- Man United were held to a 1-1 draw by Ipswich in Ruben Amorim’s first game
- He has reportedly rated his team’s performance at Portman Road out of 10
- Liverpool correspondent LEWIS STEELE tells all on bombshell chat with Mo Salah – LISTEN NOW to It’s All Kicking Off! New episodes every Monday and Thursday
Ruben Amorim’s true thoughts about Manchester United’s performance in their 1-1 draw with Ipswich have been revealed.
The Portuguese boss took charge of his first game since replacing Erik ten Hag on Sunday, and the Red Devils got off to the perfect start when Marcus Rashford put them ahead inside two minutes.
But they were pegged back by a deflected Omari Hutchinson strike as Amorim and his side were forced to settle for a point.
According to The Sun, Amorim has since rated his team’s display out of 10, and is in no doubt that there is plenty of room for improvement.
‘Amorim said their performance was a five out of 10,’ a source told The Sun.
‘He was critical of one or two players for losing the ball and not being in the right positions. But he also said, “Some of you I’ve had for two days, some two weeks”, so he was realistic.
Ruben Amorim has reportedly given his Man United player a five out of 10 for their performance at Ipswich
United were held to a 1-1 draw at Portman Road in Amorim’s first game in charge
‘He did say they were going to have to learn quickly.’
Amorim used his favoured 3-4-3 formation straight away at Portman Road rather than the 4-2-3-1 system that Ten Hag had tended to adopt.
Analysing Sunday’s match on Monday Night Football, Jamie Carragher pointed out some ‘weaknesses’ that Amorim will need to address if he is to turn United’s fortunes around.
‘I hear a lot of managers including Ruben Amorim saying systems don’t matter too much. I believe that they do, no matter how many times managers tell me they don’t because, well why do you play a different system? Different systems give you different things in different areas,’ Carragher said.
‘For me, the weaknesses are in these spaces here, either side of the two central midfield players. The reason why is, when you play a conventional back four, your wide man can tuck in and help.
‘But because you play a back three, when they get the ball they naturally go wider and wing backs go wider and higher.
‘It means there’s a lot more space around these two central midfield players, especially if the two attacking 10s don’t drop back. There were the same issues on the Ipswich side as well.
‘The big problem is – is it a midfielder who should drop in to fill that space or should a centre back step in with someone?
Amorim implemented his 3-4-3 formation straight away against Ipswich, but Jamie Carragher believes there are ‘weaknesses’ that the new United boss already needs to address
‘We listened to Ruben Amorim after the game and he spoke a lot about Jonny Evans not making that jump into the space to pick up a man. Because they played the same system, it almost became a man-to-man game. Football has become that.’
Amorim will have little time on the training pitch to get his philosophy across to his players with the fixtures coming thick and fast in the build-up to Christmas.
His first game at Old Trafford will take place on Thursday when United face Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League, and they will then host Everton three days later.
Trips to Arsenal and local rivals Manchester City also await in December, while a Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Tottenham is only a matter of weeks away, giving Amorim an early opportunity to push for silverware at United.
