Ruben Amorim and Marcus Rashford

Man Utd: Why Ruben Amorim's show of strength over Marcus Rashford is weakness


When the Ruben Amorim era eventually resolves itself one way or the other - which at this point will either be spectacular failure or a revival more spectacular than anything the Premier League has ever seen - these cataclysmic early months will form a powerful montage.

There’ll be too much footage to include every bizarre decision but playing Kobbie Mainoo as a false nine will probably make it, because although it’s increasingly difficult to keep track of the various missteps made by the Manchester United manager - or the various early-to-mid 1900s records that are falling – the Mainoo Experiment is likely to linger in the memory.

It’ll be remembered not because it was a moment of madness that further undermines Amorim’s already shaky grip on the tactical necessities of Premier League management, nor even for the £110 million pair of Joshua Zirkzee and Rasmus Hojlund sitting awkwardly on the bench.

No, what stands out is that Amorim decided to make this pointed gesture to the United board on the very same day he let Marcus Rashford leave for Aston Villa.

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The assessment of what’s happened with and to Rashford requires some recalibration. Instinctively pundits and fans have sided with Amorim, assuming he would not have banished a local hero without very good reason.

But there hasn’t been enough interrogation into what that reason could possibly be.

A 27-year-old ought to be treated with empathy by his 40-year-old boss, whatever the friction and whatever professional standards have been breached.

In any other industry this wouldn’t sit right. In any other industry you would expect sympathy and support for someone whose attitude has suddenly and rapidly declined.

In any other industry you would balk at a manager ostracising a member of staff and reportedly refusing to talk to them at all.

And it’s damning that another Premier League head coach, one far more experienced than Amorim and indeed playing in the Champions League this season, has reportedly jumped at the chance to sign Rashford because he’s confident that a simple arm-around-the-shoulder approach will recover the striker’s form.

Yet again Amorim’s attempted show of strength reads as weakness. Sending a message to the board about the need for a new centre-forward simply doesn’t work when there are two expensive ones on the bench and when a third – a local hero who used to score 30 a season – was just shipped out on loan to a rival.

Premier League management requires empathy, or at the very least the ability to read people and foster a supporting, cohesive environment.

It’s very difficult to believe Amorim holds these qualities given what’s happened to Rashford, given the way Zirzkee and Hojlund are being moved in and out of the team, given Alejandro Garnacho and Mainoo have both been made aware they can go at the right price, and given Amorim’s endless chopping and changing suggests he really does believe his infamous declaration that this is the worst Manchester United team in history.

There are still plenty of believers behind Amorim both inside and outside the club.

The argument goes that he needs a few more transfer windows before progress can be made, but as Amorim continues to experiment wildly with some elements but steadfastly refuses to change formation, and as defeats stack up in the process, that viewpoint won’t hold for long.

There is no example in Premier League history of a manager making this many errors and losing this many games in the first few months and still going on to be a success.

Manchester United under Ruben Amorim

Amorim hopes to become the first – and hopes to do so at a basket-case club that has chewed up everyone since Sir Alex Ferguson.

He will have more bad days ahead and will no doubt make stranger calls than the Mainoo one on Saturday.

But the Rashford debacle might not be beaten, not least because by selling to an English club the spotlight remains upon him. It will only take a couple of goals at Villa for Amorim to come under pressure.

“When you loan a player, you expect him to play and improve,” Amorim said this week. “So there’s nothing humiliating there.”

That’s the answer he had to give to a direct question about whether it would be humiliating for Rashford to rediscover form at Villa Park.

But it won’t be an accurate answer, not unless Man Utd’s form improves drastically in the coming weeks.

There is very little to indicate that it will.


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