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Ruben Amorim will take over as head coach of Manchester United on Monday and already a number of outlets, including The Peoples Person, have had a bash at predicting how United might line up under the new boss.
It is widely assumed that he will immediately replicate the three at the back system he has employed with such great success at Sporting. In fact, most people think he will stick to the 3-4-2-1, leaving the likes of Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Bruno Fernandes, Mason Mount, Josh Zirkzee and Amad Diallo fighting it out for the two support attack positions behind Rasmus Hojlund.
However, Amorim himself stated recently “I already said previously you cannot transport one reality into another… At Manchester United you cannot play exactly like this. You cannot play so defensively and so there we will have to adapt.”
This suggests we’re not simply going to see the United players squeezed into the Sporting system, but rather, that the system will be adapted to play to United’s strengths. But what might this mean in practice?
Three or four at the back?
What if Amorim surprises everyone and doesn’t play three at the back? There are obvious reasons to do so, and not to do so. Playing three at the back should provide immediate extra stability to a defence that has been leakier than a sieve for some time.
It might also play to the strengths of some of United’s centre backs – Harry Maguire for example has excelled in a back three for England. It might also be a good way of easing Leny Yoro into the side and also provides extra height to compensate for Lisandro Martinez’s lack of the same.
On the other hand, United do not have any natural wing backs. This means full backs such as Noussair Mazraoui, Diogo Dalot and Luke Shaw will be expected to play in an unfamiliar role, while out-and-out wingers such as Garnacho, Rashford and Amad will be expected to reinvent themselves as inside forwards to some extent.
This is all a lot to ask of a team low in confidence and might persuade Amorim – temporarily at least – to stick with four at the back. Specialist wing backs of the calibre United need would be difficult to sign in January, so it could be next summer before Amorim could get his hands on the right kind of signing to deploy his favoured system effectively.
If Amorim does go with three at the back, another big question is who will occupy the two central midfield spots? With an extra defender in the team, it is normally unnecessary to have two defensive midfielders in those deep positions, especially when, as Amorim himself said, you “cannot play so defensively” at United.
Combinations such as Ugarte-Casemiro, Mainoo-Ugarte or Mainoo-Casemiro would be unlikely to offer the deep-lying playmaking qualities that an attacking 3-4-3 requires. Christian Eriksen plus one of those three does provide that balance but places a huge burden on the Dane’s shoulders, given his age and the number of games to be played.
One twist that Amorim could surprise everyone with would be to push Bruno Fernandes back into that role. It would certainly offer far more creativity from deep and with the extra cover, his profligacy might not be too much of a problem.
Although Fernandes had left Sporting when Amorim took the reins there, the coach will no doubt be very aware of how effective Bruno was there when deployed as an 8 – the number he wears on his shirt and has tattooed on his arm. Mason Mount, likewise, could be employed in that deeper role on occasion.
Pushing Fernandes and Mount back would have the added advantage of being able to employ two of Rashford, Garnacho and Amad in the side, who between them have bags of pace and who, when firing on all cylinders, should provide much of the goalscoring threat for the team.
Another option could be to reinvent one of the wingers – with Amad the most likely candidate – as a wing back. This could swing the pendulum back to having two more defensive CMs in order to mop up some of the spaces that an inexperienced and attack-minded wing back might leave behind him.
Ultimately, Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 does not fit well with the personnel available at United, so something will have to change. It will be fascinating to see how the Red Devils line up in Amorim’s first match against Ipswich Town in two weeks’ time.
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