Micah Richards and Gary Lineker both saw eye to eye on one major obstacle that Ruben Amorim will have to overcome during his time at Manchester United.
Ruben Amorim oversaw the Red Devils’ late 3-1 comeback win against Premier League strugglers Southampton at Old Trafford last Thursday.
Manchester United delivered an underwhelming display against the Saints and Amad Diallo’s stunning late hat-trick bailed out the Red Devils from a humiliating defeat.
However, the Red Devils were unable to pick up their second consecutive Premier League win when Brighton arrived at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.
Yankuba Minteh opened the scoring for Brighton in the fifth minute before Red Devils skipper Bruno Fernandes scored an equaliser from the spot-kick for United.
However, Fabian Hurzeler’s men took control of the Premier League match in the second half and restored their lead through Kaoru Mitoma in the 60th minute.
Georginio Rutter buried Brighton’s third of the match in the 76th minute thanks to a major howler from United No 1 Andre Onana.
Richards reacts to Amorim and Man Utd
Manchester United suffered their first defeat of 2025 under manager Ruben Amorim and the Red Devils dropped three valuable Premier League points.
Amorim’s men languish in 13th place in the Premier League table and the Red Devils are 10 points clear of the relegation zone and 12 points adrift from the top four.
Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, Micah Richards insisted that Amorim’s tactical system at United is being exposed after the Brighton defeat.
Amorim wasted no time implementing a three-man backline at Old Trafford after his arrival and has stuck with playing a 3-4-2-1 or a 3-4-3 formation with United.
“Let’s flip it on its head,” Richards said.
“Back in you [Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer] twos’ day, it was 4-4-2, right? If then you change the formation to a 3-4-3, how difficult would you find it to adapt?
“Okay, Gary, you’ve played on the right, you’ve played on the wing, so maybe a bit easier for you.
“But imagine saying to you, Alan, go and play on the right of a three upfront where you’ve got to press.
“I think he [Amorim] is so [held up] on playing this certain style but the players don’t fit the style.”
Lineker on Amorim and Man Utd
Gary Lineker was on the same wavelength as Richards and said that The Rest Is Football co-host hit his point on the head with his observation.
The Match of the Day presenter said that Amorim faces “massive issues” at United and the Red Devils can’t play counter-attacking football against “weaker teams.”
Responding to Richards, Lineker said: “Exactly my point. You mentioned it there.
“I said even after the two good performances against Liverpool and then Arsenal in the [FA] Cup, talking about them being a counter-attacking side that the test would come against the weaker teams because Manchester United can’t play counter-attacking football against teams at the other end of the table.
“We saw it, they were trailing against Southampton 1-0 until the very end and Diallo bailed them out with that late hat-trick and we saw it again today against Brighton.
“They can play the high press and they can counter themselves, which they’re very good at, so yeah, they’ve still got massive issues there.”
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