Ruben Amorim is out. Darren Fletcher now get’s his chance to manage a deeply flawed squad
Manchester United announced Monday morning that Portugese head coach Ruben Amorim has been sacked. Darren Fletcher will take charge of the first team on an interim basis beginning with Wednesday’s match against Burnley.
The announcement comes on the heels of two contentious press conferences before and after the match against Leeds, where Amorim’s demeanor let it be known that all was not well behind the scenes. Amorim reportedly felt he was not adequately backed in the transfer market by the club despite spending over £200 million last summer and the club’s two marquee signings being prime age win-now players. The club also spent £20 million on Patrick Dorgu last January to give Amorim a wing back for his 3-4-2-1 system.
Following the Leeds match Amorim called out Director of Football, Jason Wilcox, by name in his post match press conference leading to an inevitable conclusion.
Former United midfielder Darren Fletcher takes over the squad in a precarious position. The club sit sixth in the league table, one place outside the Champions League on goal difference. It is certainly a great position from which they can kick on and make a run into Europe but they’d have to ensure the bottom does not fall out either. United are just four points above 14th place Crystal Palace.
United rank third in expected goal difference suggesting a new manager bounce is on the cards however the fixture list is not kind in that regard. United will face Burnley this Wednesday followed by Brighton in the FA Cup with those fixtures being followed by back to back assignments against top two clubs Manchester City and Arsenal. City played a 1-1 draw against Chelsea this past weekend who also had an interim manager.
With the table as tight as it is and Chelsea having won just one of their last eight, the door to grab a Champions League spot is wide open. Darren Fletcher now finds himself with the same difficult task as those before him – having to grab results with an unbalanced squad and a midfield that can best be described as quite lacking.
A change in manager will breathe new life into certain players in the squad and United could use that. Matheus Cunha has recently started scoring which United would love to see keep going when Bruno Fernandes returns. New signing Benjamin Sesko has been getting chances recently but hasn’t been able to put the ball in the net. A change in luck that starts to see his goal scoring equal his expected goals could equate to a nice patch of form that gives Fletcher’s side some results.
The change in manager will likely mean more opportunities for academy graduate Kobbie Mainoo who is yet to start a Premier League match this season. That’ll be welcome news for United fans but for United to push on for the Champions League he’s going to have to live up to the hype. Toby Collyer has returned from his loan to West Brom and could be in the mix in the second half of the season.
Collyer and Mainoo offer promise but they are still largely unproven. Mainoo has tons of raw talent but has not put it all together yet. He’s still young but can’t be looked at through the same prism as he was when he was 18. He needs to start adding elements to his game now if it’s going to impact United this season. Casemiro is still trying to hold off father time and his deteriorating legs and Manuel Ugarte is, well, Manuel Ugarte.
Fletcher will now have an interesting dilemma regarding Bruno Fernandes. Will he move the club’s captain further forward and back into his natural position – creating a log jam of players with Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, Mason Mount, and possibly Amad competing for those spots? Or will he keep him in his current role as a deeper central midfielder where the defensive part of his game could be a liability?
Despite the struggles of Sesko and – up until 10 days ago – Cunha, United are still third in the league in goals scored. That is something that Fletcher will need to maintain. A hefty chunk of that has come on the back of United scoring from 11 set pieces so far this year (plus two long throw ins), they’ll need to keep that magic going in the second half of the season. The hope would be a more sturdy base formation will help prevent United from throwing away leads as they’ve done against Fulham, Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham, and Wolves.
Those are the questions Fletcher will look to answer. It’s a tightly contested league so if he gets it right, United can shoot up the table. If the squad proves to be too flawed, he’ll need to hope all the clubs behind him continue to fail to get their act together for United to achieve their goal of qualifying for Europe.
Category: General Sports
