We’ve had a few months of Ruben Amorim now to see what he’s about and like any manager there are some positives and some negatives. I thought now might be a good time to reflect on his start to life at Manchester United.
In terms of positives, he is probably the best manager we have had since SAF in dealing with the press, he’s clear, honest and comes across well, even when under pressure or asked difficult questions. While the reports are that the players like him and work well with him and his coaches.
While it’s difficult to see there have actually been some improvements in some areas as a team, our shape is better and we are not seeing gapping holes in the team like we did under EtH, we have increased our possession, reduced the number of shots against us and the xG against us, showing that teams aren’t getting as many chances or high quality chances as they got when EtH was manager. The number of shots we take has gone down, but our xG has gone up. Suggesting that we aren’t taking as many low chance shots and we are creating more high quality chances.
So if we are conceding less good chances for the opposition to score and creating better quality chances for us to score, then why are the results so bad?
The reason is individual errors. While our defensive shape is much better, and teams aren’t getting as many clear chances against us as they did previously, the players just aren’t defending well as individual players. They are losing too many of their battles, aren’t aware enough of potential danger and slow to react.
The goals we conceded against Everton and Spurs are perfect examples of the issues we have.
None of the goals came from situations where our team had been pulled apart, nor were they thunderbolts into the top corner from 35 yards. In fact they are all very similar goals, the ball is in our defensive third and numerous players fail to deal with it. They don’t anticipate where the ball is going to cut it out, they don’t win their individual challenges and the ball bounces around until it falls to an opposing player to shoot.
Our defensive shape was good, we had players in the right positions to deal with it, they just didn’t deal with it. They stood there like statues watching the ball, unaware of the movement of the opposition players, then when it falls to one of the opposition, our players are slow to react. A lot of it is such poor defending that it wouldn’t be acceptable in Sunday league.
Onana doesn’t help in that he often makes the initial save but has a tendency to knock the ball back out into dangerous areas rather than keeping hold of it or knocking it wide or out behind the goal. The ball comes back out fairly centrally and all of our defenders are caught on their heels while the opposition have reacted getting to the ball first and having a good chance to score.
Everything the manager can control in that situation has been good, the team shape and the tactics, while his personnel choice has often been limited. The goals conceded have pretty much entirely been down to individuals not doing the basics or making fundamental errors. That isn’t something the manager can do much about apart from replace that player with someone better.
I don’t think it’s helped that we have had a lot of chopping and changing in our backline due to injuries. Yet only Yoro has any real excuse for making errors given his age and lack of experience, yet if I’m honest he has typically been the best at reacting to situations and actually trying to deal with it. Mazraoui when he’s played as. CB can maybe have a little benefit of the doubt as it’s a new position for him. Yet Martinez, MdL and Maguire have no excuses for being slow to react or for not anticipating danger, they are experienced CB’s and they need to be better.
Midfield needs some work, but given the personnel available I don’t think they’ve performed too badly. Ugarte has been quietly excellent, Mainoo has struggled. Whether that’s second season syndrome, burnout, injuries, or struggling to adapt to the demands of the new tactics it’s hard to say right now. Collyer has been solid when he’s stepped in. Amorim’s midfield is about energy, work rate, and defensive solidity. They do the donkey work so that the CB’s get time and space on the ball to dictate the play, and they for the attacking midfielders and wingbacks to be able to get forward. They don’t need to be great expansive passers, however it’s beneficial if they are good ball carriers to be able to dribble the ball through a line of pressure to take players out of the game. For the most part our midfield have been able to do this and have been functional to the system. Although we could still do with an upgrade in this area.
In attack is where this team has really let itself down. While we have typically created better chances than we did under EtH, we have created less chances and we’ve been pretty poor at making the most of the chances we create.
We are 8th in the league for the xG per game, yet we are 16th for goals scored. This highlights that we are not taking our chances. We have created 49 “big chances” in the league this season, and scored 6 of them. That’s 43 chances where you’d be expected to score more often than not where we’ve missed. Even if we scored half of those that’s an extra 21-22 league goals. That would almost certainly have us up around 7th/ 8th place in the league. Still not good enough but maybe more representative of where we are as a team right now.
Players missing good chances is again individual errors and not a problem with the system/ tactics. If the players were taking those chances we’d be in a much better position. The manager cannot shoot for the players.
Frustratingly the biggest culprit of missing high quality chances is Garnacho who has had 16 of the 49 “big chances” and scored only 2 of them, missing 14.
While the missed chances a play a big part of why we are so low down in the league there is also the issue that we don’t create enough chances as well. 8th in the league for xG per game is nowhere near good enough. Again though I don’t think it’s down to the system but more down to the limitations of this squad.
The system relies on attacking width from the wingbacks, but as yet we’ve rarely been able to get players with the right attacking flair into those positions. Until Dorgu signed we have had to play Dalot at LWB, a player who seems more naturally suited to a RB role. He is a fairly well balanced fullback in terms of attack and defence, while being asked to play on the wrong side it is not natural for him to attack wide on the left. While I feel that Amad is best suited to being one of the attacking midfielders, I felt as a team we have been most dangerous when he has played at RWB as we actually had some attacking flair in the wide position that stretched the opposition and created more space in the middle for our players.
Until we get 2 or 3 actual wingbacks, players who will attack more than defend we will continue to struggle to create enough chances to be able to miss as many as we do; yet still score enough goals to be up in the top half of the table, and challenging for the UCL places.
Dorgu is a step in the right direction, while Diego Leon could possibly be another come next season. We still need another option, and I can see why we are heavily linked with Quenda from Sporting. Frimpong might be another who would be a very good fit for this team, and possibly be able to have a more immediate impact.
The attacking midfield options I think are fine and maybe don’t need an immediate upgrade as long as we don’t lose anyone. Bruno and Amad are very good first choice options. While Mount, Garnacho and Zirkzee offer different options. If one of them leaves though we will need another player there.
It is in the striker position where we have the biggest issue in attack. Højlund is actually a very clinical finisher, but he isn’t getting the number of chances he should be getting. Part of that is due to a lack of service, we have a lot of players who delay playing the final ball or whose first instinct is to try and fashion a shooting chance for themselves. However, I feel that since Amorim has taken over that is becoming less of an issue. For me the biggest issue holding Højlund back now is his decision making and his off the ball movement. He’s dropping too deep and is getting involved in battles with CB’s (losing the majority of them), meaning he isn’t in the right places when we do attack. He needs to mix up his game more as he’s very predictable, and that makes him easy to defend against. To be fair he has been thrown in to carry the goalscoring burden of our massive club when he should be a player who is coming off the bench for 20 minutes or starting games when the first choice striker is rested or suspended. He needs someone to learn from. Imagine if we had a 29 year old Cavani in this team and Højlund was training and learning from him every day, the hints and tips he’d get. How much quicker would he develop?
Højlund’s weaknesses are stopping us from having a goal threat and a focal point in attack. He has the ability to develop those parts of his game, his weaknesses come mainly from a lack of experience rather than physical or technical skills. He can become the player we need, but he is 2-3 years away from being ready to be our starting CF in my opinion.
Two attacking wingbacks and a top CF goes a long way to solving the issues we have in attack. Currently we are too slow, lack attacking width, waste too many chances and don’t have a focal point. There are not other options in our squad currently to improve those weaknesses. Højlund is the only true striker we have, Dorgu is the only wingback we have. Regardless of formation or tactics we will still lack width and clinical finishing in attack.
We have improved as a team in terms of shape and our ability to control games, but we are held back by a lack of quality and options in this squad to actually perform well consistently enough to get the results we need.
To improve we need a top class striker, another attacking wingback, a ball playing CB who doesn’t make basic mistakes, an energetic all action midfielder and possibly another attacking midfielder to upgrade out options if one of Mount, Zirkzee or Garnacho leave.
Both EtH and Amorim have shown the limitations of this squad, we lack quality. If the entire squad was put up for sale tomorrow how many UCL clubs would be interested in signing any of our players?
At best we have 5 or 6 players that top UCL sides would want. Yet we expect to be a top UCL sides ourselves. Yet at least 20 of our players probably aren’t at that level. Is it really that surprising that we are struggling to perform with this group of players? Regardless of system of tactics, they just aren’t good enough, and until we start to change them, we won’t dramatically improve regardless of who the manager is.
Written by Shappy February 23 2025 17:53:26
Source link
