Amorim’s crumbs of comfort not enough for Manchester United fans | OneFootball

The Premier League’s international break is traditionally a time when underperforming clubs sack their struggling managers and find a new shiny toy, wrapped in optimism and promises, to present to their restless fans.

Manchester United supporters are hoping that they receive that gift of hope over the next two weeks.

Red Devils boss Ruben Amorim has won just 19 of his 50 matches in charge of one of the most successful teams in the history of English football and is yet to win two successive games. Let the magnitude of that sink in for a moment.

Not good enough. United’s last ten results. Source: Sofascore

The fact that United emerged from Old Trafford with a somewhat routine 2-0 win over Sunderland on Saturday was perhaps more surprising than had they dropped points at home to the newly-promoted side.

Underperforming Reds

United’s only other successes this season have been a 90+7 minute home win over promoted Burnley – thanks to a last-gasp Bruno Fernandes penalty – and a 2-1 triumph over a Chelsea side that was reduced to ten men after just five minutes.

Winning goals from Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko against Sunderland may be perceived as easing the pressure on their under-fire head coach but it should not be allowed to detract from the fact the Portuguese still has a record that would see him axed at almost any other club.

Are Manchester United fans who feasted at the plentiful table of Sir Alex Ferguson now happy to survive on meagre crumbs?

Turning point for United fans

Match-going United supporters are famously supportive of the club’s managers. You won’t hear chants or see placards calling for their heads to roll. David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Erik ten Hag can attest to that.

But while you won’t detect unrest at Old Trafford, the majority of those same United fans could now easily answer the question: where were you when you lost faith in Amorim?

For me, it was the second-half of the 1-1 draw with Fulham on August 24. Despite the painful lessons of the previous campaign, a full pre-season to work with the players and a $244 million outlay on a trio of new attackers in Brian Mbuemo, Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko, the exact same failures were still evident.

For other supporters it was the 3-1 loss to a struggling Brentford side on September 27. Searching for that elusive two-wins in a row United headed to the Gtech Community Stadium to face a side shorn of their three best players and an outstanding manager full of optimism but left with that familiar feeling of dejection.

The defeat prompted previously supportive and influential voices, who had carefully opted against criticism until this point, to admit it had all become too much.

Former Manchester United captain and record goalscorer Wayne Rooney said on his BBC podcast he had ‘no faith’ in Amorim, adding: “I am not seeing anything which is giving me any confidence, there needs to be big changes in my opinion.”

Amorim’s future

Amorim still has backing in some quarters. United’s co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe remains supportive -not least because sacking the former Sporting manager would also reflect badly on the choices of his leadership group. While some pockets of fans still have little appetite to embark on another managerial cycle having been left disappointed so many times before.

However, supporters of Amorim have little evidence to back their argument and instead point to future hope and a string of ‘if only’ moments. Meanwhile, the 40-year-old’s detractors have a substantial body of work to point to his failures.

With 50 games gone under Amorim a watershed moment has been passed. A decision has been reached by the majority of the Manchester United fanbase. A 2-0 win over Sunderland should not change that.