Ruben Amorim might be Sporting manager right now but the noise that follows Manchester United around means he’ll never be away from it even if his arrival is a few days away.
Dimitar Berbatov is the latest to chime in on what can be expected from Ruben Amorim once he arrives at Old Trafford to tackle a job that swallowed and spat out another manager.
Thus begins a cycle of diving into the exciting unknown, another season of ‘rebuilding’, a time of ‘putting his stamp on the team’, and ‘creating a philosophy’.
This time, however, things are slightly different since this is Ineos’ first appointment and Amorim’s title of Head Coach instead of Manager marks that change.
Berbatov has said that Amorim is probably already doing one thing to prepare for the Man Utd manager job right now.
Ruben Amorim preparing for Man Utd job
Amorim will officially start at Manchester United on November 11 and he will have two weeks albeit during an international break, to get his feet under the table.
After that, however, fixtures come thick and fast and United play 12 times in 55 days, starting from Ipswich on November 24.
Therefore, Amorim will have to effectively learn on the job which undoubtedly comes with growing pains.
Berbatov appeared on Sky Sports and said that Amorim is already preparing for the job ‘right now’ by doing a full-scale assessment of the Man Utd squad options.
He said: “I think the first thing is probably doing right now is assessing what type of players he’s going to have at United.
“Are they gonna fit his way of playing? If not, is he going to bring new players? For sure, he’s going to stick with the same system, at least give it a try and see how it works.
“Who are gonna be the wingbacks? This is going to be a problem for United because you need someone who can really go the whole game up and down the pitch.
“Coming into the team, is he going to stick to the system that brought him success in Portugal? Portugal is a good league but Premier League is right up there.
“Does he stick to the system or when he sees the players and go, ‘Okay, we need the points, we need results so we change it a little bit and see what happens'”.
Dimitar Berbatov’s assessment spells trouble for some players
After Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ruthless assessment of the Man Utd squad recently, Berbatov’s doubts over the team’s suitability for the manager shine another light on the players.
The wingback issue, in particular, has to be the most important one as Luke Shaw has to be deemed as a bonus if available at this point.
The Bulgarian repeatedly stresses that Amorim might have trouble sticking to his system due to questions over the suitability of some players in the very specialist roles in his team.
For example, Joshua Zirzkee is as different a type of striker as one can possibly be to, say, Viktor Gyokeres, while United’s huge collection of wide players is about to encounter a formation that has no natural spots for a winger.
Of course, formation is just the way of lining players up and the roles they play on the pitch make all the difference but they are in line for a footballing education on a whole new style of playing.
That is bound to have some sacrifices and Ineos don’t look like they are in the mood to sacrifice managers anymore.
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