Ruben Amorim's Man Utd bow assessed: Gary Neville runs though the winners, red flags and familiar failings after first game

25 November 2024, 18:51 | Updated: 26 November 2024, 18:35

Gary Neville has questioned the hunger and appetite of the Manchester United players following their 1-1 draw with Ipswich - but admits the performance was in keeping with the past two-and-a-half years.

Amorim started his tenure with a 1-1 draw at Ipswich on Sunday where Marcus Rashford's 81-second opener failed to inspire a triumphant debut for the former Sporting boss.

Various principles of the 39-year-old were on display in Suffolk, with three centre-backs deployed alongside the use of wing-backs, but United were indebted to two excellent Andre Onana saves to claim a point.

In a 15-minute interview with Monday Night Football, Gary Neville analyses Amorim's first experience under the spotlight, picking out the players he feels will benefit from the new manager's system and the red flags that were still on display at Portman Road.

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Did we see a more positive Man Utd?

I don't know about that [Man Utd were positive]. We were all intrigued to see how it would go [against Ipswich]. When I saw the team sheet I worried a little bit about the lack of pace. I wasn't quite sure how they were going to set up to begin with, to be honest with you.

When you saw them on the pitch and it was Noussair Mazraoui, Matthijs de Ligt and Jonny Evans as a back three, with Casemiro and Christian Eriksen in midfield. You know full well that five at the heart of the team haven't got the pace or the energy and have got quite a bit of age between them.

I was worried about how they were going to keep compact and keep pushing up the pitch to keep that high-energy game. United started well but they fell back into how they've been in the previous months and Ipswich were the better team in the second half.

Moving forward, you'll see a higher performance level once he's worked more with those players who were coming back from the international break.

Which players were the winners of this system?

Luke Shaw, if he can keep fit. That left centre-back needs to eventually be able to play out as a left-back, so he is well suited to do both. The same must be said of the right centre-back.

We saw Mazraoui do it against Ipswich. Ugarte will be a winner, not just because he's played for him before.

It's how you fit in the likes of Rashford, Garnacho, Bruno Fernandes. Because one thing you know with that system, you've got two wing-backs, you've got a back three and you've got a two in front.

It's then that three, which obviously the two that he likes to play sort of come inside a little bit. So, you're wondering about sort of Amad... Amad played obviously wide yesterday, but Garnacho, Rashford, Hojlund, Zirkzee, Fernandes. That's the conundrum of those attacking positions where I can't quite see what's going to happen.

Mainoo and Ugarte for me, playing midfield, they're absolute certs. Luke Shaw's a certainty to play. He would be anyway in a back four or a back three.

Ultimately you'll end up with Yoro as the right-centre-back, just because of that energy and that pace. So, the winners will be the ones who I think are adaptable.

When we played with a back five with Terry Venables or a back three with Glenn Hoddle, the outer centre-backs do have to be able to go out wide. So, the ones who are more flexible and agile are going to be the winners.

Is there going to be short-term pain?

That will have hit him straight away when he saw that performance. At the end of the game, we saw the stat that was put on us in the post-match from Sky, where it showed that United had done 102km, which was obviously pretty low.

The lack of energy... he said to me in the interview on Thursday that the one thing that he wants to change straight away is the athleticism of this team and the athleticism of the squad.

I don't think he was just referring there to getting them fitter. He was actually referring to actually them just running more. I spoke to him about his Sporting Lisbon team and the fact that they were just a high-energy team.

They were all absolute dogs when they were out of possession. And you look at that Manchester United team, they haven't got good standards out of possession, whether that's in the last six months or whether that's in the last two years. They just don't have the level of work that the teams in the league seem to have.

That was apparent again on Sunday. So, there is a real issue that's obviously Ruben Amorim at the end of that game will know a lot more than he would have done before the game in respect of just looking at the lack of energy in that team compared to what he would ordinarily have expected back in Portugal with the team he managed.

Were there any big red flags in terms of individual performances?

The red flags that were there yesterday would have been there probably for the last few months and the last season and a half of a team that are very difficult to actually like watching.

And I say that with respect because I genuinely do believe what Ruben Amorim said at the end of the game. No football player goes out onto the pitch and wants to lose or doesn't want to win or work hard or do well.

They don't want criticism. But you watch them play, even yesterday, the new system, and you look at Ipswich, who are very near the bottom of the league, who look more organized, better coached. They look like they've got more appetite for the game, more enthusiasm.

And that's a constant and has been a constant, not just obviously on Sunday, but a constant for the last year and a half, two years, three years. So we got to a situation where these group of players, to be honest with you, have created a pattern for themselves and become what they are.

And not just a red flag yesterday, because the same things that we've seen in the last six to eight months, ten months, we saw yesterday with Ruben Amorim being the manager, he saw it as well.

He obviously knew how big a job this was, but he'll have recognized it yesterday.

It will get better in the next few weeks, because like you say, that back five that he picked, and I'm not talking about the actual wing-backs here, I'm talking about the three at the back and the two in midfield, that will become more energetic and better, the sort of personnel, when the personnel changes occur. But there's a long way to go.

Roy [Keane] yesterday called Manchester United an average team, and that's being kind.

What would be success between now and end of season?

Success would be to see a team that's really got an enthusiasm, an energy, a confidence and a fighting spirit in there, and getting the players all together with some sort of level of understanding.

I don't think you can even talk about trophies or top four at this moment in time. It would be arrogant to do so, even though United have won two trophies in the last couple of years.

Ruben Amorim, in six to eight months' time, will know which players he wants to keep on the bus, knows which players he wants to get rid of, changes them quite quickly, and ends up with a team that starts next season that, to be fair, has got a level of running enthusiasm, energy, athleticism and level of quality and talent that can basically get back up into the top four.

Carra's MNF analysis on Man Utd's draw at Ipswich

Speaking later on Monday Night Football, Jamie Carragher dissected Amorim's system, and believes the manager looked assured on his Premier League debut..

"I still saw a lot of what we've seen, certainly this season with Manchester United. The intriguing thing is that it's a slightly different system. I've been really impressed by the manager. How he speaks and how he comes across.

"Even on Sunday, he comes onto Sky and speaks to Roy Keane - a legend of Manchester United - a guy who has captained the club and won everything and he doesn't feel in awe of him.

"He's a young man coming to the Premier League for the first time and he spoke really confidently. You look at him and you like the cut of his jib.

"He comes across really well but the main question is whether he can get results on the pitch.

"It's not a great result at Ipswich, who should have won the game as a promoted team. There's lots to work on but the way they set up already looks like it will suit certain players.

"A lot of the current players aren't good enough to play for Ma Utd, no matter what the system is. The fact that the new manager has come in is because it hasn't been good enough.

"Of course he will want his own players, but he will want players who suit certain positions, in particular the wing-back role which at times a can be a specialist position.

"He will make changes over the next few windows and we should probably judge the manager after 18 months, when he might have brought 10 players in.

"Ultimately, United have to be competing for the title."

(c) Sky Sports 2024: Ruben Amorim's Man Utd bow assessed: Gary Neville runs though the winners, red flags and familiar failings after first game