Ruben Amorim’s outburst at Leeds sparked controversy Molly Darlington/Getty Images
The Athletic has live coverage of Ruben Amorim’s sacking by Manchester United.
Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during the season, The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s football.
This was the round when a dramatic late Chelsea equaliser at Manchester City strengthened Arsenal’s position at the top of the table, Ruben Amorim gave another clear indication of tensions at Manchester United and a first win of the season for Wolverhampton Wanderers piled the pressure on their former coach Nuno Espirito Santo at West Ham United.
Here we will assess the meaning and potential consequences of Amorim’s latest message to the Old Trafford hierarchy, whether City’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea has played firmly into Arsenal’s hands in the title race and how the spectre of relegation — and the threat of further managerial upheaval — hangs over Tuesday’s game between West Ham and Nottingham Forest.
Is Amorim to blame for Manchester United’s dysfunction?
Amorim has had many worse days at Manchester United than one that ended with his team outside the likely Champions League places only on goal difference in the Premier League, but his comments before and after a 1-1 draw at Leeds United on Sunday reflected tension as well as a familiar air of dysfunction behind the scenes at Old Trafford.
In a pre-match news conference on Friday, Amorim said he no longer felt he would have the time or money to make a success of his 3-4-3 formation, so would have to find another way of working. When asked if this related to conversations with United’s director of football Jason Wilcox, Amorim was evasive but told the reporter asking the question, “You are very smart.”
Following yesterday’s match at Elland Road, Amorim responded to questions about this — specifically, whether something had changed and whether he still felt he had the board’s confidence — and stated three times that he had “come here to be the manager of Manchester United” rather than merely their coach.
There is an obvious problem here, because Amorim was appointed as the head coach, not (like his Old Trafford predecessors) as manager.
Coaches (or managers) do not tend to feel the need to assert their authority in this manner when all is well. If you are getting flashbacks to Enzo Maresca’s unhappy final weeks at Chelsea recently, you are not alone.
It is fascinating that this should suddenly be an issue at this point, almost 14 months into what has so far been a deeply underwhelming tenure.
When Sir Jim Ratcliffe took control of United’s football operations in February 2024, after buying an initial 27.7 per cent stake in the club, he told reporters — at a time when Amorim’s predecessor Erik ten Hag was under growing pressure due to poor results — that the team’s playing style would be determined at executive level and that “the coach will have to play that style”.
The subsequent appointment of Amorim looked like the opposite of that; rather than identifying a candidate who would adhere to a particular vision set by those above him, it looked like identifying a coach who happened to be European football’s flavour of that month, in view of his work at Lisbon’s Sporting CP, and allowing him to set the stylistic template — even if that was to mean a change in formation and all the pain that this promised to bring in terms of rebuilding the squad along the lines of the 3-4-3.
Ruben Amorim is consoled by Sir Jim Ratcliffe at last season’s Europa League finalCarl Recine/Getty Images
Amorim’s messaging lately, as well as his brief and seemingly reluctant dalliance with a back four in the 1-0 defeat of Newcastle United on December 26, strongly hints that something has changed when it comes to calling the shots.
Is it not rather too late for the United hierarchy to be questioning Amorim’s tactical vision, which appears to be set in stone?
It has often been said over the past 13 months that United do not have the players to play his way. But after the changes they have made in the past two transfer windows, bringing in a specialist wing-back (Patrick Dorgu) and replacing numerous underperforming wingers with attackers (Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo) who are more suited to slightly narrower roles in Amorim’s system — and yet, bizarrely, no new midfielder despite their many deficiencies in that department — do they have the personnel to play 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 or whatever else anyone might propose as the obvious alternative to their coach’s beloved 3-4-3?
They beat Newcastle just over a week ago with a flat back four. But that seemed to blur the issue — not least for Amorim, who has reverted to 3-4-3 for the two games since. They were under the cosh for long periods at home against Newcastle. They arguably performed in a more controlled, cohesive manner at both Aston Villa (an unfortunate 2-1 defeat) and Leeds, as well as on other occasions this season, with three at the back. There has been a marked improvement in their performances and results in the current campaign, albeit from last term’s pitifully low standards.
That is not remotely to suggest that Amorim’s 3-4-3 represents the way forward for United, but to point out, yet again, the muddled thinking that has afflicted the club for so long and has continued since Ratcliffe, Omar Berrada, Wilcox et al took charge.
It has been two years of mistakes and missteps, none of which bodes terribly well for whatever decision that group might take next.
How damaging might Manchester City’s late slip-up be?
Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez celebrates his late equaliser at Manchester CityVisionhaus/Getty Images
At half-time at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, it all looked straightforward for Manchester City: 1-0 up against a young Chelsea team who were without a head coach and without three of their most dependable players (Robert Sanchez and Marc Cucurella injured, Moises Caicedo suspended) and with only one win in their previous seven Premier League games.
But if the expectation was that City would tighten their grip on the game, it didn’t happen. Fatigue appeared to be the main issue after a bruising 0-0 draw with Sunderland, but there were also hints of sloppiness and complacency that were punished by Enzo Fernandez’s goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
It ended up an uplifting evening for Chelsea, who, three days after Maresca’s acrimonious departure, were led by their under-21 coach Calum McFarlane. Strasbourg coach Liam Rosenior, who is expected to be Maresca’s full-time replacement, will have been encouraged by the performances of Fernandez, captain Reece James, Josh Acheampong and young substitutes Andrey Santos, Liam Delap and Jorrel Hato.
But the real beneficiaries were Arsenal, whose lead at the top of the table has been extended from two points to six over the past week. The big games keep coming up — they’re at home to Liverpool on Thursday — but their performances indicate they, more than anyone else, have sufficient strength in depth to cope with this unforgiving schedule.
Is Nuno at risk of making unwanted history?
Nuno has endured a miserable season across spells at two clubsJames Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
The late Billy McNeill, a formidable European Cup-winning captain for Celtic in 1967 as well as a successful manager in the late 1970s and early 1980s, had the unwanted distinction south of the border of suffering relegation with two teams in one top-flight season (Manchester City and Aston Villa in 1986-87).
Might Nuno Espirito Santo be at risk of a similar fate?
Probably not, given that Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers remain adrift in the bottom two places of the table, but this has been an unremittingly grim campaign for the man who last season led Nottingham Forest to European qualification for the first time in 30 years.
Nuno was sacked by Forest after just three games of the new campaign over differences with the club’s hierarchy. Since taking over from Graham Potter at West Ham United in late September, he has delivered two Premier League wins in 15 matches. The nadir came on Saturday, when they lost 3-0 — indeed, were three goals down inside 37 minutes — to a Wolves team who had not beaten anyone in the Premier League all season.
Even if replicating the McNeill double remains unlikely, could Nuno be at risk of becoming the first manager/head coach in the Premier League era to be ditched by two clubs in the same season? The Athletic has been told his position is not under immediate threat, but that always sounds a long way from saying a club has total confidence in a guy.
As for Forest, a season of turmoil has seen them move from Nuno to Ange Postecoglou and now on to Sean Dyche, who, having initially steadied the ship, has endured four successive (and fairly abject) defeats as they have slid back towards the relegation zone, where they now sit four points ahead of third-bottom West Ham. And who do they face next? Yes, you guessed it.
Tuesday’s game at the London Stadium already feels like one of those bleak occasions that brings together two teams in terrible form, under increasingly embattled managers, when the stakes are high, confidence at rock bottom and fear of defeat and its consequences all-pervading.
There has been no shortage of unhappy occasions at that venue over the eight and a half years since West Ham moved in. Tomorrow night threatens to be the most miserable yet.
Coming up this week
- The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) round of 16 continues today (Monday) with Egypt playing Benin, before Nigeria take on Mozambique. Tomorrow, it’s Algeria vs DR Congo and Ivory Coast vs Burkina Faso to complete the last-eight line-up.
Simon Hughes, one of our men on the ground in Morocco, feels the general shock-free theme of the tournament will continue, with Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria and Ivory Coast progressing to the quarter-finals, which take place on Friday and Saturday. His colleague Jay Harris feels DR Congo might cause an upset against Algeria. You can read their fantastic AFCON coverage here. - There is another full round of Premier League fixtures this midweek. Of course there is. As discussed above, the highlights — for very different reasons — are West Ham vs Forest on Tuesday and Arsenal vs Liverpool on Thursday, but Wednesday’s games offer plenty of potential twists too.
- In the four-team Spanish Super Cup, Barcelona take on Athletic Club in Wednesday’s semi-final and Real Madrid face Atletico Madrid on Thursday in the other one. Athletic Club captain Inaki Williams says it is “s**t” that the tournament is taking place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second city. Let that be another warning to La Liga, which, if it had had its way, would have held a league match between Villarreal and Barcelona in Miami, Florida, last month.
- FA Cup third-round weekend used to be a highlight of the football calendar. It is undeniable that some of the FA Cup’s magic has faded over recent years/decades, but this weekend’s edition brings some appealing fixtures: Wrexham vs Forest on Friday, Macclesfield Town vs the holders Crystal Palace on Saturday lunchtime (UK), Charlton Athletic vs Chelsea that evening, Portsmouth vs Arsenal on Sunday afternoon; perhaps even Liverpool vs Barnsley on Monday. Meaningful FA Cup shocks are rarities these days, but there could be an upset or two among that lot.
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