games and then dropping Bruno deeper for others... By playing Mainoo deep, then at 10, then at false 9 etc. can't be helping at all.

I know he's trying to find solutions and that trying things out is to be expected to a certain degree for a new manager, but when you're in a "difficult moment" as he would put it... Sometimes it's better to keep it simple, create some consistentancy, and then build on that base.

For now, I would like to see an end to switching over the WBs, and for him to make a call on whether Bruno is playing deeper or at 10 and just stick to that for the time being irregardless of opposition.

Changing the wingbacks and 10s was especially frequent. IIRC looking at their stats in November their most played players were only hittiing 70% of minutes, with 'key' players hittiing less in some examples.

As you point out, I think a lot of the changes at United are forced by injuries, poor performance and solution searching. At Sporting it was, I believe, more tactical than we have so far seen at United.

I do think he rotated a lot early for training//fitness reasons and now he would have closer to a starting 11 - which is also beset by injuries. Now he also has to find a solution to no Martinez (or Shaw) and no Amad. So the question now, imo, will be Bruno or Zirkzee at 10 with garnacho (or both and no garnahco).

The CB position also an issue with whether it is Yoro or Mazraoui in for Martinez and then which side do they play.

Personally I would go

Onana, Mazraouo (RCB), MDL, Yoro, Dalot (RWB), Dorgu, Ugarte, Collyer, Bruno, Garnacho, Zirkzee.

And i'd be seeing if any of the young players are worth minutes over Casemiro.

We are lacking, horribly, CM and 10 options (which anyone could have predicted coming out of the january window.

A few tough games ahead. Next four league games are an in-form Everton, six-pointer against Ipswich, title chasing Arsenal and another six-pointer against Leicester.

Lose three of those and there will be an interim in until the end of the season to steady the ship I'd say. The leaks yesterday about sounding out Xavi and Zidane will possibly keep him on his toes and force him to change things up a bit.