Former Manchester United coach Rene Meulensteen has warned that his former side have made the same mistake appointing Ruben Amorim as they did when giving Erik ten Hag the job.
The new boss has had a disastrous start to his role as the team have won just two out of their eight Premier League games, losing five.
This has seen them sink to 14th in the Premier League table and Amorim has already admitted that his beleaguered side might find themselves in a relegation battle this season.
Meulensteen, who was a coach at United under Sir Alex Ferguson for five years, claimed that United have once again got their appointment process wrong.
Football365 carry comments from the Dutchman stating, “it’s more to do with the appointment process than anything about his management style or coaching.”
“You look at when United went for Ten Hag. He was the manager at Ajax in a smaller league in Europe and did really well winning the league and did well in the Champions League.”
The 60 year old commented that it has been “exactly the same pattern” with Amorim, with the club recruiting a manager who has been very successful but in a weaker league with no experience of English football.
The Dutch coach claimed that he was a fan of Amorim’s style but he wasn’t sure if he could be successful in the Premier League.
“He’s got a really nice football style about him; that’s where the similarities are. I think they’re two different characters with two different personalities.”
“The way that Ten Hag communicated compared to the way that Amorim communicates, the way that Amorim likes to play his team in a 3-4-3 is different from Ten Hag.”
Meulensteen did draw parallels between the two managers by stating that they both had “no experience” of the rigours of English football and both had a style that was not exactly compatible with the players they found at United.
“Now, Amorim comes in, and he says very clearly, ‘This is the way I’m going to play’. But he’s got a completely different set of players, a completely different league, you know what I mean? So it is very hard for him to recreate that because it’s very different.”
Featured image Nathan Stirk via Getty Images
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
