Three winners and three losers as Ruben Amorim immediately makes mark on Man Utd

RUBEN AMORIM has sparked a lot of excitement before he has even taken charge of his first game as Manchester United manager.

The two-time league winner with Sporting Lisbon saw his team beat Manchester City 4-1 in the Champions League before departing at the start of the international break to take over at Old Trafford.

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The 39-year-old has drawn many similarities to ex-Red Devils manager Jose Mourinho, particularly in his demeanour.

This is something which SunSport revealed has left stars “blown away” even before he took his first training session at Carrington with stars who are not on international duty.

However, to add to the excitement before the Portuguese tactician makes his bow on Sunday against Ipswich, the club released a video of him taking training that has gone viral on social media.

But we actually don’t need a video to know what players will benefit and who may find themselves out in the cold.

Throughout his career so far at Casa Pia, Braga and Sporting, Amorim has favoured a 3-4-3 shape with two so-called No 10s rather than wingers.

Below, we consider which three players are likely to benefit from the new tactical approach and which three players will find playing time hard to come by under Amorim.

Winner: Bruno Fernandes

Bruno Fernandes joined Man Utd from Sporting in January 2020 only months before Amorim arrived in Lisbon, and has been a talismanic figure at Old Trafford since.

The 30-year-old has made no secret of the fact he still considers himself a fan of the Portuguese club.

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This means that out of all of the squad at United, he is the one who probably best understands what Amorim is all about from a tactical point of view.

When Amorim was first announced as the new coach at United there was an immediate sense that Fernandes would be one of the players most at threat from a tactical perspective.

After all, he does not fit as one of two deeper midfielders and there was an initial understanding that Amorim favoured wingers as the main support for the main striker.

Instead, given Amorim prefers to use two narrow 10s behind the striker who have freedom to drift and move, this suddenly feels like the perfect role for Fernandes to fill at United.

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A free role in the final third of the pitch is where Fernandes has thrived since arriving in England, with his maverick approach to attacking too unpredictable for defenders to read.

We fully expect to see Fernandes continue to be one of the most important attacking players at United going forward.

Winner: Manuel Ugarte

If Fernandes is likely to benefit from an understanding of Amorim’s game mode, then arguably Manuel Ugarte has an even bigger benefit in that he previously played for Amorim in Lisbon.

He made the initial move to Paris Saint-Germain following his time in Portugal and then moved to United this summer after struggling to adapt to life in Ligue 1 – though still had the most tackles per 90 from anyone in the league with at least 900 minutes played.

Amorim has a clear preference for playing a two-man double pivot in the midfield with two players who are combative but comfortable covering a lot of ground.

This is essentially the perfect role for Ugarte who is not the most progressive passer or most attacking of midfielders.

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Instead, he is at his best when working to break up play and cover space before playing it simply when he does take possession of the ball.

Ugarte has shown more of what he can do paired with Casemiro in a two-man midfield under Ruud van Nistelrooy, and more of the same can be expected doing forward as he will likely become the key midfielder enforcer for United under Amorim.

Winner: Marcus Rashford

While the more central positions the two most advanced midfielders will take under Amorim will be beneficial to the likes of Fernandes, it is less clear how this will affect Alejandro Garnacho, Amad Diallo, Antony and Marcus Rashford.

The aforementioned training video appeared to show Rashford leading the attack as a central striker in a training drill.

With neither Rasmus Hojlund nor Joshua Zirkzee really impressing so far this season, the positioning of Rashford as a true No 9 may be a move of genius.

While Rashford is not the most comfortable when playing with his back to goal and looking to link the play and bring others into the game, he is dangerous with his movement when looking to make runs to attack space in behind.

This is the role that we are likely to see for Rashford under Amorim.

At Sporting, we saw Viktor Gyokeres score an incredible number of goals under Amorim playing as a striker who wants to pull on the shoulder of the last defender and make runs beyond to attack space.

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Rashford is likely to have a similar profile as the main striker which may allow him to fully realise his potential and become a key attacking player at United.

Being reinvented as a central striker with two close 10s to support him may see Rashford regain his form in front of goal.

Loser: Joshua Zirkzee

This one may come as something of a surprise given the fact Zirkzee only moved to United this summer from Bologna.

Zirkzee is a forward who is very much more comfortable when dropping into deeper positions to support in the midfield and link the play in deeper areas.

In this regard, he is almost the exact opposite to Rashford or Hojlund who are more aggressive attacking players.

Zirkzee has struggled to fully establish himself as an attacking player at United so far this season, with just one goal to his name on his debut against Fulham.

Indeed, there has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about the possibility of Zirkzee making a move back to Serie A on loan.

For the attacking shape and system under Amorim to work fully he needs a more aggressive striker who will play on the shoulder of the last defender and threaten to attack space behind the defensive line with space.

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With Rashford and Hojlund playing as central strikers it is likely Zirkzee will struggle for game time in that position going forward under Amorim.

Although, given Amorim is known to be flexible with the players at his disposal, and may see fit to retrofit Zirkzee as one of his two No10s in an effort to get the best out of him.

Loser: Christian Eriksen

For this choice we could have gone with either Christian Eriksen or Casemiro.

Both are midfielders that are coming closer to the end of their careers than the start and neither are well known, at this stage in their career at least, for their mobility in central areas.

The tactical system used by Amorim will often see the two central midfielders outnumbered centrally.

Consequently, they will be expected to cover a great deal of space in both the defensive and attacking phases of the game to compensate for this.

This means that the likes of Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo – who showed strong defensive stats before his injury this season – will be more suited to the style of play and the system than Eriksen.

The Dane is still a good passer who can progress the play, break lines and bring value in the final third when breaking down teams playing in a deeper block.

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The issue is that the two more advanced midfielders will come inside and play in the areas Erkisen would typically look to occupy as he moved forward.

Therefore, Eriksen will likely struggle to force his way into the team regularly, with Casemiro likely to be the first backup to Mainoo and Ugarte as the two midfielders.

Loser: Alejandro Garnacho

With the change of system and game model under Amorim we will see a change in expectations and profiles of the players that will thrive under the Portuguese coach.

This could mean a high profile player at United will struggle to get regular game time and nail down a specific role across the rest of the season.

That player is Alejandro Garnacho.

The 20-year-old winger has three goals and one assist in the league this season.

But he is much more suited to a more traditional winger role where he is free to play in space and look to stretch opposition defences with his pace.

Under Amorim, as we have already touched upon, the likes of Bruno Fernandes fit the profile of advanced and attacking midfielders.

But Garnacho is more of an individual player than one who looks to connect and combine with teammates.

While Garnacho is likely to be tried in this role we believe that it is unlikely that he will be effective given that he wants to play on the shoulder of the defenders to make runs to attack space, and this is the role of the striker under Amorim.

There is an argument that Garnacho could also be used as wing-back but we do not believe that he would be strong here given his lack of defensive instincts.

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We believe that under Amorim it is likely that Garnacho will be played in the first instance but given his specific profile we believe that he is likely to drop out of the starting team in the short to medium term.

Conclusion

At this stage of their career at United, it is likely Amorim and his coaching staff will be painstakingly assessing the squad to decide which players fit what they are looking to do.

It will be interesting to see whether Amorim can conjure up any surprises for stars who could become a key part of his system.