It has only taken eight Premier League games for Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim’s time in charge to turn into a nightmare.
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The former manager of Portuguese side Sporting CP has created an unwanted slice of history in becoming the first Red Devils manager in 103 years to lose five of their first eight league games in charge.
Those five defeats have come in the space of month.
United have not suffered such a low since 1962.
Their 2-0 loss at Old Trafford to Newcastle to finish off a drama-filled 2024 – which has included the high of an FA Cup triumph and the lows of sacking Erik ten Hag and sitting 14th on the Premier League table at year’s end – was also their three straight home defeat.
That has not has not happened for 45 years.
Those statistics make for incredibly grim reading but their recent woes have been lumped onto the shoulders of ten Hag and the club’s directors off the pitch.
Amorim is yet to see a transfer window, so the squad is full of players that were brought in to be a part of ten Hag’s vision.
It has been speculated by former greats that the Marcus Rashford saga has been a result of the club’s owners eagerness to force out a high-earning player.
But now, the finger is being pointed at Amorim for his role in their latest horror show, and he is already feeling the pressure after Newcastle scored both their goals in the opening 20 minutes of the game.
It was the sort of move teams pushing for a top four berth do at this time of the year when the workload is heavy.
Strike early, make a big blow and then allow the game to peter out because the scoreboard is under control.
Which is exactly what Newcastle did and they showed why they have won four straight Premier League contests, without conceding a goal, to climb into fifth place, three points shy of fourth placed Chelsea.
United on the other hand were a shemozzle.
Club great Gary Neville called them “the worst pound-for-pound team in the country” in his commentary on Sky Sports and Amorim shocked the Premier League in his post-match interview by admitting that their “focus is on survival”.
“I think [the team] is a little bit lost in this moment, so it’s a little bit embarrassing to be a Manchester United coach and to lose a lot of games,” Amorim said. “But we have to cope with difficult moments in the life of everybody, so it’s a hard moment.
“I think people are tired of excuses in this club and I think sometimes I talk about relegation because of that.
“We have to acknowledge our position the way you see the league, that everybody can beat everybody, so we have to win games and to focus on surviving. I think our club needs a shock, you know? It needs a shock and we have to understand that.”
United sit seven points above the relegation places at the halfway mark of their Premier League campaign with a trip to Anfield to face league leaders and fierce rivals Liverpool awaiting them next.
Amorim’s words are a startling change of tone from the 39-year-old who less than two months ago said United fans may think he is the “new Sir Alex Ferguson” if he pulled off a victory in his final home game in charge at Sporting, a Champions League tie against Manchester City.
He claimed a 4-1 triumph that night, and also tasted victory in his first Manchester Derby, but those highs feels like a lifetime ago.
The “shock” Amorim speaks of indicates that rock bottom is still yet to come.
“It’s worrying times for Manchester United and Amorim,” Neville said on Sky Sports.
“He knew it was a big job but l think it is far bigger than he ever imagined.”
Concerns about whether Amorim is up to the task are growing with each loss.
Perhaps the low point of the Newcastle loss was making a substitution 33 minutes into the match to fix a severe blunder in the set up of the team.
Striker Joshua Zirkzee was sent to the bench, but he initially opted for the dressing room to hide from the embarrassment, in favour of Kobbie Mainoo to bolster his struggling midfield.
The move did pay off as United played better with the 19-year-old England international on the pitch, but Zirkzee was cheered off by sections of Old Trafford in what was an awful look for the club.
“A sure sign of an ongoing implosion, the tactical first-half sub,” The UK Telegraph’s senior sports writer Thom Gibbs wrote.
The issues in midfield were caused however, by Amorim’s decision to start an ageing pair instead of their younger counterparts.
“Casemiro and Eriksen in midfield are like mannequins. Little one-two around them, it’s so easy,” Neville said.
“They’ve been two fabulous players throughout their careers but the last thing either of them wants to see is the other next to them. All you want around you is legs. They shouldn’t be playing a game together in the Premier League. They really shouldn’t.”
United’s players are battling with the adjustment to Amorim’s tactics which stand in stark contrast to ten Hag’s.
The Portuguese manager regularly opts for three at the back with a clear focus on high pressing and possession, in contrast to the Dutchman’s preference of four defenders supported by two defensive midfielders.
Rashford’s supposed reluctance to press has been part of his exclusion from the team under Amorim, and it was alleged by UK radio station talkSport that part of the reason Amorim’s negotiations with Liverpool broke down was because of his devout commitment to his tactical philosophy.
That dedication has brought him unstuck at United so far with it often looking like he is trying to fit square pegs into round holes.
“Amorim was culpable. He picked the wrong team, in the wrong formation. His trademark 3-4-3 was unlocked,” the UK Independent’s senior football correspondent Richard Jolly wrote after the Newcastle loss.
“It was a manager with a well-planned strategy against one trying to impose his blueprint on players unsuited to it.
“In midfield, United’s indiscipline came at a cost. Lacking their midfield ball-winner Manuel Ugarte and captain Bruno Fernandes because of bans, they were weak, but weakened by the system and managerial choices.
“The pensionable pair of Christian Eriksen and Casemiro were pitted against the trio of Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton: far more athletic, featuring two classy passers.
“United were outnumbered, out-thought, overrun, overcome.”
Based on the results, and Amorim’s comments, it is clear a clean out is on the cards in the upcoming January transfer window, as well as in the summer.
United have undergone that process many times since Ferguson’s reign ended, and their recent history shows it is no certainty to work.
Their upcoming transfer targets remain unclear and coming to Old Trafford is now a far harder sell than almost ever before.
The current squad is the result of a clean-out with Neville believing that the United team from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s final game as manager in 2021 to be better than the current XI.
“I sent through that team this morning of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s last game in charge. They’re playing against Watford a few years ago and you’re thinking that Manchester United team is not good enough, we all accepted at the time it wasn’t good enough,” Neville said on Sky Sports.
“But that was David de Gea in net, who’s a better goalkeeper than the one that United have currently got, it was Lindelof, Maguire, Wan-Bissaka and Shaw, which is a better defensive line than the one that they have currently got.
“It was Matic and McTominay in midfield, which is not brilliant, but it’s better than Casemiro and Eriksen, and it was Sancho, Rashford, Bruno and Ronaldo up front, which is a better forward line than the one that’s currently there.
“So that’s the concerning thing, when you feel that you’ve got to a point whereby the team can’t get any worse, and then you get further investment into the tune of £455m, and you see that this current team that’s played today, and at Wolves, I think that they’ve got a lot to do.
“That is being very, very kind because I don’t think this group of players that are playing at this moment in time are of the quality that the ones that Ten Hag has had, Ole’s had, Jose Mourinho’s had, or Louis Van Gaal, they weren’t good enough for Manchester United in those periods.
“But they were better teams and better squads than the one that currently is in this club.”
The 21 goals United have scored in 19 matches this campaign, which is the fifth lowest in the league helps prove Neville’s point.
Last season, their run to FA Cup glory kept United’s spirits alive, but with a third round clash at Arsenal after their trip to Liverpool, their hopes of keeping that flame alive are dwindling.
The Europa League may have to be their beacon of hope with United sitting seventh – the top eight automatically progress to the knockout rounds – with two league matches remaining, at home to Scottish heavyweights Rangers and away to Romanian outfit FCSB.
But it appears that 2025 could start with more pain for Amorim’s team.
