Ruben Amorim took a massive body blow in midweek. / Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
Manchester United’s board intend to stick by Ruben Amorim for now, reports claim, but some in the club’s dressing room are understood to hold an entirely less flattering opinion.
Amorim cast considerable doubt over his own future in the rain-soaked fallout from Wednesday evening’s Carabao Cup catastrophe against Grimsby Town. The waning Premier League outfit fell 2-0 down to their League Two hosts before recovering only to lose a dramatic penalty shootout.
The Portuguese head coach couldn’t bring himself to watch any of the 26 spot kicks, staring firmly at the patch of turf in front of him while huddled limply in the dugout. During a series of wild-eyed post-match interviews, Amorim bleakly fretted: “Something has to change and you’re not going to change 22 players again.”
United spent a total of £21 million ($28.3 million) to sack Erik ten Hag and buy Amorim out of his Sporting CP contract 10 months ago, not to mention the £200 million which has been splashed on a new frontline this summer. After such investment, The Times report the dogmatic manager will not be sacked before Saturday’s trip to Burnley and retains the backing of the board and influential co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
The same report also claims that should Amorim leave Old Trafford, he could return to Portugal to take charge of Sporting’s fierce rivals Benfica, the club which he represented throughout the majority of his playing career. Presidential candidate João Noronha Lopes is thought to be “hopeful” of appointing Amorim should he triumph in the upcoming club elections.
United’s upper hierarchy — and those in Portugal — may still be enraptured by the charismatic coach, yet his unwavering attitude is beginning to grate with some members of the dressing room, The Guardian claim. An unnamed number of individuals are said to have “questioned” Amorim’s “tactics and man-management.”
Amorim heavily hinted at a loss of faith from his players in midweek when he claimed that they “spoke really loudly about what they want today” after starting the defeat to Grimsby “without any intensity” and looking “completely lost.” There is the very real suggestion that the United boss could resign during September’s international break which begins after this weekend’s visit from Burnley.
“Let’s focus on the next game and then we have time to think about things,” Amorim told MUTV. “We have a job to do, a job to prepare, and then we will stop and think things through.”
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