Manchester United are looking to avoid suffering a third successive defeat on Thursday when they face Czech side Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League, with new boss Ruben Amorim under fire
The majority of Manchester United’s players are happy with new manager Ruben Amorim’s rotation policy after making a whopping 23 changes since his first match in charge.
Amorim, who arrived from Sporting Lisbon last month, has started 20 different players since replacing the sacked Erik ten Hag five games ago. The Portuguese’s chopping and changing has led to criticism from ex-club captain Gary Neville and, according to a new report, at least one member of United’s squad.
During Saturday’s dismal 3-2 loss at home to Nottingham Forest, a result which leaves the Red Devils languishing 13th in the Premier League table, Amorim made three substitutions by the 66th minute, including changing two of his three-man defence. Neville claimed in the aftermath of the defeat that Amorim was repeating the same mistake as Ten Hag by making frequent in-game changes.
“When you keep changing players, when you keep changing your back three, when you take five players off, you’re basically saying to all of them effectively – because they’ve been left out of the starting XI – you don’t trust them,” the former United right-back told NBC Sports.
“Ten Hag kept doing that a few weeks ago where he kept changing the back players, changing the midfield. All of a sudden, you’ve got a completely different system, a completely different set of players on the pitch at the end of the game and you can never get stability or consistency.
“Just leave the players on. They actually weren’t playing that bad in the first half. Obviously they were undermined by the set pieces, in terms of the corners, but the football generally wasn’t that bad.
“Then you allow two mistakes were made after half-time after the first ten minutes to undermine you and then basically you make changes and all of a sudden everything falls to pieces and it looked really scruffy. They looked a mess at the end, United, with no real shape. I actually think at least in the first-half, they weren’t great but at least they had a shape about them.”
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According to the Manchester Evening News, Amorim’s players are happy with his rotation policy, despite one unnamed star complaining in private. The Red Devils face Viktoria Plzen, who are currently second in the Czech First League, on Thursday in the Europa League, hoping to avoid losing their third game in a row.
United drew their opening three Europa League matches to spell the end of Ten Hag’s reign before wins under interim manager Ruud van Nistelrooy and then Amorim. That puts them in 12th in the 36-team table, currently only enough to go into a two-legged play-off in February which will determine their place in the knockouts.
Man Utd’s travelling squad to face Viktoria Plzen
Goalkeepers: Altay Bayindir, Tom Heaton, Andre Onana.
Defenders:Diogo Dalot, Matthijs de Ligt, Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire, Tyrell Malacia, Lisandro Martinez, Noussair Mazraoui, Leny Yoro.
Midfielders:Casemiro, Toby Collyer, Christian Eriksen, Bruno Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo, Mason Mount, Manuel Ugarte.
Forwards: Amad, Antony, Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund, Marcus Rashford, Joshua Zirkzee.
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