Ruben Amorim has already flagged his greatest challenge when taking over Manchester United on Monday: to make the club of Billy Meredith, George Best, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo play again in the tradition of these irresistible attacking forces.
The “wow” factor has been missing from those donning United colours for most of the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era. Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s off-the-cuff counterattack play apart, the teams of David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, José Mourinho and Erik ten Hag lacked the dizzying fizz of United’s finest vintages.
When Amorim declared after Sporting’s 4-1 Champions League rout of Manchester City on Tuesday night that United cannot play as defensively as the Portuguese champions, he signalled an intent to make his iteration a front-foot, box-office proposition.
His clear challenge is how to engineer this with a side in 13th place before the weekend’s fixtures – they host Leicester today – and with players unaccustomed to his preferred 3-4-3 configuration. “United cannot play the way we play, they cannot be so defensive,” he said after his Sporting side had sat back and waited to play on the break against Pep Guardiola’s City.
However, Amorim often harnesses the counterattack against higher-quality opposition and you have to wonder if United will be markedly more attacking than Sporting were in midweek. How the Old Trafford crowd will receive this is another matter. Even Solskjær, who restored the bond between club and supporters broken by his predecessor, Mourinho, drew ire for playing on the break.
Until Amorim can start building the squad he desires, whether his United can excite in his first months in charge will depend on an inherited group of players that are not obviously suited to his direction.
United have six central defenders so perming three for any matchday for the rearguard trident should be no problem. If his preferred lineup is Lisandro Martínez, Matthijs de Ligt and Leny Yoro (once fit), Amorim faces the question of whether they can initiate his tactics that build attacks from deep.
In the Portuguese’s middle quartet, the wing-backs at United will be called on to perform an unfamiliar role. At Sporting, Amorim has fielded the pacy Geovany Quenda on the left and Maximiliano Araújo on the right, inverted wing-backs operating on the opposing flank to their natural sides. At United Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui are candidates as right-sided defenders whom Amorim could select on either flank. Beyond whether they are able to adapt to the position, it will be intriguing to see whether either has the pace required to operate expertly by sprinting back and forward in attack and defence.
Amorim has a further problem regarding the reliability of two injury-plagued left-backs in Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia. The manager could plump for Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho to patrol the corridors but neither are renowned for their defensive discipline.
Antony may feel a flatlining United career has a chance of revival with a move to the position but, now in a third season at United, this seems an outside prospect. If this key part of the XI does not function, Amorim could consider a return to Sporting to sign one of Quenda and Araújo but with funds limited a January move may not be possible.
Central midfield presents another conundrum. If Amorim wishes to operate a flat four then he must find a way to fit in the two creative forces of Kobbie Mainoo and Bruno Fernandes. But there would be no room for either Manuel Ugarte, as a dedicated holding player, or Casemiro.
A diamond formation may be the solution, with Ugarte or Casemiro at the base, plus wing-backs either side and Fernandes or Mainoo at the tip. But one of the latter two would miss out, which, for a team whose heritage demands buccaneering football, seems unlikely and contradicts Amorim’s own declaration that United should not be dour.
His front three seems the least complicated selection area. On either wing, he can pick two from Garnacho, Rashford and the ever-improving Amad Diallo, with Rasmus Højlund at centre-forward. But definitely far more involved is the requirement to solve the paucity of goals, a mere nine scored in 10 Premier League games.
A calling card of the elite coach is how they adapt to the players already in their squad: footballers’ abilities come first, not the system. It is a mantra of City’s Guardiola, and United are about to discover whether Amorim belongs in a similar class of manager.
