Manchester United picked up a massive three points on Saturday afternoon after a stunning, late strike from captain Bruno Fernandes sealed the victory on the road against Fulham.
The result temporarily eased the pressure off of head coach Erik ten Hag following a humiliating 3-0 defeat in the derby to Manchester City last Sunday and an exit from the EFL Cup by the same scoreline at the hands of Newcastle United in midweek.
However, with games against Everton, Galatasaray, Newcastle United and Chelsea on the near horizon, the Dutchman’s job doesn’t look safe by any stretch of the imagination.
Nevertheless, if push came to shove, and Man United were forced to part ways with Ten Hag, there is one candidate who could potentially lead the fallen giants back to glory.
Ruben Amorim links to Manchester United
The 13-time Premier League champions have lost eight from 16 games this season in all competitions and currently sit eighth in the table, the worst start for the club in 61 years. Yet, after last weekend’s devastating derby defeat, ESPN reported that the Manchester United board were “desperate” to keep hold of their Dutch tactician in the dugout.
Regardless, a whole host of names have been lined up to succeed ten Hag. On Thursday, The Times released a damning report that the United boss was “on thin ice” and that Sporting CP manager Ruben Amorim was being explored as an alternative as well as Real Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane.
In a recent press conference, Amorim refused to discuss the links to Old Trafford but admitted that he has “an idea for the end of the season”. This wasn’t the first time that the 38-year-old was touted with a switch to Man United. Reports claimed that the hierarchy were lining up Amorim as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s permanent successor in 2021 before Ralf Rangnick was handed the job until the end of the 2021/22 campaign.
The ex-Portugal international was previously linked with the Aston Villa job prior to Unai Emery’s appointment last year, with The Athletic journalist Jack Pitt-Brooke labelling him as “the best young manager in Europe right now”.
x1 Primeira Liga
x4 Primeira Liga Manager of the Month
x3 Portuguese League Cup
x1 Primeira Liga Manager of the Season
x1 Portuguese Super Cup
Amorim renewed his contract with Sporting last November, penning a new deal that would keep him in Lisbon until 2026, although the manager is said to have an £8.7m release clause that Man United could potentially activate.
Amorim comparison vs Ten Hag
Upon taking the job with the Portuguese giants as a relatively inexperienced coach in 2020, Sporting had failed to win the Primeira Liga title for eighteen years running. However, in his first full season as head coach, Amorim conquered Portugal’s top flight by five points. This season, Sporting look strong once more and are level on points at the top with a game in hand over Lisbon rivals Benfica.
Such success as a young coach – he is just 38 – will likely draw comparisons to Mikel Arteta who like Amorim had very little coaching experience before taking up the mantle at a big club.
Of course, Arteta is yet to win a league title himself but that progressive and vibrant young manner is certainly appealing, as too are the manager's statistics. Indeed, the former Braga boss has taken charge of 173 games at Sporting in all competitions and currently has a 69% win percentage, losing just 15.6% of the time, according to Soccerway.
In contrast, Man United boss Ten Hag boasts a 64.1% win rate and became the quickest manager to reach 50 wins in the club’s history on Saturday with a victory at Craven Cottage.
Nevertheless, the Red Devils have conceded 1.16 goals per game under the Dutchman. Only Ralf Rangnick oversaw a worse defensive record. Meanwhile, Sporting have conceded just 0.78 goals per game this season in the league and have the lowest expected goals against per 90 with 5.4. Manchester United have the eighth-highest xGA per 90 in the Premier League this season with 18.5, having played just two games more than Amorim’s side.
Both Amorim and Ten Hag have similar ideas about how football should be played, preferring a possession-based approach, again like Arteta, but set up in different manners to achieve the same goal. The Sporting boss has primarily preferred to deploy a 3-4-3 in games, which becomes a 3-2-5 in possession and a 5-2-3 when pressing high up the pitch.
Ten Hag, on the other hand, has been dogmatic with his approach, sometimes to the detriment of the team. Last season, Man United set up in games with a 4-2-3-1 formation but this has changed to more of a 4-3-3 in the current campaign to lesser success. United even tried to play with a 4-4-2 diamond in a 3-1 defeat at home to Brighton and Hove Albion back in September which Ten Hag claimed “absolutely worked”.
If United relieve Ten Hag from his duties in the near future, Amorim could be an excellent acquisition to continue the club’s philosophy of wanting to play positive, attacking football but with a slightly more tactically flexible coach in the dugout.