If you are a Manchester United supporter, it must be the hope that kills you. The hope of improvement. The hope of change. The hope of a new direction. So far under Ruben Amorim there has been none of this.
Amorim, the new United manager, has said some impressive things and made some brave calls but all of that pales rather when set against the enduring mundanity of his team’s football. United looked a very bad team when Amorim assumed control from Erik ten Hag ten games ago and they still look like a very bad team today.
United are less chaotic under their new Portuguese coach. They make fewer catastrophic individual mistakes. They don’t turn the ball over in inexcusable areas quite so often.
But still they lack control and purpose. Still they lack energy and enterprise. Still they concede bad goals. Meanwhile, has there even a United team that looks less likely to score than this one? It’s hard to imagine one.
They have scored 21 Premier League goals and a third of those – three at Southampton under Ten Hag and four at home to Everton under Amorim – have arrived in just two of their 18 games.
The bar had been left so low by Ten Hag in the final days of his time at Old Trafford that it seemed any coach carrying reasonable credentials would improve them quickly and significantly. This is not a United squad capable of winning the Premier League but, given the closeness of this year’s top division, it has enough in it to threaten the top four places. Nottingham Forest are third, after all.
Manchester United suffered their eighth league defeat in 18 Premier League games against Wolves on Boxing Day
The Red Devils have made a poor start to life under new boss Ruben Amorim and find themselves in 14th place
But they have not gone forward under Amorim. Not an inch. Given the run of games that faced Amorim when he took over – Ipswich, Everton, Arsenal, Forest, Manchester City, Arsenal, Wolves – United should now be sitting in the top six or seven.
That they are 14th ahead of Monday night’s game at home to Newcastle is quite shocking and though it would be presumptuous to suggest Amorim is not the man for the long term, his work in the immediate aftermath of his appointment has questions marks hanging over it.
Every new coach arrives with risk attached. It’s impossible to know beyond any doubt. Amorim, for example, arrived on the back of impressive spells only in his home country, having worked solely in a league where one of three teams triumphs every single season almost without fail.
The Premier League is different. It is an exacting environment in which some very good coaches have taken time to do well.
Unai Emery was laughed out of Arsenal. Marco Silva had to go through educational experiences at Hull, Watford and Everton before finding his true voice at Fulham. Nuno Espirito Santo is on his third Premier League job at Forest, Eddie Howe at Newcastle his second. For all those who manage to hit the ground running – Thomas Frank at Brentford and Brighton’s Fabian Herzuler for example – are others who take longer. And that’s before you consider the almost unique pressures and focus that come with the job at Old Trafford.
Amorim was not United’s first choice. He was not anywhere near top of the list when the club considered sacking Ten Hag last summer. By the time Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his gang made the switch, there were not many cards left on the table.
Amorim was still greeted like the saviour. Of course he was. What is the alternative? To shrug your shoulders and expect the worst? He arrived feeling like an antidote to all of Ten Hag’s charmless clunkiness and United needed some of that. He has made a big call over Marcus Rashford and deserves credit because somebody was going to have to at some point.
There have been some improvements in players like defenders Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui while Amad Diallo has played with some welcome freedom and exuberance. And Amorim really does need time to see whether he is the man to move United forwards rather than a coach who looked good as a big fish in a small pool.
United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe (right) reportedly identified Thomas Tuchel as the man to lead the club when reviewing Erik ten Hag’s position in the summer
Ten Hag was finally dismissed by the Red Devils in November after the side showed no improvement from their dismal eighth-place finish last term
United’s league position could worsen still in the coming weeks with games against Newcastle, Liverpool and Arsenal
He needs time to improve cultures and ideas and styles of play. He needs time to identify and recruit his own players and drill them in a formation that everybody knew he would not change before he even arrived. If ever there was a club that needs to understand the value of long term planning then it is this one.
Equally, he simply must find some palatable results as he does this. Good coaches improve teams and players however poor they are.
They take small steps forwards. When you look at a team, you can see their work staring back at you. This is not the way of things under Amorin at United right now and that is a surprise.
This is a United team that still has that dreadful vacant look in its eyes. What is it? Where is it going? How is it improving? What happened to the hope?
