Ruben Amorim facing impossible Leny Yoro situation | OneFootball

Ruben Amorim’s time at Manchester United has been less a series of football matches than a string of setbacks and hurdles with the odd kick-around thrown in for fun.

Certainly, the Portuguese has brought a fair amount on himself, and a lot of the issues he has faced have stemmed from his unwavering commitment to the 3-4-2-1 system which took over a year to begin approaching the start of clicking into gear.

Plenty of others came from the club’s years of incredible off-field bungling, parachuting Amorim in mid-season and handing him a squad ill-equipped to deal with any system at all, let alone his notoriously inflexible one.

And still others are just par the course at any football club, such as the oscillating form of key players. The recent resurgence of Mason Mount is welcome, but on the other side of the seesaw is Leny Yoro’s downward spiral. While the youngster’s struggles shouldn’t come as a surprise, they certainly come at a tricky time for the head coach.

In at the deep end

Still only 20 years old and playing every week in a perplexingly porous United backline, the Frenchman is living under a microscope and by all accounts not relishing it.

Unlike 19-year-old Ayden Heaven alongside him, he arrived for big money with a huge reputation – the Red Devils fought off the likes of Real Madrid and Liverpool to complete a €62m deal for him last year.

Pretty much all of Yoro’s pre-United career was one meteoric rise to prominence with Lille, for whom he became an undisputed starter aged just 18. While still a teenager he switched to Old Trafford and, after a false start occasioned by a pre-season injury, impressed in red with mature, polished performances.

Reality bites

But recent showings have been a sobering reminder of the player’s youth and inexperience, with moments of indecision and lapses of attention costing his side goals and points.

Yoro could have done better with both Morgan Rogers strikes which downed United 2-1 at Aston Villa, although he was not the only player to make a mistake in the build-up.

He also gave away a penalty against Crystal Palace, and while United roared back to secure a 2-1 win he had been substituted before Mount scored the clincher.

Amorim’s approach

The 20-year-old cut a despondent figure on the United bench during and after that game, and Amorim found himself in familiar damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t territory over the substitution.

The Portuguese is already semi-legendary for making in-game changes to the personnel in his backline, so in itself substituting Yoro was nothing unusual – he has played 17 times this season, and completed a full 90 only thrice. So in a situation where at least one defender was definitely going to be replaced anyway, it made sense for it to be the embattled youngster.

We are quickly learning that Yoro seems to be his own harshest critic, and maybe the change did hit him hard, but calls that Amorim was wrecking his confidence by removing him were errant nonsense as United’s rearguard struggled to contain the boisterous Jean-Phillippe Mateta.

Nowhere to turn

In the next couple of games Amorim opted for a starting three of Heaven and Noussair Mazraoui alongside Luke Shaw, although Yoro still racked up over an hour of gametime across those matches from the bench.

But with AFCON stealing Mazraoui away, injuries to Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt persisting and Lisandro Martinez easing back into a team suddenly needing him as an emergency midfielder, United can’t afford to keep Yoro on the sidelines even if that is clearly where he should be right now.

It’s all hands on deck in a chaotic backline right now, with Shaw the only player with any seniority at all. With 23-year-old Senne Lammens behind him and Heaven to his left, Yoro is left badly exposed at exactly the moment Amorim should be reaching for some cotton wool in which to wrap him.

A bump in the road

Amorim will be all too aware that he is having to persevere with Yoro at a time when he needs an arm round his shoulder and some reassuring words – as dished out by Mount after the Palace game.

The Portuguese’s consistent use of his young defender is coming from a place of necessity right now. The only other option is Tyler Fredricson, who has shown glimpses of promise but hasn’t played since being given a torrid time away at Grimsby Town in the Carabao Cup earlier this year.

Changing to a back four would allow a centre-back to be dropped, but his kamikaze commitment to three at the back has never seemed likely to waver and surely won’t now, simply for the sake of one player’s dip in form.

Perhaps for the first time in his young career, Yoro is very much in the trenches and it’s come at a difficult moment for his team and his head coach. There must be no pile-on on a young player going through a tough time, nor on a manager making the best of a precarious situation – it’s time for Amorim to show some serious man-management, and for Yoro to show he’s tough enough for the top-flight.

Featured image Michael Regan via Getty Images

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