Ruben Amorim summed it up perfectly.
After four and a half years of helping to change the club, his final Sporting home game was against a Manchester City squad that, because of their former complete dominance, cast a ten-year shadow over his new Manchester United team.
The story was sparked by a peculiarity in the schedule and Sporting’s insistence on allowing Amorim to go right away. It should have had the ideal conclusion, according to destiny.
A jubilant Amorim declared, “It was written it had to be like this,” following Sporting’s thrashing of Manchester City, which was their heaviest loss since September 2020 and their third in a week.
The festivities continued for a while. Hours after the last whistle blew, fans could still be heard singing all around the city.
Fans reportedly turned against the 39-year-old, but they actually still like him after Amorim was repeatedly pushed to the front of the Sporting team as they made their way around a well-earned lap of honor.
Amorim was eventually thrown into the air by his teammates because he was a reluctant hero because he had stated that he didn’t particularly enjoy going to the public festivities that surrounded Sporting’s two Portuguese title victories, the first of which ended a 19-year wait.
They obviously have a great deal of respect for the man who will be their manager for Sunday’s match against Braga.
He then travels to England. For a fresh challenge. And what a difficult task it is.
‘At United you cannot play so defensively’
Let’s start by addressing the fact that Amorim is currently in this situation.
Before the game, he made a joke about how a Sporting win over City would make United feel like another Sir Alex Ferguson was on the way.
The game in Manchester attracted a great deal more attention. Both United supporters and club executives were thrilled with what they witnessed. It mocked City’s secret declaration that Amorim was not on their want list for when Pep Guardiola ultimately quits, according to some.
However, Amorim cautioned that people shouldn’t extrapolate from what happened at Jose Alvalade Stadium.
“You cannot transport one reality into another,” he stated earlier. “You can’t play like this at Manchester United. You can’t play that defensively, so we’ll need to adjust. It is obvious that defeating this club and Pep Guardiola is extremely challenging. Furthermore, I am a better manager than he is.
We won’t have as much time to train, the world and the team will be entirely different, and we’ll start from a different place. Although people are free to form their own opinions, I tell the Manchester populace that this was an isolated incident.
Amorim’s defense-related observations merit more investigation.
Amorim’s use of three center defenders is the most noticeable distinction that has been extensively examined.
That resulted in a back five for extended periods of play against City.
However, that is one of the allurements. At United, they think it’s oversimplified to say that Amorim plays with three center defenders.
It is thought that how that manifests itself can change. This may be accomplished by central defenders moving forward into midfield areas, more conventional wing-backs, like Geovany Quenda and goal scorer Maximiliano Araujo attempted to be when they weren’t being pushed back, or inverted full-backs.
Two sitting midfielders are in front of them, followed by two narrow forwards and the outstanding Viktor Gyokeres at the top.
Does Amorim have the manpower to make the formation work if he follows it?
If not, he will have to make the same concessions as Erik ten Hag, whose final squad had nothing in common with the Ajax style he was expected to bring.
Therefore, it is imperative that Leny Yoro recovers from his broken foot as soon as possible.
The constant mention of £200 million being burned through the choice to remain with Ten Hag following the FA Cup final victory has left United insiders hurt.
First of all, they believed that there were insufficient systems in place to support a new coach. They believe Ten Hag earned more time to establish his value after defeating City at Wembley.
More importantly for this argument, the 18-year-old is possibly the best—and undoubtedly the most costly—of all the club’s recent acquisitions, having cost £52 million.
Compared to a trio of, say, Harry Maguire, Matthijs de Ligt, and Jonny Evans, his speed alone would drastically alter the appearance of a three-man defense. Furthermore, complaints about players not fitting in with the new head coach’s methods refute the idea that United just retained Ten Hag until a better offer arrived.
Amorim-watch – a manager ‘in the zone’
It looks like you might like getting to know Amorim.
It was really educational to see him manage his squad against City from my very high view point on the seventh floor of the main stand.
He didn’t show up for the warm-up, not even to glare at the opponents during their pregame routine like Jurgen Klopp did.
He was expressive once the game began, but not in the frenzied, compulsive, Antonio Conte or Simone Inzaghi sense. Amorim points a lot, but typically for a purpose, even if that purpose was to shift Araujo five yards into a different area of empty space from the one he had been occupying in the first half.
Amorim isn’t widely used in the technological sector. In addition, he doesn’t bounce down like Guardiola, who usually mutters a few words to his coaching staff before getting back up to continue issuing commands. Amorim even let a member of his backroom staff to take center stage at one point, but Sporting was already ahead 4-1 and Amorim might have been attempting to calculate the situation.
Amorim did not rush out of the dugout as his team scored their fourth goal, in contrast to Sporting’s plethora of substitutions. He stayed out of sight in the dugout.
He’s obviously in his element. Amorim called Zeno Blast, Ousmane Diomande, and Goevany Quenda over to discuss what he expected from their defense and wing-back combination, which he hadn’t been seeing up until that moment, while the stadium was bouncing to the sound of supporters applauding Sporting’s first-half equalizer. It seemed as though his complete strategy for the game depended on the goal being scored.
‘Premier League will be a different world’
Amorim subsequently stated that he will carry with him for the rest of his life the memories he has helped to create at Sporting.
England beckons after the Braga task is finished. He and everyone else are aware that if United is to compete at the level that their history requires, they must be far superior to Sporting, but reality has left them well behind.
Ten Hag received a lot of the same praise that Amorim was receiving. It didn’t help since, like Ralf Rangnick, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal, and David Moyes before him, the Dutchman eventually didn’t even qualify United for major awards.
Against City, Sporting was a well-prepared team. They made the most of their opportunities and won a well-earned and unforgettable triumph. However, they achieved this with nine shots as opposed to City’s 20 and 27.3% possession. A United manager will eventually face criticism if he produces those numbers, as many have done against City in the past ten years.
In his final statement at the press conference, which he gave in English as promised in the event that Sporting prevailed, Amorim declared, “It is [this result] misleading.”
“This game was really fortunate for us. However, the way my guys celebrated the victory with the spectators was a very unique emotion. The Premier League is where I take this. It will be a new world with different pressure when I get there. I’ll make an effort to be the same. I’m up for the task, and it will be a lot of fun.
On November 24, that challenge starts in Ipswich. The goal is to provide a lot more evenings like this one.
