Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has pinpointed the major signings that Manchester United must make first for Ruben Amorim after the 2-0 defeat to Newcastle.
Ruben Amorim arrived at Old Trafford in November after leaving Sporting CP and replaced former Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag at the club.
Erik ten Hag was sacked in late October after United’s terrible start to the 2024-25 season and Ruud van Nistelrooy took over as interim Red Devils manager.
Amorim has been thrown into the deep end at United and the 39-year-old Portuguese manager has seen the Red Devils’ form take a turn for the worse.
Newcastle outclassed United in the opening 20 minutes at Old Trafford on Monday evening and were 2-0 up at half-time in the Premier League clash.
Amorim’s men were unable to rally back against Newcastle and the Red Devils dropped a costly three Premier League points in their final match of 2024.
United have lost their last three Premier League matches and Amorim’s side are winless since their 2-1 comeback win against Manchester City at the Etihad.
Amorim also oversaw United’s exit from the Carabao Cup quarter-finals after a 4-3 defeat to Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium earlier this month.
Neville on Man Utd transfer targets
Manchester United are precariously positioned at 14th place in the Premier League table and the Red Devils are seven points above the relegation zone.
The Red Devils have only managed six league wins from 19 matches and United’s hopes of a top-four challenge are all but over after their woeful run of form.
United are now 13 points adrift from fourth-place Chelsea and the club’s best route to securing Champions League football is through the Europa League now.
Despite United’s abysmal performances in recent weeks, Ruben Amorim has stuck with his conviction and continued to play his formational style at the Red Devils.
Speaking after Monday’s result against Newcastle, Gary Neville said that United must sign “two quite unique players” for the wing-back positions in Amorim’s system.
“I could say centre-forward, let’s get a world-class centre-forward, let’s get Isak in, but that’s never going to happen,” he told Sky Sports.
“I think if you were starting, you’d have to start with the fundamentals of this system, which is the wing-backs, they hold it together.
“If you don’t have the wing-backs functioning up and down that are able to attack and defend equally as good, and there aren’t many of those around, by the way, because there aren’t many teams that play wing-back, then you’re going to struggle.
“So, you need two quite unique players in those wide areas, and I think that will be the starting point.
“And that’s nothing against [Noussair] Mazraoui or [Diogo] Dalot, I think they’re very willing and doing the job the very best that they can. But they’re to me the areas that I would start in this system.”
Neville talks Man Utd and support for Amorim
Neville admitted that United will most likely have to wait until the summer transfer window before they can begin a “huge overhaul” of the first-team squad again.
“I mean, whatever happened? Probably not,” he said.
“But they’re going to support him, aren’t they? Their mindset is such now that they’re going to dig in, support the manager, get him through maybe a transfer window in January.
“I’m not sure there’s that much money to spend in January because they’re on the edge of FFP, but they’ll obviously get to the summer and there’s going to have to be a huge overhaul again.”
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