Ruben Amorim officially starts as Manchester United's new head coach this week. Alex Keble looks at his top five priorities.
1. Establish a clear identity from the outset
This point is the most obvious, the non-negotiable.
Man Utd played without a visible tactical identity throughout Erik ten Hag’s tenure, so Amorim will endear himself to supporters if there are clear principles from the outset.
There is little doubt that there will be.
Amorim exclusively uses a back three and almost always plays in a 3-4-3 formation, prioritising a high press, proactive possession football and intricate passing networks built out from the back.
Last season, his Sporting side were among the most "slow and intricate" teams in the Primeira Liga, according to Opta Analyst, as shown in the graphic below.
As for their pressing, Sporting’s PPDA (passes per defensive action), which measures the success of their pressing, was 9.5 this season at the time of Amorim's appointment, which is lower than any Premier League side bar Tottenham Hotspur (7.6) and Arsenal, with 9.0.
Man Utd must showcase some of these traits from day one because more than anything, this is a team that needs structure, discipline and tactical direction.
2. Use Ten Hag’s improved defence as the starting point
Defence should be the foundation for Amorim because - and this might come as a surprise - it is arguably the strongest part of Man Utd's team at the moment.
United’s Expected Goals Against (xGA) in the Premier League has only dropped fractionally from 1.56 per 90 minutes this season compared to 1.84 in 2023/24, but the eye test tells a different story.
Ten Hag pushed his defensive line higher, while the addition of Noussair Mazraoui also created a more aggressive defence, able to step up.
This was the case in relatively solid Man Utd performances against Aston Villa (0.50), Brentford (0.86), and Fulham (0.44), all matches in which they conceded an xG of less than one.
Amorim can, in theory, build on Ten Hag’s ideas here with his own high line.
He will be particularly happy with Mazraoui and Lisandro Martinez, although Harry Maguire is the only defender in the squad with significant experience playing in a back three.
3. Integrate Ugarte into the team
In Ten Hag’s first summer at Old Trafford he wanted to sign Frenkie de Jong - a midfielder he’d previously worked with - to lead the tactical revolution from the middle, but instead he was given an entirely different kind of player in Casemiro.
Amorim won’t need to buy an old favourite to lead the midfield - but only because Man Utd have already signed him.
Manuel Ugarte was the anchor at the heart of Amorim’s two-man midfield in 2022/23, with his combined total of 178 tackles and interceptions the most in the Primeira Liga.
Ugarte can have the same impact at United, leading a high-intensity pressing game and working to shut down the huge gaps through central midfield that so often appeared in the Ten Hag era.
Indeed, Ugarte won eight tackles in Sunday's 3-0 win over Leicester City. Since such data became available, no Man Utd player has won more in a Premier League match.
4. Build his attack around Hojlund
The signing of Rasmus Hojlund for a reported fee of £72million was a huge moment in the Ten Hag project, but the young striker is yet to quite make his mark.
Fortunately, he has all the traits of an Amorim forward and can be the new fulcrum of United's attack.
Hojlund’s pressing, directness and his penalty-box power were what caught the eye at Atalanta, and in this respect, the 21-year-old is not too dissimilar to Viktor Gyokeres, who scored 45 goals in 43 Primeira Liga matches under Amorim.
Amorim likes his front three - a powerful striker with two direct inside forwards sitting close behind - to play with speed and verticality, which makes Hojlund a more natural fit than Joshua Zirkzee.
5. Solve Rashford and Fernandes conundrums
There are two potentially tricky issues on the horizon for Amorim.
One is the form of Marcus Rashford, which would be a conundrum for any United manager. The other is an issue specific to Amorim’s use of a 3-4-3.
There is no obvious fit for Bruno Fernandes, and yet there surely must be a role for a man who created 114 Premier League chances last season, two-and-a-half times more than the next-best at United in Alejandro Garnacho, with 46.
Fernandes lacks the targeted pressing, speed or positional discipline of an Amorim inside forward and it’s hard to imagine him being converted into a No 6 to sit alongside Ugarte.
It’s a challenge without an obvious solution. Rashford’s form, on the other hand, is perhaps a simpler fix.
Rashford scored 17 Premier League goals in 2022/23 coming in off the left wing and he is a natural fit for the inside forward role.
Amorim’s high line, hard pressing and vertical possession football should - in theory - give Rashford everything he needs to rediscover his best form.
