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Rúben Amorim has exposed a “dangerous” problem Manchester United suffered from under Erik ten Hag

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Rúben Amorim has exposed a “dangerous” problem during his first few months as Manchester United’s new head coach.

Now that the emotions have passed following Saturday’s distressing defeat at home to Nottingham Forest, it is time to talk about an issue that cost Manchester United this game and has cost them many in the last few years.

This was not a game Rúben Amorim‘s should have lost, on paper or balance or play. A few errors cost them, but mistakes happen in football. The real issue runs deeper.

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Manchester United have a problem dealing with adversity.

Fundamentally driven by a cultural problem that has plagued the club for over a decade, the rot has reached dangerous levels. People have spoken for years about United being a graveyard for quality footballers, and this negative culture is what feeds that.

It impacts the managers, too. Erik ten Hag, for all his flaws, highlighted this – particularly towards the end of his time at the club – and a lot of his decisions were geared towards trying to expose this and change it. Amorim has so far been similar, albeit with a different approach.

A video compilation went around on social media last season mocking Ten Hag’s frequent usage of the term ‘stick to the plan’, but the reality is Manchester United abandon the plan at the first sign of difficulty.

With Ten Hag, the plan was more complex and difficult to execute on. Amorim has given his players more clarity and structure, but in his early games it has become clear that when the team faces adversity, in the Forest game their second goal immediately after half time, players deviate from the plan and revert to type. Their nature and instincts take over.

This leads to players each being on different wavelengths, and not being in tune with the coach, impacts decision making, and often leads to more errors and very erratic play. Forest’s third goal saw a series of misjudgements at the back after Diogo Dalot failed to stop the cross.

United have struggled to get a consistent plan going for a number of years now, and it has been getting worse. Amorim has shown good early signs, but whilst I do believe players will become more familiar with this system over time I would argue some of these early difficulties are not just teething problems but rather a continuation of a long-standing cultural problem.

Until this cultural issue can be fixed, United will continue to struggle with this. As H said in his post above, it impacts new players, too. So, whilst a massive improvement on the current squad is needed, the culture must first change.

This is not an overnight process and requires input from INEOS, Amorim, and the squad. It is clear what INEOS have to do, particularly with regards to recruitment, Amorim has impressed early on with how he carries himself, and the players who are good enough to remain have to overcome this issue of reverting to type at the first sign of difficulty.

For all the tactical analysis done on social platforms, the success of tactics is conditional on players executing them. When the players abandon these at the first hurdle, they will look unsuccessful.

United are a club in transition, and so there will always be inconsistency. But one of the biggest things that must be fixed is the ability to handle difficulty, otherwise United will remain a club in transition.


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