Not stubborn, just stuck

Two visits from Newcastle in 2024 ... but only one United manager getting it right

SEVEN ASIDES Premier League: United 0, Newcastle 2

United were at home to Newcastle and they were going through a slump … so the manager changed the formation. He abandoned his personal preference in favour of something that would improve the team’s chances of a win. It worked so well that United won that match, and the next one (at Brighton) and the one after that – which happened to be the FA Cup Final against Man City. The United manager who made this crucial change was Erik ten Hag. Remember him?

That was seven and a half months ago. The rejig was not as drastic as the one Ruben Amorim would make when he switched to a back three. But it was a definite change, from 4-2-3-1 to 4-2-2-2. On paper there was a box midfield – two holders and two false 9s. Kobbie Mainoo was in the pivot with Sofyan Amrabat (remember him?). Scott McTominay joined Bruno Fernandes in the hole, while Amad and Alejandro Garnacho supplied the width. In practice, the midfield was a diamond, with Amrabat as the No 6, Mainoo and McTominay as the two 8s and Fernandes as the 10. Although a final score of 3-2 looked close, United had never been behind and Newcastle had never equalised. For the Cup Final Ten Hag retained the shape while changing some of the personnel. He benched Amad, put Garnacho on the right and recalled Marcus Rashford, who played the dreamy crossfield ball to Garnacho that paved the way for Fernandes’ even better ball to Mainoo for the second goal. One report suggested that the idea for the new formation had come from Jason Wilcox, United’s technical director, but even if it did, Ten Hag deserved the credit for his pragmatism.

How United could do with that now. Ruben Amorim doesn’t appear to have a pragmatic bone in his body, and he is managing the team as if he rather likes the sound of a relegation battle. His system is just what the opposing manager ordered: Eddie Howe joined Vitor Pereira, Andoni Iraola and Nuno Espirito Santo in running rings round this version of United. ‘I am not stubborn,’ Amorim said afterwards. ‘I believe in something and I really stick on that.’ Is anyone going to tell him that that is exactly what stubborn means?

Having sabotaged United’s top-six hopes by insisting on a system that suits only him, Amorim then picked a midfield that didn’t suit his system. With a midfield two up against a three, you have to have runners. Anyone with even a passing interest in tactics could see that Casemiro and Christian Eriksen were the wrong pairing. Eriksen could have started as one of the No 10s, deputising for Fernandes as United’s creative director. Mainoo should have started next to Casemiro. Personally I would have had Toby Collyer too, to add youth and bite (when he came on against Liverpool in September, United managed to get through 45 minutes without conceding). So, a diamond midfield with a back four behind it and split strikers in front – Amad plus either Garnacho or Marcus Rashford, who was back in the squad but apparently not in the fold.

Amorim says he’s ‘the only guy’ who has to pick the team without hindsight. He’s not the only one who does. On the Manchester Evening News website, fans can pick their team before the game (and two or three of the paper’s writers have to). For this match they chose Casemiro and Mainoo in central midfield. They were right and Amorim was wrong. That was so glaringly obvious that even he acknowledged it, after 33 miserable minutes, by bringing on Mainoo, taking off the miscast Joshua Zirkzee and pushing Eriksen forward to inside-left. Without Mainoo, United concded 11 shots and two goals; with him, one shot and no goals. The fans, the MEN writers – pretty much everyone had picked a better team than the manager.

Amorim also persisted with two full-backs at wing-back. This ploy has been a disaster: as the Sky pundits showed before the game, it has yielded not a single Premier League goal. That drought has now lasted for 429 minutes, whereas with a winger at right-wing back (either Amad or Antony), Amorim’s United have scored a goal every 40 minutes. Putting Noussair Mazraoui or Diogo Dalot at right wing-back is what you would do if you were actively trying to stop United scoring.

United are not heading for relegation (yet). No Premier League club has ever been relegated after being seven points clear of the bottom three at the halfway stage. But then no Premier League club has ever had Ruben Amorim in charge. Following the Dan Ashworth fiasco, we know that Jim Ratcliffe and Dave Brailsford can turn on their own appointments very suddenly. They should give Amorim two more matches, as this week and next are the first two he will have had without a midweek fixture (because he picked the wrong starting XI at Tottenham). Let him see if he can use the extra training days to turn square pegs into round ones. Let him see if he can select an XI at Anfield that makes sense. Let him see if he can go back to Arsenal and do more than park the bus. On that cheerful note, happy new year! And thanks for reading.

Tim de Lisle, the editor of United Writing and a sportswriter for The Guardian, has been supporting United since before their last relegation.