Manchester United has been in the worst sporting crisis for 35 years. The prestiget duel against city rival City is a minor matter. It is about the future that new coach Ruben is supposed to shape Amorim.
When Ruben Amorim in mid -January after a renewed home defeat by Manchester United spoke that “We probably the worst team in club history” are, that was a sentence that is noticeable in many ways. At that time, the Portuguese was barely two months as a coach in office at the English record champions.
And yet there is much more than the obvious headline in the “we” and the fact of gaining this knowledge and also expressing it: Amorim wants the revolution in Manchester. The club should submit to its plan, even if the path is painful.
Manageable start balance for Amorim
Manchester United, once a permanent guest in the co-phase of the Champions League, is table-13. in the Premier League. Amorim had taken over the troubled club from Erik Ten Hag in early November – lying in 13th place. His manageable record since then: 29 competitive games, 13 wins.
| Premier League | Europa League | FA Cup / EFL Cup |
|---|---|---|
19 games | 6 games | 4 games |
22 points | 5 victories / 1 draw | 2 victories / 2 defeats |
Amorim has been the desired coach of the management days newly formed in the past year and a half – especially CEO Omar Berrada and co -owner Jim Ratcliffe. Amorim’s wish to take over the coaching post only after the current season had to be due. Now or never, it is said to have been called. Amorim opted for the former, Sporting left in the perhaps best phase in his club history: As a master until the beginning of November, all league games won and second -placed by 36 teams in the Champions League.
| Liga Portugal | Champions League | Portuguese cup |
|---|---|---|
10 games | 4 games | 1 game |
30 points | 3 victories / 1 draw | 1 victory |
This balance is also the reason why the still very young Amorim, in January he was 40 years old, has been very popular on the coaching market for some time. Last summer he was in the room as a Klopp successor in Liverpool, and Manchester City is said to have dealt with Amorim – in the event that Pep Guardiola would not have continued.
League duel against MAN City sporty irrelevant
Amorim meets that Guardiola on Sunday evening (April 6th, 2025) in his second city derby. Practically irrelevant for united because the distance to the relegation places is huge, but also the gap to the Eurpapokal places. The first game against City in mid -December ended spectacularly: Amad Diallo turned the game within two minutes shortly – United won 2-1. City’s crisis, from which you still haven’t really found out, tightened. Amorim was able to experience one of the few bright spots as a united coach.
The 0-1 defeat at Champions League candidate Nottingham Forest On Tuesday (April 1st, 2025) the next damper was and revealed once again the multitude of problems that Amorim has to solve. You could play the game in a playful way as progress. Because although the cogs interlock more and more, United lacks a reliable striker and many players cannot be found in the system that are now no longer so new.
It’s different with Bruno Fernandes. The captain, who most recently caused a sensation in the Europa League with a triple pack against Real Sociedad, is considered amorim’s extended arm on the square. In its 3-4-2-1 system, the 30-year-old is either used in the so-called half-ties position or on the double six. He was last mentioned as the possible transfer goal of Real Madrid in the coming summer – Amorim has given a clear cancellation: “He doesn’t go anywhere. I want to have Bruno here because we want to win the Premier League again.”
| Premier League | Europa League | FA Cup / EFL Cup |
|---|---|---|
29 games | 9 games | 6 games |
8 goals / 10 templates | 4 goals / 2 templates | 4 goals / 3 templates |
United under Amorim: One step forward, two back
When you look at the current situation, it sounds like a joke. But Amorim has this serious vision – and is ready to continue the current suffering. “We have to suffer, all around the club”, He had repeatedly emphasized in December, as the first critical voices were loud in the English press.
What has happened since Amorim’s arrival could hardly be described better than with the phrase “one step back, two back”: While you have lost four Premier League home games since the end of December and sometimes have no chance, you threw arsenal out of the cup within a few days and almost missed a win with the designed master Liverpool. And: one last title chance is still – as a quarter -finalist in the Europa League. In the European Cup, the only team is still unbeaten in this season.
How can a change work?
Amorim will still have to moderate the current upheaval, in one of the largest clubs in the world, with its very honest and open way. But he also has to design it. The list of professionals who are supposed to leave the club in summer is long. Including top earners such as Casemiro, which collects over 20 million euros annually. In recent years, the club has put so many hundred million euros in transfers that did not work that the announcement from above – we would be back at Berrada and Ratcliffe – is now different: success yes, but not at any price.
Amorim recently showed an example of how this can work: In January, Ayden Heaven came from Ligakon competitor Arsenal. 18 years old, sat with the “Gunners” A few times on the replacement bench. In the meantime, the tall central defender has completed his Premier League and Europa League debut, convinced several times and is a real option for the defense chain. Retiefs: around one million euros.
Manchester United on the crossroads
It is a crossroads on which Manchester United is located in spring 2025. Observers and experts from the island “say again”, but some also warn: now or never. Either the club with Amorim finds back on track or not at all. The coach knows this with the “now or never” and makes no secret of what he was up to: he wants to win the Premier League.
Interestingly, he has one together with club legend and ex-coach Sir Alex Ferguson, who spoke of Liverpool as a record champion when he took office in 1986 (United had Sieben, Liverpool 16). That sounded bold at the time, maybe even arrogant. Ferguson did it, even if Liverpool will probably pull the same again in May.
Amorim is only at the beginning. And even if he created an effective headline with his quote: the current team is not the worst in the top of the stock. It is “only” the worst for 35 years. Back then, in the 1989/90 season, they became thirteen.
The championship followed three years later. The first under Ferguson.