A former Manchester United winger has hit out at head coach Ruben Amorim after the Premier League giants suffered a 2-0 loss against Wolves on Boxing Day.

Amorim left Sporting Lisbon to replace Erik ten Hag at Man Utd last month after the Dutchman was sacked following their dire start to the 2024/25 campaign.

The 39-year-old may already regret this decision as his job at Man Utd is perhaps bigger than he initially realised. There were positive signs from his opening couple of matches, but they have lost three games in a row since their dramatic comeback win against Manchester City.

The Red Devils are alarmingly close to the relegation zone as Amorim has lost five of his first ten games in charge in all competitions.

After the defeat to Wolves, Amorim admitted that they just need to “survive” this season.

READ: Man Utd ‘going down’ and Ruben Amorim could be sacked before summer

He said: “In this moment, we just have to survive and to win some time to work on the team.

“We already knew it. I start this job and you start with the team, a new idea, without any time to train, with a lot of games, tough games.

“We already knew it, so it’s a long journey, like I said in the first day. We have to continue, and we have to fight these bad moments because this is part of football.”

Former England international Gordon Hill – who made over 100 appearances for Man Utd in the 1970s – has hit out at Amorim, claiming the head coach “complicates the game”.

Hill tweeted: “I am tired of hearing about new systems, you have 11 v 11, simple, attack as much as you can. and defend them from scoring.

“Why do these coaches complicate the game, as I said before Football is a simple game complicated by coaches. please don’t reply to this. I have had it.”

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Unfortunately for Hill, X is X, so he did get plenty of replies. After a user suggested Man Utd should have stuck with Erik ten Hag, he responded: “We should have let Ruud have it.”

Ruud van Nistelrooy returned to Man Utd in the summer as he became Ten Hag’s assistant. He was subsequently named interim boss while they waited for Amorim’s arrival.

The 48-year-old did an admirable job of steadying the ship as his side was unbeaten in four matches and won three of these games.

Ahead of Amorim’s appointment, Van Nistelrooy indicated that he would like to remain at Man Utd. However, he has managerial aspirations of his own and his presence could have given the new head coach a headache if there were too many strong voices in the dressing room.

After leaving Man Utd, Van Nistelrooy attracted interest from several Premier League and European sides before being appointed by Leicester City. He is up against it as the relegation candidates – like United – have lost three straight matches.

This version of Man Utd is relegation struggler bad; that defeat to Wolves was extraordinary. There’s little to no hope.

Send your views on Man Utd, Spurs and more to theeeditor@football365.com

Man Utd getting relegated
It’s 55 minutes into the Wolves game and United are down to ten and didn’t look like scoring anyway. A Wolves win is inevitable.

Amorim’s record from seven league games will now be won two, drawn one, lost four. Ten Hag’s record from his last seven games was won two, drawn two, lost three. We are officially worse under Amorim than we were under Ten Hag. There’ll be some genius that points to xg or something but I bet this xg against Wolves doesn’t go above 0.5.

I don’t necessarily blame the new manager. I do think he’s making more of this “I don’t have any time to train anyone” problem than he should be. I get that you’ve not had the pre season that most other managers will have had but you took the job mate. Carry on like this and you won’t last the season. I do hope it doesn’t carry on like this though.

The only way I’d advocate for Amorim being sacked is if it looked like we would go down with him at the helm. At the moment I have confidence that he will turn it around once he gets more time on the training field, but that’s not based on any evidence just faith. INEOS can’t sack him before the end of the season, they’ll look even more like they don’t know what they’re doing and have even more money to pay out absolutely buggering our profit and sustainability. You’d have to be nuts to pay £66 to watch this rubbish so no idea where they’d recoup the money from.

They’ve absolutely f***ed up 2024 and my faith in them doing anything good in the long term is rapidly diminishing. Jim talks about United being mediocre but everything he’s done so far are the actions of a mediocre man with no imagination. He shouldn’t have got involved in a protracted move for Dan Ashworth. Having done so, he then shouldn’t have sacked him so quickly. He should’ve got someone decisive in to either sack Ten Hag in the summer and bring in the right manager for pre season or written the year off as the club is reset.

As it is, the season is a write-off anyway and we seem more of a mess on and off the pitch as ever before. The biggest mistake was hiring a manager who plays 3-4-3 with a squad built for 433 (allegedly). We’ve had probably too many players who play on the left for years and then as soon as we sign Amorim, none of those players fit in the system. Maybe Amorim is the man for the long term and they will build a squad for him. I’m happy with that but bugger me it’s going to be (more) painful for the next two or three years.

Our best player since Fergie left has fallen off a cliff this year and been sent off three times (one overturned). Yet he remains our most important player. Our best home grown player in a number of decades has given up. We’ve got loads of players that are either over the hill or too young to rely on consistently. We’ve got Antony. We can’t defend set pieces. We can’t defend. We can’t shoot and quite often we can’t even create chances. We’ve lost the last two against Bournemouth and Wolves without scoring. We don’t have any money for players in January. Next three games are Newcastle, Liverpool and Arsenal.

F*** it lads, we’re going down. Might as well sell everyone and play the kids.
Ashmundo (lost 2-0 with an xg for of 0.35)

This is the absolute worst Man Utd team
I have been supporting this club for over 25 years now. I have seen its ups and downs. From the moment Sir Alex left, we have faced some difficult times. With Moyes, Van Gaal, Jose and Ole, all having found some success, also led us to some dark moments. Even during the darkest of those moments, I have always felt that we rise back up. Never once felt that United were bottom-half team. Rather a top team, and club, being badly managed and run.

On Thursday something changed. Something broke. For the first time ever, I feel like this squad is bottom half, relegation battlers. Not even a mid table side that can hope for European slots. It just hurts so much. ETH is partly to blame but the rot runs deep.

I, for the first time ever, fear for the future of this club. I don’t see even a slimmer of hope for our revival.

It’s just a sad sad time to be a United fan.

Regards
K

READ: Ruben Amorim predicted Manchester United ‘storm’ but should have known shower of sh*te was coming

Solanke is rare bright Spurs spark
Thoroughly enjoyed the self loathing that came with the early season predictions revisited. It’s a good day for it, right. I woke up this morning determined to consume nothing but water and cucumber today. Maybe lettuce.

Anyways, in it you mentioned that the jury was still out on Solanke. Which is fair. Any striker who’s been in the Premier League as long as he has, who’s in his prime and costs 50m+ needs a strike rate of at least 50% surely.

But Solanke and Kulu are the only things that aren’t really pi$$ing me off about Spurs at the moment. Enough said on Ange. And Voldemort. And Werner. Sonny isn’t impacting games like he used too. Johnson shone bright and got dropped. The youngsters aren’t for various reasons being allowed to show their potential. It’s beyond our coaches to get the best from Sarr. Who’s awesome. Bissouma lives on the edge of a brain fart. Romero would rather be elsewhere. Maddison’s wildly unserious goal celeb overrides any positive contributions. Of which there has been a few actually. Shout out to Porro for his endless running.

Solanke is the only thing that resembles a plan. He suits Ange’s style. He’s a magnet for defenders. He makes wingers look good. He has a nasty habit of not getting in the right position when close to goal but otherwise, it’s a thumbs up from a seriously disgruntled fan base. And he’ll run all day.

I left the Liverpool game after an hour. And couldn’t give a monkeys what anyone thinks about that. When I looked at my phone and saw that the 2nd and 3rd goals meant a goal and assist for Solanke, it made total sense. Did I mention he runs and runs and runs. I guess being a striker in a Postecoglou team is a pretty nice place to be. As opposed an 18 yo CB playing out of position behind Bissouma in his first PL season!? So…keep doing what you’re doing Dominic. Not totally a shining star but a reason to be cheerful in a most uncheerful of seasons.

All the best,
Andrew

Ps Fair play to Nuno on his achievements so far. Those twinkling eyes are going to be shining very bright in his post match interview on Final Score later.

Hopefully a quiet Spurs week
Another loss from a bottom-half side. At least this time we don’t have to hear about how crraaazzy and zanny they are in losing. They’re just sh!t. Add a quick couple of lines to the bottom of Winners and Losers for Spurs and move on to other far more interesting topics.
Mike (1 year since last trophy) WHU

I actually agree with an article on F365!
I read the article on Ange Postecoglou and his battle against the pragmatists last night and it got me thinking about what my favourite version of my chosen team (Man City) I liked the most in my 40 years of life.

Now I do enjoy many aspects of the game of football, defence, solidity, game management etc, but I do believe in the sentiment of that article that football is at its peak when no f**ks are given. This is because when I look back, and I’ve been truly spoilt by the generational football by City in recent years, which is my favourite ever season? 2001/02. Winning the First Division by playing some of the most carefree, fun and wild football I’ve witnessed. Coming from a manager long considered to be the Godfather of such things and a likely inspiration to the likes of Ange Postecoglou, Kevin Keegan.

The football that season was absolutely bloody brilliant. It is probably something only a City fan could truly appreciate fully, but even so, you could just feel the fun and the exhilaration in the way we played. You felt GOOD watching it even though you knew it could easily end up going sideways. Berkovic and Benarbia playing like prime Xavi and Iniesta (yeah yeah I know and I don’t care) and the Goat banging goals in for fun off various parts of his body. It was the dictionary definition of we will score one more than you, and I loved it. Yeah the prestige may not have been there, we were still the joke team in Manchester, it was the league below the elite bla bla bla. But still to this day, by far my most enjoyable season.

Now of course, that’s easy to say when we won it clear by 10 points with 100+ in total, but I honestly believe I’d still have enjoyed it just as much with a few more defeats thrown in there.

So to Spurs fans, be careful what you wish for next because for good or bad, that kind of football doesn’t come around very often. Embrace it, and ride it as long as you can.
Marc, Bolton

Ange in!
I’d say Tottenham should keep Ange Because we are more alive then ever with him! And eventually we’ll win cups.
Linzay Joy

…Every time Spurs perform poorly, there is loud cry for the manager to be sacked. But, plainly, it is the directors who should be sacked, for total lack of ambition for the club’s success.
S F Adefajo, Colchester

There will be talk of Ruben Amorim needing ‘four or five transfer windows to turn things around at Manchester United’ but the embarrassing weeds must be removed before anything is planted.

That there exists an actual group of sentient beings who, when encountered with this shameful iteration of Manchester United, feel compelled to apportion any responsibility on Ruben Amorim is incredible. The way they believe it is in any way normal to have ‘lost faith’ in a coach who responded to this dumpster fire emergency call 45 days ago is astonishing.

The only thing Amorim can possibly be blamed for at this early juncture is his enthusiasm in drinking so readily from a poisoned chalice overflowing with incompetence and ineptitude. From pitch to boardroom, Manchester United are a shuddering shambles of a football club.

“We are going to have difficult moments and we will be found out in some games, I know that,” said Amorim after the 4-0 win over Everton at the start of December. His reiteration that “the storm will come” was translated in most quarters as a typical cliched warning from a coach wanting to keep expectations in check, but Amorim knew his forecast was based on precise information: he had these players bang to rights before he inherited them.

Even in the obscured and foggy Molineux conditions the innumerable faults in this team were clear. Its mere composition is a mess of ideas but wrapped within that are subplots of negligence, individual anecdotes of failure.

Andre Onana, far from their biggest problem, has nevertheless retained an infuriating knack for individual mistakes. Harry Maguire should be commended for his resilience in bouncing back to regain his starting place but the fact he has been able to should embarrass a handful of teammates. Kobbie Mainoo has been leaned on so relentlessly at such a precocious stage in his development as to render him a shadow of his former self. Rasmus Hojlund was breathtakingly anonymous with no support, a clause which has seemingly been written into his contract to prevent any viable alternatives from ever being signed.

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Amad has had his brilliance and exuberance neutered in remarkably quick fashion. Alejandro Garnacho similarly once looked like a silver lining to this dark cloud of a club but a humiliating cameo saw him muscled off the ball for the second goal when he was going nowhere. Antony being given meaningful minutes and actually looking like Manchester United’s best forward is a damning indictment on all involved, not least the exiled Marcus Rashford.

Manuel Ugarte was good but received a suspension-incurring fifth booking of the season for needlessly delaying a free-kick, while Leny Yoro impressed in flashes but was also given a yellow after being beaten by Matheus Cunha.

There can be frustration that the man of the match should not really have been playing. That Cunha remains eligible despite quite obviously being in line for some sort of ban after his actions against Ipswich is some fine FA nonsense. But he has maximised his minutes by inspiring victory over Leicester before tormenting Manchester United.

A goal, an assist, as many completed dribbles (four) as the 16 visiting players managed combined and more tackles (four) than all bar Ugarte, Toti Gomes and Andre represented a fine evening’s work even before taking into account it was he who bought the bookings for Yoro and Bruno Fernandes.

A teenage defender with fewer than 70 senior career appearances walked that disciplinary tightrope for more than 90 minutes but the humbled captain of this sorry ship was desperate to jump off the deep end within about half an hour. Any sympathy due to Fernandes for a soft first yellow was rendered moot with a frankly stupid challenge on Nelson Semedo straight after half-time, an additional plan-ruining flourish Amorim would no doubt have greatly appreciated.

The role of a captain is hilariously overblown in the modern game but equally Fernandes being Manchester United’s in 2024 is incredibly apt. Rarely is such an obvious talent undermined by itself out of eagerness to be seen to care. Nowhere else is consistent petulance and a costly temper rewarded so handsomely. Fernandes set his own trap with a dreadful first touch but he was itching to dive in, studs first to Semedo’s leg and ankle, just to show the supporters that he is trying to do something.

Beyond the question as to whether Fernandes fits into the Amorim regime tactically, a conversation must be had to decide if he is a good enough fit temperamentally and in terms of character.

The only unknown from there was how this latest implosion would play out, because Manchester United were struggling with their best creator and 11 men, never mind ten who were willing to run off the ball but had no idea on it.

It was no surprise to see Arsenal’s latest transfer obsession play a starring role. There was a deliberation about the corner Cunha planted over Onana’s head and an unselfishness which defined his square pass for Hwang Hee-chan to finish Manchester United off in stoppage-time.

But those were welcome addendums to the overall package. Cunha was as tireless in defence as he was tremendous in attack. The first half ended with a Manchester United move breaking down when he tracked back to head the ball to a teammate, while second-half stoppage-time started with him relieving increasing pressure by chasing an aimless pass out to the halfway line to win a throw-in from Noussair Mazraoui.

The first-time Cruyff turn to control a high ball from Jose Sa in his own defensive third when facing his own net to evade two players wasn’t half bad either. It was an uncomfortable enough comparison with Fernandes in a similar position before the match-deciding goal and assist.

Wondering whether Cunha is the sort of player Manchester United need to target moving forward is almost pointless because Amorim must remove the weeds before he starts to plant anything here. The rest of this season should be about finding all the problems before considering solutions. This squad has helped get a succession of managers sacked; at some point a line needs to be drawn and the common denominator divided rather than multiplied.

Amorim might be more pragmatic and deploy a system better suited to these players to get results. He could cater to them, identify rounder pegs for these gaping holes, pick based on talent rather than application. There should be little doubt he is capable of a far better record than four wins and five defeats from his first ten games.

But he knew his appointment represented an attempt to break the cycle and required an extended shot of short-term pain in the hope of long-term gain. Amorim expected nothing different and will assess the reaction of these players, although even he might have been caught off guard by how quickly his predicted storm has turned into a shower of shite.

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