Ruben Amorim has taken accountability for Manchester United’s situation but Sir Jim Ratcliffe has already made his thoughts on the matter clear.
Manchester United have suffered a 17th Premier League defeat of the season and are certain to finish in the bottom half of the table. United’s lacklustre performance led to them losing 2-0 to West Ham despite having far more chances.
After the match manager Ruben Amorim spoke out about the situation the club is in. During this interview he took on lots of personal responsibility for the club’s issues. “I’m the biggest [person] responsible for that. We need to change a lot of things during the summer,” he said.
Amorim then went on to discuss the club going in a different managerial direction if things do not improve. “We will not have a next season like this if we start like this. If the feeling is still here we should give space to different persons.”
Unless Amorim were to leave the club of his own accord the decision would be down to the INEOS owner and club minority shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s stance on Amorim
Back in March, Ratcliffe was interviewed about how things have been going at United since INEOS took over footballing activities. During this interview, the British billionaire made his stance on Amorim clear.
Amorim has not had everything go his way since joining United. He reportedly wanted to join the club this summer rather than mid-season but Ratcliffe pushed for an immediate appointment.
Then in January, the club made two defensive signings in Patrick Chinazaekpere Dorgu and Ayden Heaven, but did not replace either Marcus Rashford or Antony after they departed on loan.
Thankfully for Amorim, Ratcliffe fully acknowledged this important context and used it to defend the manager. “I think he’s done a great job in the circumstances, frankly, with the squad that he’s had available, the fact he came in mid-season,” he explained.
During the time the interview took place, Amorim’s squad was laden with injuries. Although a lot of those players are now back, the team still has some notable absentees. Diogo Dalot, Joshua Zirkzee, Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs De Ligt are all likely starters for United when available so their absence may have had some effect on the results.
This is another thing that Ratcliffe keeps track of as important context for the squads’ results and in March defended the manager because of those absences. “He’s got a bunch of other injuries as you know, so I think he’s done a fantastic job,” the United co-owner added.
United under Amorim have a lot of work to do
Although the Premier League record under Amorim is dire, there are still some signs that he is still the right man for the job.
It is still unclear why there is such a disparity between United’s Premier League form and their Europa League form. Whilst losing 17 League games this season they have gone undefeated in Europe.
The team’s performances in the domestic cups have also been better than the league this season. Despite only making the FA Cup fifth round United knocked out Arsenal and were only knocked out on penalty. In the League Cup, United lost 4-3 to Tottenham but the defeat was mainly due to individual errors.
Although Amorim has repeatedly stated that winning the Europa League will not change the issues at the club it would be an immense positive for a number of reasons.
If Amorim wins it will prove he can win trophies and instil more faith in his leadership, it will also generate immense revenue for the club which will improve the squad and finally, it will improve the whole squad’s morale as the Premier League performances appear to have taken a mental toll on the team.
As bad as things are currently at United, it seems unlikely that they’ll get worse with a prolonged period of focused training over the summer break and the recruitment of players who are familiar with Amorim’s system. Ratcliffe said it best in March: “Everybody expects miracles overnight. It’s not the way, not real life in my view”.
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