Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim is under huge pressure at Old Trafford and a number of Red Devils icons have been critical of him, including Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville
A number of Manchester United legends have voiced their opinion on Ruben Amorim since he took charge at Old Trafford.
When Amorim replaced previous manager Erik ten Hag in November he was tasked with turning around a team that had endured their worst ever start to a Premier League season. However, things have not gone to plan so far and United are languishing 14th in the league.
Amorim has picked up just 11 wins from his first 24 games and has struggled to implement his favoured 3-4-3 formation, leading to plenty of criticism over his tactics and approach. Wayne Rooney is the latest Old Trafford icon to criticise Amorim, branding him “naive” after United were dumped out of the FA Cup on penalties by Fulham.
Here, Mirror Football has taken a look at four United legends who have been critical of Amorim…
Wayne Rooney
Following United’s FA Cup exit, Amorim was slammed by Rooney after he said: “The goal is to win the Premier League. I know we are losing games but the goal is to win the Premier League again. I don’t know how long it will take. We have a goal and we continue forward no matter what.”
In response to Amorim’s comments, Rooney told the BBC : “I think it’s a little naive to say they’re looking to win the Premier League because from where they are now, they’re a long way off that. Get further up the table, I think that’s the next step for them.”
Gary Neville
During United’s 1-0 defeat to Tottenham last month, Neville claimed the way Amorim set up his side was “awful”.
After James Maddison scored the only goal of the game, a fuming Neville said on commentary for Sky Sports : “The distance between the two centre midfielders for United is all wrong. Look where Fernandes is, look where Casemiro is.
“It breaks all rules of football. It’s absolute madness. The structure of the team is awful. The two in midfield are split. It’s embarrassing. You wouldn’t see this in under-9s football. Look at that space in midfield! Shocking.
“Amorim is really angry. He is going mad at his bench. He is shouting at people,” Neville continued. “I’m not sure what he is angry about. The biggest problem l can see is how this team are set up.”
Paul Scholes
The way Amorim gets his team to warm-up has also been questioned, with Scholes branding the Portuguese’s approach “odd”.
Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet, Scholes said: ‘When I was playing, I wanted to play with more freedom. I watch football all the time, but I don’t analyse the game as much anymore. Nowadays, with football being so tactical, I feel like the life has been sucked out of the players.
‘I’ve been watching Manchester United the last few weeks, specifically how they’ve been warming up before matches, and I’ve noticed that they’re practising the team shape. They’ve got the back five defending the goal, with crosses coming into the box for the forwards to attack and they’ve even started practising set pieces in front of the fans, which just seems odd to me.
“The warm-up is there to enjoy, having the ball at your feet, practising your touch, but everything is focused on tactics and I’m not sure I’d be able to deal with it, if I was playing. Trying to work out the tactical element of football matches doesn’t fascinate me. I want to see good bits of play, defenders firing the ball into the midfield, a winger taking on their full back, so I’m not looking at the tactics, but maybe I should be.”
Rio Ferdinand
Following United’s 3-1 defeat to Brighton at Old Trafford, Ferdinand claimed Amorim has failed to get them playing with “any real idea or real patterns”.
He said on Rio Ferdinand Presents: “It’s a sad state of affairs. It’s a bit of a morbid weekend, if I’m honest, we got beat today. Teams are now going to Old Trafford with no respect whatsoever. The manager needs to find a way of getting his team through this period, find a way of finding some positives in some games.”
“The team don’t seem to be able to play football properly with the ball. We ain’t got any real idea or real patterns at the moment since this manager’s come in.”
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