OLD TRAFFORD — Ruben Amorim knows the questions are coming.
You can see the grimace already starting to form on his face in each post-match press conference after Manchester United have played elite opposition.
But when he repeats his mantra of attacking football so often, despite his side doing the exact opposite, he invites the scrutiny.
“I am just seeing the low block and you can feel the frustration of the fans,” Amorim protested after United dug in to earn a 1-1 draw with Arsenal.
“I want to play a different football, more attacking in the final third.”
Amorim is adamant he has one way to play. He has been a broken record on the subject since he arrived on our shores.
Despite the results being so much worse than anyone anticipated, you can see what he is trying to do most weeks – to albeit limited success.
Yet United’s best results in his short and tumultuous time in England have come about as a result of an anti-Amorim approach, the one he is at pains to insist goes against the very footballing principles that got him to United in the first place.
Frustrating better opposition – Liverpool at Anfield, Arsenal in the FA Cup, Manchester City at the Etihad – has brought Amorim his most memorable moments so far.
On each occasion, United have been happy to sit in the low block. Then, once their quality adversaries have been frustrated, United have been able to break and create problems of their own despite limited possession.
Bruno Fernandes, that is beautiful
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To do so for such long periods of so many games, whatever Amorim protests in public, suggests the players are sent out with a game plan to adhere to and are doing just that.
Siege mentality had taken over Old Trafford on Sunday. After protests against the Glazer family ownership, with numbers topping 5000 marching down Sir Matt Busby Way voicing their discontent, had died down, supporters had plenty more to grumble about inside the stadium, with United putting on a customarily limp first-half display against an Arsenal side struggling to create much of note.
But after Bruno Fernandes’s superb free-kick broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time, Amorim’s secret system came into play.
The hosts were the better team in the second half, even after Declan Rice had pegged them back with a well-taken equaliser, having been content to sit deep and let the visitors have all of the ball.
Fernandes was beating his chest after winning tackles. Blocks were celebrated like World Cup triumphs, with supporters, back on side, lapping it up. It was working.
Amorim has taken plenty of flack for his lack of willing to adapt. But even though David Raya’s brilliance denied United all three points late on, Amorim, safe in the knowledge United cannot go toe-to-toe with the best the Premier League has to offer, proved he can deviate from his high pressing 3-4-3 approach to reasonable success.
Just don’t tell anyone, OK?
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