Forest on Saturday will mark the one year anniversary of Ruben Amorim's first weekend in charge as Man Utd manager. He will want to make that a happy anniversary but admits that things will be tough on Saturday.
Ruben Amorim says that Lisandro Martinez wants to play for United this weekend after the butcher returned to first team training during the week. While it is a positive to have him back, the manager says that "he is not going to this one. It's going to take time", which confirms that the Argentine WILL NOT be in the squad for the trip to Forest.
Other news is that Maguire remains a doubt after he picked up an issue last week probably from carrying all the praise he received for his late winner at Anfield 😉. That's a joke but it is slightly concerning that he might not be available again.
The rest of the squad is ready.
Whilst out of a job, the now Forest manager Sean Dyche said that he could've won more games had he been manager of United rather than Amorim. The United boss responded by saying that "if you are a pundit and you don't say very strong things, I don't want to watch you! I'm the same!"
The Portuguese mentioned how that if United had been playing a 4-4-2 then perhaps they would've won more games but reiterated that his system and style will take more time.
With Forest posing a different type of challenge, Amorim says that United have to improve how they control the game as they are a different team on the road compared to at Old Trafford. "We are ready for a very difficult match."
On his year at the club, the manager said that he's "learned a lot" and that his answer today is different to that of three weeks ago. He added that even in his lowest moments, he found that he could stick with his beliefs and "that is a good thing for anyone to understand."
Amorim admits that his side will "struggle a little bit" when the likes of Amad and Mbeumo go to the AFCON at the start of next year however, he says that it's also an opportunity for others "because when I watch training there are players that should be playing."
Final Thoughts
It's great to have Martinez back training and to know that he isn't far off being back in the team. But it's also great knowing that we don't have to rush him back because we have others who are performing. It's the same with Maguire although it is a little concerning what this problem is and to why he could miss two games.
We haven't had this where the rest of the squad is performing to a point where we're not desperate to have players return.
Even with Amad and Mbeumo going to the AFCON, we have the likes of Mount, Bruno can move into midfield, Zirkzee can do a job and potentially Mainoo although it reamins to be seen whether they will actually be at United come January given recent reports.
The big problem when they leave is the parnership. That has been developing nicely in recent weeks to a point where we have to have them both play all the time as they make such a difference.
That will be the hard part to replace.
We would probably have had more points and wins had we played 4-4-2 under Dyche. In a funny way, isn't the what we're doing right now, at least with the style?
United have been playing a lot of long ball stuff. We go root one and even use long throw-ins to create and score goals. This is what Dyche ball looks like and we will be seeing it on Saturday.
This style has been working for us but it isn't how we want to play so this style won't be sufficient in the long run because we do need to play a better brand of football. This is why Amorim says it will take time but is also why he probably changed his approach to this old school style. It's been helping him pick up results but he will need to show us something more as we move forward.
It has been quite the year, has it not?
Of course, no one could've predicted it would've gone the way it did but boy, could we not have predicted this type of year 😳.
If he can't learn anything in this year, then he never will. I believe he has done though and one of those things was to shut out the noise and believe in yourself and what you're doing.
Pretty much for the entirety of his tenure at United, the media and even some of the fan base, have been on his back about his formation and style of play. Amorim remained adamant that it was the system that was the problem but perhaps more the application of it considering we haven't used this formation at United ever, so things would take time.
People picked on his formation because of the countless losses but I also felt that it was his 3-4-3 that was the problem. We've seen this in the victories as in all of them, we've actually seen a side that knew what they were doing and that when it works, it really works.
These past three victories for example showcase this perfectly. The football has been great to watch and we've deserved to win. No one has spoken about the system.
It CAN work.
What I've learned about Ruben is that he is stubborn both in a positive and negative sense but he will stick to what he believes in, he will stick to his style and formation.
This was a problem I had with Erik ten Hag in that he never truly implemented his Ajax style at United even though he admitted that it was because he had different players. Amorim also has different players yet has stuck to his principles through thick and thin to a point where he's mentioned several times about leaving.
Yet here we are.
He is still here, the system is still here and we're finally starting to see things come together.
He is the one manager out of all post-Sir Alex that I wanted it to work out more than the others. The honesty and personality he has is so real as he says a lot of what us fans feel, and we like that.
But as he said, it was just three weeks ago that we were in a different situation. This is why it's paramount that we continue as we are starting with Forest on Saturday.
Ruben Amorim | Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images via Manchester Evening News