The question continues to beckon: “Is Ruben Amorim the right man for Manchester United?”
Following Manchester United’s 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford to eleventh-placed Everton, United’s fans are left with more questions than answers as to whether Ruben Amorim is the right man to bring the club back to its lost glory days.
Amorim graced his 39 games in charge of the London club with a bitter and heartbreaking loss to Everton, who were down to ten men in the 13th minute of the game. Everton’s Idrissa Gueye was sent off for fighting and striking his teammate on the face.
From that moment, United couldn’t break through the sturdy defense of Everton, as they were set up perfectly, dealing with every cross and attacking pass, blocking every space that could be utilized by the home side.
This made things very difficult for Amorim’s boys, who couldn’t put up the fighting spirit as they went down to a Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall goal that was culled from sheer brilliance, beating two Man United defenders and curling the ball past Lammens in the 29th minute.
After the game, an interview with Ruben Amorim revealed the manager’s frustration at his team’s inability to find the net when faced with a “park the bus” defense. He said, “I’m feeling really frustrated, like any other person that supports Manchester United.
“We should be frustrated with the way we started the game and the way we didn’t understand how we should play against 10 men. They deserved to win. We had a lot of chances in the second half through crosses and second balls, but the quality and decision-making wasn’t there. Everton were the better team.”
Furthermore, the Manchester United gaffer spoke about the quality in the box and the lack of fighting spirit to get a goal for the home side.
Amorim said, “The quality around the box is another big thing, but more importantly, it was the intensity we showed. We cannot win games in this way.
“After the sending off, I was expecting us to have long periods of possession and to push the opponent. We didn’t control the transitions, even with 10 men. We were giving them big spaces to win second balls, so the understanding of every situation in the game was not there.”
In recent games, United have been set up to run into spaces with their progressive runners, causing havoc for the opposition defense, but this wasn’t the case in the Everton defeat.
“We organize attacks to pressure the opponent and create space to score,” he said. “If space exists, it’s a numbers game. For example, if it’s a three-on-three situation up front, and I have [Benjamin] Sesko, [Matheus] Cunha, and [Bryan] Mbeumo, I’ll finish the attack with two passes.
“I hope to score with two passes. But sometimes you have to patiently build. What I try to teach the players is how to play in different situations. That’s my job. I don’t want to teach players to build attacks by touching the ball too many times.”
Speaking about the defeat, England and Manchester United legend Gary Neville had a lot to say about Ruben Amorim in his podcast regarding his formation and his man management.
Neville said, “It was nowhere near good enough; that was a really bad night for Man Utd. It was an embarrassment at times.
“Forget [injuries to Sesko and Cunha]; there are no excuses. I’m not entertaining that one bit.
“Everton dominated them with 11 men and with 10 men, in a different way of domination, but they dominated them through their fight and their spirit.
“It’s complacency, and complacency will kill you. The minute that you think as a football player that you just have to turn up on that pitch and you’re Manchester United and you can play or any football club, you’re done.
“It just smelt of complacency [from United]. They weren’t at it from the beginning. That is a bad one for United.
“You can’t go from the fight that they showed in certain games to that. It just erodes confidence; it erodes trust. We’re trying to build trust in a manager; we’re trying to build trust in a team.
“The fans booed collectively at the end. It was loud, and rightly so. That was a really poor performance. It’s almost as if you’ve gone sort of like two or three steps forward, everyone’s feeling a little bit better about themselves, and you’ve just gone back to the start again.
“You can lose football matches, but you can’t lose them like that. That’s nowhere near good enough; it’s not acceptable.”
Now, all eyes are firmly on Manchester United, who are placed 10th on the table with 18 points and zero goal difference. As they look to bounce back from this defeat with their next match away against an in-form Crystal Palace on Nov 30th and playing at home against West Ham on Dec 4th.
Both matches will prove crucial to the fan’s confidence in Ruben and the team, as they expect them to train hard and play well since they are not distracted with European competitions.
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