Ruben Amorim has seen both the highs and lows during his early spell as Manchester United manager and has remained firm on his line of messaging to Bruno Fernandes and Co.
Erik ten Hag was sacked as United manager in October 2024 after a dreadful start to the 2024-25 Premier League season with the Red Devils.
Ruud van Nistelrooy was installed as United interim manager and the Dutchman steered the ship at Old Trafford ahead of Ruben Amorim’s arrival from Sporting CP.
United triggered the £9.25m release clause in Amorim’s Sporting CP deal and the 39-year-old Portuguese manager succeeded Erik ten Hag in the Old Trafford dugout.
Amorim sent out an early warning that United could feel short-term pain under his tenure before reaping the benefits of his long-term ambitions for the Red Devils.
The former Sporting CP boss has stuck with his philosophy despite the mixed set of results, including playing with a three-man backline as part of his tactical set-up.
Fernandes talks Amorim and Man Utd
Manchester United’s form fell off a cliff at the end of 2024, with Ruben Amorim’s men losing four consecutive matches across all competitions last December.
The Red Devils lost three Premier League fixtures in a row under Amorim before seeing a bounce back in form at the start of 2025.
United produced a superb showing against league leaders Liverpool earlier this month and secured a 2-2 Premier League draw at Anfield.
Amorim’s men then picked up their first win of 2025 on Sunday after 10-man United beat Arsenal on penalties at the Emirates in the third round of the FA Cup.
Bruno Fernandes revealed that the United manager stuck with the same line of messaging to his players even when results were going against them.
“So, everything he says to you, everything he tries to pass to you – him and his staff – he does it in a way that we really believe on what we are doing in,” he told Sky Sports.
“Even in games where you concede a goal or you have a setback or whatever, he just wants us to understand that the things we’re doing they will bring results if we do it in the right way.
“And that’s the most important thing we had in this period where we were not getting results was difficult.
“As you said, it’s really tough here when you we’re not winning games, but it’s massive and brilliant when you’re winning games here, too.”
Fernandes on Man Utd results
Fernandes insisted that the current United first-team squad maintained their “belief” in what Amorim was trying to do amid the dip in form and results.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he explained: “It’s really easy when you don’t get results, when you don’t get the performance that you start losing belief on everything you’ve been doing but I think that was one of the good things we had as a team – we kept the belief on what we are doing, on what we’ve been training and where we want to go as a team, where the staff wants us to go as a team, what we want to improve as a team.
“And that is what is giving us now some more credit because we’ve been doing the same things that people probably will think like, ‘Oh, the manager has to change this back three or back five, it doesn’t work. We need to go back four. We need one more striker.’”
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