How Ruben Amorim fared in his first five games as Sporting head coach ahead of Manchester United start

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Ruben Amorim is preparing for his first game as Manchester United head coach during the November international break.

Manchester United decided to sack Erik ten Hag following a 2-1 defeat to West Ham United in the Premier League in late October with Ruud Van Nistelrooy put in temporary charge of the club.

Following the conclusion of Van Nistelrooy’s rather successful interim spell, Sporting Lisbon manager Ruben Amorim is set to take over at Old Trafford.

Amorim has a tough opening five games as United manager, so we decided to take a look at how well did he start during his first five games as Sporting manager?

Sporting 2-0 Desportivo Aves – 8th of March 2020

It was a strong start to life as manager of the Portuguese giants for former SL Benfica midfielder Ruben Amorim with Sporting picking up a 2-0 victory in the Portuguese League.

Andraz Sporar fired Sporting ahead in the second half before Lucas Vietto made it two just five minutes later to wrap up a comfortable victory in Amorim’s maiden test.

Vitoria Guimaraes 2-2 Sporting – June 4th 2020

After three months of no football in Portugal due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the league finally resumed in June of 2020 with Amorim’s Sporting maintaining their unbeaten start under the Portuguese.

Sporar had netted twice with Sporting 2-1 ahead before former Tottenham winger Marcus Edwards, who has been linked with United, equalised for Guimaraes.

Edwards would later transfer to Sporting and it seems likely that performances like this from the Englishman swayed Amorim to sign him.

Sporting 1-0 Pacos De Ferreira – June 12th 2020

Amorim made it seven points from a possible nine after three games with his Sporting side picking up another victory whilst keeping a clean sheet.

It was a free-kick from Jovane Cabral that handed the points to a Sporting side that had lost Bruno Fernandes in January 2020 to United but they seemed to be progressing under Amorim.

Sporting 2-0 CD Tondela – June 18th 2020

The good form continued under Amorim with Sporting recording their third victory in four games under the Portuguese manager with a 2-0 victory over CD Tondela.

The 3-4-3 formation which has become Amorim’s modus operandi was on display once again with players such as Nuno Mendes and Matheus Nunes in the team.

It was once again goals from Andras Sporar and Jovane Cabral which won Sporting the game as they remained in the top four.

B SAD 1-3 Sporting – June 26th 2020

Despite B SAD going ahead in the opening 10 minutes, it remained an unbeaten opening five games for Amorim in charge of Sporting as they completed a first-half turnaround.

Sebastian Coates, formerly of Liverpool, and Jovane Cabral netted a double which wrapped up a comfortable victory for Amorim’s side as they jumped to third in the division.

United fans will be hoping that Amorim will have a similar start at Old Trafford when they face Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich Town in the Premier League.