Ruben Amorim has been hugely successful by playing an attacking brand of football with a three-man defence at Sporting Lisbon, but it might not suit Manchester United
Ruben Amorim has been hugely successful by playing an attacking brand of football with a three-man defence at Sporting Lisbon, but it might not suit Manchester United Ruben Amorim has been hugely successful by playing an attacking brand of football with a three-man defence at Sporting Lisbon, but it might not suit Manchester United
Ruben Amorim has been warned that Manchester United don’t have the players to replicate his Sporting Lisbon system.
Amorim will take over as United manager on Monday after one final match with Sporting against Braga this weekend. His new club got an exciting look at what the 39-year-old coach could bring to the table at Old Trafford on Tuesday night as Sporting thrashed Manchester City 4-1 in the Champions League.
City took an early lead through Phil Foden’s strike, but were stunned in the second half after missing chances to increase their lead. Viktor Gyokeres scored a hat-trick, including two penalties, as City imploded, unable to deal with the pressure put on them by Sporting’s high-intensity press.
Amorim has a 70 per cent win ratio with Sporting, who he has guided to two league titles in four years by playing a front-foot style in a 3-4-3 formation. But former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy doesn’t think the same tactics are transferable to United, who lack the personnel to play that way.
“It depends how you play the 3-4-3. You can play it pragmatically or can play it offensively. They’ve got lots of good players at Manchester United, international players, so they should be able to adapt and play all different systems,” Murphy told Boylesports.
“But if he tries to mirror the Sporting team as it is now, they’ll have problems. That’s because they play a high line, they go after teams, they push up and they dominate games and they score lots of goals and they make lots of chances.
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“Now if United play that way, I think they’ll struggle because they haven’t got great legs at the back. You think of Lisandro Martinez, Matthijs de Ligt and Harry Maguire with Leny Yoro injured. With those three I’ve mentioned, none of their strengths are athleticism and running back.
“So can you play three or five at the back and you can do it well from a defensive point of view. You can sit in on teams and break and play counter. But if you play a high line with three at the back and two flying wingers, wing backs, with defenders who aren’t that athletic, you’ve got a problem.
“I think a lot of people see a system that a manager plays and thinks that that’s his philosophy. A philosophy is not a system. You can play a different system and have the same philosophy.”
United believe they have hired the most exciting young coach in Europe, but Amorim’s reliance on a three-man defence is one of the reasons Liverpool steered clear in the summer. The Reds opted to replace Jurgen Klopp with Arne Slot partly because the Dutchman is content playing with a back four.
Nevertheless, United’s Portuguese players Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes have backed the hiring of Amorim, who they believe has the right mentality to succeed at Old Trafford. Fernandes used to play for Sporting and has noted that Amorim “transformed everything around and brought everyone together” after arriving at the club in 2020.
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