Paul Merson believes Ruben Amorim “doesn’t fit” at Manchester United and thinks the Portuguese boss would have been better suited to a different Premier League club.
Ruben Amorim has endured a torrid start to his Old Trafford tenure, losing six of his 11 games at the helm, including 5 of his last six in the Premier League to put them at risk of being pulled down into a relegation fight.
They lost 2-0 to Newcastle last time out, but after Amorim fielded Casemiro and Christian Eriksen together in midfield, Merson feared the worst.
He told Sky Sports: “When the teams came out the other day [against Newcastle], I thought they did well to keep it to 2-0.
“[Christian] Eriksen and Casemiro have been top-drawer players, but to play them in midfield, the manager’s got to get used to understanding this is not Portuguese football. This is the Premier League now. It’s on a different planet to Portuguese football.
“When he’s set up with them in midfield against [Sandro] Tonali, Bruno [Guimaraes] and Joelinton, I thought ‘these two are going to get absolutely destroyed’. And as I said, I thought they did well to only lose by two.
“I don’t know how much money they’ve got with Financial Fair Play. They’ve got a lot of players they need to get rid of at the same time. This is a hard job [at Man Utd].
“You’re talking about one of the biggest clubs in the world… but at the moment, they’re all over the place.
“The way he wants to play doesn’t suit Man Utd. They haven’t got the personnel to play the way he wants to play. The most important thing when you play three at the back is you have got to have outstanding wing-backs – and they haven’t got outstanding wing-backs. Both the full-backs are good defensively, but they’re not great going forward.”
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Merson reckons Amorim and United are a bad fit but believes the former Sporting boss would have done well had he joined Chelsea instead.
Merson added: “I’ve said it a few times, I think the manager would have suited Chelsea. Don’t get me wrong, Enzo Maresca has been outstanding, but if you had to pick a club for him in the Premier League to play the way Amorim wants to play, you’d put him in at Chelsea. Chelsea have got a lot of centre-halves that are pacey.
They’ve got wing-backs that are amazing in [Ben] Chilwell, [Malo] Gusto, [Reece] James – natural wing-backs that can get forward and defend.
“They’ve got holding midfield players with legs in [Moises] Caicedo and [Romeo] Lavia, and then they’ve got the talent going forward. I think he would tick the box at Chelsea. With Man Utd, I don’t see how it fits.
“There’s so much work to be done to get to the way he wants to play and that’s going to take a long time with a lot of players coming in and out. And with the way the rules are now, I don’t know how that long that’s going to take.”
