When Ruben Amorim arrived at Manchester United, he would have known how big of a job he was undertaking but after the Ipswich draw, the true scale probably revealed itself to him.
The new Man Utd manager already looked like he was hit with reality as to how far the team still needs to go and the magnitude of the job in front of him.
At least he has started off on the right foot because, unlike Erik ten Hag, he’s at least acknowledging the existence of problems plaguing the team.
Among the problems, and he knows there are many, he also seems to have identified a key issue and used multiple interviews across multiple channels to hammer home that message to his players.
Ruben Amorim identifies key issue at Man Utd
When there is a lot of stuff to fix at a club, it is important for the manager to prioritise and tackle the issues that will have a larger, holistic impact.
For example, Amorim stressed recently that buying a new striker is not the solution to the team’s goalscoring woes which shows his approach is perfect.
Similarly, he has set about creating a culture at United that looked a bit disintegrated in the wake of Ten Hag’s exit.
For that, Amorim’s actions after the Ipswich game were an indicator, further showing that not only did he get the memo, but he understood it perfectly too.
On the pitch, he has used interviews to hammer home a particular message to his players. Below are two excerpts from two different interviews he gave in the lead-up to the Bodo game-
Amorim in his press conference: “I am expecting a tough game. They run a lot and we need to improve that. They are winning all the time so I am expecting a very, very intense game and a good game.”
Amorim in his interview with in-house media: “They run a lot and that is something that I want my team to experience, to have these types of games.”
The four-word phrase “they run a lot” makes an appearance both times and that is precisely where he wants his team to improve the most.
Amorim focused on fixing Man Utd’s fundamentals
If the basics are taken care of, then most other things will be fixed on their own and the most basic thing in football is out-working the opposition.
Amorim has been using training drills to improve United’s effort in defence which has often led to them being exposed on transitions.
Against Ipswich, they dominated possession with 60% but even taking that into account, only Fulham and Chelsea have been outrun by United this season in a game.
The opposition is constantly working harder than the opposition and Amorim has clearly identified this as a key issue at the root of many problems.
Talent can only take the team so far if there’s no effort to go along with it and the latter has been missing far too often this season. Amorim is determined to get that right. The Man Utd squad could be about to get a wake-up call on what it takes to succeed at the very top.
It’s long overdue.
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