Ruben Amorim has arrived at Manchester United and with him comes a sea of change at the club less than five months after an overhaul.
In the summer, Erik ten Hag, armed with a new contract refreshed his entire coaching staff with three new hires, all four of whom are set to depart.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s departure has been confirmed and he’ll be replaced by Carlos Fernandes, Amorim’s long-time assistant.
Three other United staff members follow Van Nistelrooy through the exit door and Amorim is expected to bring as many as five new staff members to Old Trafford.
Besides Carlos Fernandes, there’s Adelio Candido, Jorge Vital, Emanuel Fero, and Paulo Barreira. Each of those men is a clear replacement for a departure except for one who will also be arguably the most important hire.
Paulo Barreira crosses enemy lines
Paulo Barreira has been with Ruben Amorim at Sporting since the start of his tenure in 2020/21 when he joined from Arsenal.
Barreira is a sports conditioning and physiotherapy specialist with a particular focus on sports science, tasked with monitoring the players’ fitness levels and ensuring they are operating at their optimum levels.
This role consists of injury prevention as well as injury cures and in that way, Barreira’s multi-faceted skill set is a huge addition to the Man Utd coaching staff.
He was the first-team physio at Arsenal but Amorim expanded his job remit at Sporting, leveraging his gifts fully for the team’s benefit.
However, Arsenal is not where Barreira’s “enemy” past ends. Before joining the North London team, Barreira spent four years at Liverpool, from 2011 to 2014.
The club changes in staff at this level are common and United would know, since their current CEO was poached from Manchester City!
However, it’s still worth leaning upon the knowledge Barreira has garnered with his wide experiences of not only working at a rival but also working across multiple continents and with title-winning teams.
Man Utd’s biggest recent problem
Manchester United hadn’t been clinical in front of goal until recently but that’s hardly a problem for the physio to solve!
However, the fact that Ten Hag paid for it with his job wouldn’t have happened had the last season gone along the expected lines which didn’t happen.
That was down to an injury nightmare in the 2023/24 season where players dropped like flies and just putting out an XI of fit players from one game to another was a challenge.
It hasn’t been that bad this season but that’s hardly a high bar to clear because United have still struggled with injuries a lot, with multiple players yet to make their season debut.
Gary O’Driscoll started as the Head of Sports Medicine in the summer of 2023 and he has now started to ramp up his work so Barreira will hope to be a good addition to a new medical team.
If he can start having an impact on the team and reduce injuries either through prevention or cure, that will solve United’s biggest problem recently and ensure Amorim doesn’t meet the same fate his predecessor did.
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