The 600 million dollar question facing new Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim - Eamon Dunphy
Eamon Dunphy Column as Ruben Amorim leads Manchester United to a point away to struggling Ipswich Town in his first game in charge
It won’t take a top coach like Ruben Amorim long to figure out that one of his biggest problems at Manchester United is the quality of the squad at his disposal, writes Eamon Dunphy.
He has inherited a mess. I cannot recall a worse squad of Manchester United players.
It’s crazy to think that over €600m was spent on the team that was put out yesterday to face an Ipswich side that probably didn’t even cost €60m.
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Yet the hosts - a club that was in League One two seasons ago - were the better team both in terms of organisation and assurance.
They were excellent and a real credit to their manager Kieran McKenna.
That €600m was spent on what? The bottom line is that with this squad, Amorim simply does not have the players.
Casemiro is near the end, which was clear to see yesterday.
United have wasted an incredible amount of money in recent years and a major overhaul is needed.
But it won’t be easy to get the players out for a number of reasons, including the fact that they aren’t worth buying.
And the money they are on? Good luck trying to get that elsewhere.
United had a dream start yesterday at Portman Road, but after that Ipswich were by far the better team.
Amorim has his goalkeeper Andre Onana to thank for preserving an unbeaten start to his career as Manchester United boss.
He made two excellent saves. His first-half stop, where he spread himself and denied Liam Delap from point-blank range with his right arm was reminiscent of Peter Schmeichel at his best.
That could well be the save of the season, and without it United could well have been staring at an embarrassing defeat.
It’s far too early to draw any conclusions on the Amorim reign. But there is one thing that United fans should watch out for.
Any coach who comes in with a preconceived idea of what the system should be is making a big mistake. The system you need is the one that suits your players the best. It shouldn’t be the other way around.
If you come in and say to your players, this is the system and you will be shoehorned into it, that doesn’t work. Especially when most of your players were away on international duty.
Their time under their new boss on the training ground was limited ahead of the Ipswich game.
Getting used to a new system takes more than just a few days and there’s only so much time that can be spent working on a 3-4-3 when there are other things to get through on a day-to-day basis.
So it’s no surprise that United looked hesitant and unsure at times yesterday.
When Manchester United come to town, especially for a team like Ipswich, it’s the one that most fans have ringed on the calendar in pre-season, when the fixtures come out.
So this was maybe the biggest match of the season for the Tractor Boys and they did really well.
Omari Hutchinson looks like a good player, while our lads did really well too. Sammie Szmodics was good when he was on the pitch, while Dara O’Shea was excellent defensively.
I think the person who would have been most pleased yesterday was Kieran McKenna, the young Ipswich Town coach.
He is doing a fantastic job there, leading them to back-to-back promotions without spending an awful lot of money.
For United, it’s a fresh start and, to be fair to their new coach, he has not been able to work for long with all the players at his disposal. The real work starts now.
Luke Shaw coming back into the team is a big plus for United, but they do look short of players and I think the system might need a rethink.
At least until Amorim can make his mark on the club in the transfer market.
It’s early days and they got off to a dream start, but one of the issues facing their new manager is how to handle yesterday’s goalscorer.
After his goal, Rashford did nothing. A real test for Amorim will be whether he can get a 90-minute performance out of Rashford week after week.
To me, he looks like a player who has signed a big contract and is happy out.
The idea of him playing as a centre-forward is very interesting, but he will have to re-learn how to play that role, how to be in the right place to get balls into him, and how to hold it up for teammates.
He will also have to be more clinical in his finishing and he will definitely have to work a lot harder than he did yesterday.
There is a lot to be done, but it’s not a bad start because Ipswich, despite their position in the table, are a well organised group of players. They play as a team and they have a really good coach.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out, but right now it’s foolish to make judgements.
Amorim needs time like any coach. But what he didn’t need yesterday was a defeat - and thanks to his goalkeeper he avoided that.
If he can get Mason Mount onto the pitch regularly, then he will have himself a top-class player. At the moment, Mount doesn’t look like he’s enjoying himself, but that could well be the pressure of playing for United.
It’s still the greatest club in the world in many ways, and pulling on that shirt can be difficult. There is quite the past to live up to.
What Ruben Amorim needs to say is, forget the past, this is our time now.
Manchester United is a club with a lot of problems and it’s going to be a long journey back to the top. We will see over time if Ruben Amorim is up to the challenge of getting them there.
* Eamon Dunphy's column appears in Monday's Irish Daily Star.
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