Manchester United’s issues have never been clearer so where does Ruben Amorim go from here? | OneFootball

It was just one of many contradictions that add up to a lot of confusion about Manchester United, especially as regards where they go next. In Saturday’s latest setback, the obvious focus was on how they struggled with Brentford’s bombardment. United’s own backline couldn’t help but just look at high balls raining down on them. Ruben Amorim himself mentioned “long balls”.

And yet while that approach presented the Portuguese with his most immediate problem – particularly with how United quickly went 2-0 down to two Igor Thiago goals – it wasn’t the main problem.

Amorim lamented how “it’s more that we play this game like Brentford wants to play this game. We never settle down into long possessions, long control of the game. We’re never there”.

Amorim actually said the word “control” seven times, reflecting just how much the idea was on his mind. It certainly wasn’t on the pitch.

“We can do better with the ball, we can have more control,” he followed. “We can control the ball. We can settle down the game. We need to have more personality to control the games, calm down the games, and to play better.”

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Caoimhin Kelleher denied Bruno Fernandes from the penalty spot (Action Images via Reuters)

It’s hard to disagree with any of that, except for one last reference: “We have the ability and the capacity to control the game, to calm down the game.”

Do they really have that ability? They arguably don’t have the players.

Amorim again went with Bruno Fernandes in midfield, and one issue quickly stood out there, too. The Portuguese kept trying to play game-opening passes. That’s fine if you’re a number 10, which Fernandes is supposed to be.

Here, he’s at least notionally intended to be a controller, but doesn’t really look to play any of the obvious passes required for that role.

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Igor Thiago’s brace piled pressure onto Man Utd early in the game (AFP via Getty Images)

One other contradiction within United was that the single, simple ball Fernandes did play came at the worst possible moment. It was for the penalty, with his approach all the worse when it’s known that Caoimhín Kelleher waits for the kicker to strike. Fernandes consequently looked to pass it at the single moment when he probably should have drilled it; when he should have been a bit “Hollywood”.

You could admittedly blame the long wait on the VAR’s surprising decision not to send off Nathan Collins for the foul on Bryan Mbuemo, but an elite-level penalty taker is supposed to be above that in the modern game.

None of this is to overly blame, Fernandes, though. Brentford manager Keith Andrews even spoke out how he specifically worked on his team's approach in the centre, getting Mikkel Damsgaard to “dovetail” with Yegor Yarmolyuk so as to expose United’s weakness.

Andrews should be praised for doing an admirable tactical job on Amorim, picking off – or maybe forcing out – the opposition’s weaknesses, before then leaving the ball to their least damaging areas, but that runs alongside a wider point. One of those weaknesses is just so obvious. While it would be unfair on Andrews to put this down to United being easy to prepare for, that second statement is also true. United are easy to prepare for. So many problems stem from a midfield that just doesn’t work.

Fernandes really has to play there because there are so few options. Kobbie Mainoo is one, and is better at precisely that sort of possession, but that’s where those contradictions within United start to rack up.

Even Mainoo isn’t exactly that kind of midfielder. It remains staggering that United didn’t buy in that area, particularly when you consider the amount of money they did spend elsewhere.

The leadership instead proceeded with signing a striker and another two number 10s, bringing the number of the latter in the squad to six. Fernandes is one of them.

It is one of many decisions that doesn’t really make sense.

Some of this admittedly comes from proceeding with a squad overhaul that has been badly required, but that only brings contradictions of its own.

Leny Yoro is one of the brighter elements of the squad, and yet there are Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw persevering in the starting line-up ahead of him here.

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Benjamin Sesko netted a consolation goal for the visitors (AFP via Getty Images)

From that, it could be similarly asked why United persist with a formation that doesn’t fit the current squad.

Except, by then, you’re once more asking the big question, that is now going to again dominate a United news cycle before the next game, at home to Sunderland.

Why have they persisted with Amorim? It has long become clear that he is just the wrong option for this moment in the club’s history.

This isn’t to say that he can never be the right option, or that he’s a bad coach. He is likely to be brilliant again somewhere else. He may well end up brilliant at United, if they somehow bludgeon through all this doubt.

But in a situation where he so badly needs breaks in order to ease 12 years worth of institutional pressure, he really doesn’t appear to give himself the best chance of getting those breaks.

He makes so many decisions that just don’t seem obvious solutions to obvious problems. Why is it always the backline who are the go-to for changes when United are chasing?

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Is Ruben Amorim on borrowed time after just two wins from six league games this season? (Maja Smiejkowska/PA Wire)

It’s been said on these pages before but, given the number of issues at Old Trafford, this felt like a moment where they actually needed someone to just look at what they’ve got and adapt around that. They don’t really have the time or space for this extreme dogmatism. That feeling is all the more pronounced given that football seems to be evolving out of the Pep Guardiola-shaped ideology.

Meanwhile, United aren’t really evolving at all. Every step forward is immediately forced back. Every positive is immediately followed by multiple negatives, as was the case with Benjamin Sesko’s first goal for the club. Even Altay Bayindir’s series of fine saves ultimately culminated in questions over whether the goalkeeper should have let Mathias Jensen’s admittedly thunderous shot through.

Everything keeps going around, to the point that Amorim now has just 34 points in 33 games. Points-per-game is going to keep getting repeated while they keep losing, and it keeps on track at an utterly pitiful 1.01.

And yet this performance felt extra alarming because of the scale of regression from last week. It’s a bit hard to point to the xG now.

This is where there are no contradictions. Amid it all, one of the most striking things about Amorim is that he still speaks with an impressive clarity and charisma.

“I’m just trying to win the next game,” he said. “To create again the momentum.”

Really, though, it just shouldn’t be this difficult. That is all too clear.