Portuguese's task is proving even harder than anyone imagined but he knows the path to a better future and must keep following it
Ruben Amorim had just fielded a question about not selecting Marcus Rashford and was listening to one about squad rotation when he was rudely interrupted. Not by a journalist, but by a drip coming from the ceiling of the Old Trafford press conference room.
There has been a lot of change at Manchester United in the last year since Sir Jim Ratcliffe purchased his stake in the club for £1.2 billion ($1.5bn). The training ground is being renovated, plans to build a brand new stadium have accelerated, £160m ($200bn) has been invested in new players, and more than 250 people have lost their jobs including Sir Alex Ferguson, Erik ten Hag and Dan Ashworth. And yet the team are still losing 3-0 at home to Bournemouth, Rashford's attitude remains a huge talking point and there is a leak in the stadium every time it rains heavily.
Amorim left sunny Lisbon and an all conquering Sporting CP that he had built to join this dysfunctional club and now he has to miss Christmas for the first time to take his dishevelled team to Wolves on Boxing Day. He could be forgiven for regretting that decision now he realises the scale of the rebuilding job he faces. But he is not about to change course and nor should he.
Because even though it feels like United have not made any progress since swapping Ten Hag for Amorim, the Portuguese has a plan to revive the team. He must stick to it, and the club must back him along the way.
GettyNo real signs of progress
Nine games in to Amorim's reign, the statistics do not make for encouraging reading. United are 13th in the Premier League table, one place higher than where Ten Hag was when he was sacked in October but in the same position as when Amorim took the baton from interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy in November. They have taken seven points from their six league games, one fewer than Ten Hag earned from his last six in charge.
They are also out of the Carabao Cup, the competition they won in Ten Hag's first campaign, and Amorim's hopes of emulating the Dutchman's excellent record in the FA Cup look slim after – through no fault of their own – being drawn away to Arsenal in the third round. They have conceded 17 goals in their nine matches under the Portuguese, seven of which have been from set pieces. They have also lost two home games (to Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest) while conceding three goals, just as they did under Ten Hag (against Liverpool and Tottenham).
United have at least made progress in the Europa League and after the victories against Bodo/Glimt and Viktoria Plzen they have a strong chance of finishing in the top eight and making the last-16 without having to go through the play-offs. They also pulled off a stunning derby victory away to Manchester City. But then again, Ten Hag also managed to beat City, including in an FA Cup final.
AdvertisementGetty Taking responsibility for injuries
There have been a couple of noticeable improvements though. The team are scoring more goals than under Ten Hag (1.8 goals per game compared to 1.5). They also look less vulnerable in open play, being able to control the opposition's transitions better. While the set-piece defending is deeply concerning and must be improved, Amorim has managed to make his team look ever so slightly more cohesive.
The manager has also sought to take responsibility for the number of injuries the team gets by rotating the squad as much as he can, even if it means sometimes playing players with lesser ability. After making six changes from the defeat at Tottenham for the Bournemouth game he explained: "It's not rotation to see players and prepare the future, it's simply to not have injuries. I know there's a long-term project and we're focused on that, but I also know that at big clubs you don't have a lot of time and you have to win games. I have a clear idea of the responsibility I have here but I'm trying to manage the team to not have injuries. If you have injuries it's a massive problem."
Ten Hag's second campaign was destroyed by injuries but while the Dutchman was always keen to point out how many players he was missing, he never made a link between the injuries and his own reluctance to rotate.
Getty Images SportTougher than Ten Hag
Amorim has also proven to be a much better communicator than Ten Hag, both with the media and with his players. While Ten Hag talked a good game about improving standards and cracking down on breaches of the discipline, his actions did not speak louder than his words.
When Cristiano Ronaldo left the pre-season game with Rayo Vallecano at half-time, he was still in the squad for the opening game of the season against Brighton. When the Portuguese refused to come off the bench against Tottenham, he was only banished from the squad for one game.
When Rashford was late for a team meeting at Wolves after oversleeping, his punishment was to be left out of the starting line-up, only to be brought on at half-time when the game was goalless. Rashford scored the winning goal and all was forgiven. And last season when he skipped training after his drunken night out in Belfast he only missed the game against Newport County. Just days after that discretion, he started against Wolves and scored.
Getty'Big talent, big responsibility'
Amorim has proven to be a much tougher enforcer of his rules. He left Rashford and Garnacho out of the squad for the Manchester derby after questioning their attitude off the pitch and while the Argentina international was back for the trip to Tottenham in the League Cup four days later, Rashford was again left out and was not selected for the Bournemouth game. The homegrown forward's continued absence from the squad is causing a huge distraction and if United do wish to sell him, not playing him while appearing to call out his attitude will only drive down his price.
However, Amorim is not going to budge until he sees a noticeable improvement in Rashford's displays in training, and his detailed explanation after the Bournemouth game should give great encouragement to United fans who have become sick of certain players not pulling their weight. He said: "Everyone at Carrington knows what I'm talking about and what I want from Marcus and for everyone else so it's not a distraction for us, maybe it is for the media but that's not my concern. [Rashford should be] like any other player, the best that they can be.
"If you have big talent, [you need to show] big performance, big responsibility, big engagement. Push everybody forward. In this moment some guys have a big responsibility here because they are here for a long time. This is one of the lowest moments of our club we have to face it and be strong in this moment, that's what I want from every player in the team."