Bruno Fernandes

Harry Maguire

Diogo Dalot

Tom Heaton

Lisandro Martinez

Noussair Mazraoui

These are the six players that Amorim has called upon to be his leaders in the dressing room.

Two of those (Martinez and Mazraoui) I don't have a problem with and actually think are good selections, Heaton isn't bad as he's been at the club a long time but in all honesty, he's a third-choice goalkeeper who couldn't even bench Onana and now Bayindir so why have him there?

But those other three: Bruno, Maguire, Dalot.

These three. These three 🤔.

I've got to question why he's gone with them.

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Before we get into why I think this is part of the reason as to why Amorim is sacking himself, I do want to say that creating a leadership group amongst the players isn't a bad thing especially when you're a new manager, sort of.

This sextet was formed in August just before the season started so it is still quite new although those players will be very familiar with each other after having spent enough time together.

Having such a group can make things easier for the manager because they are his sort of lieutenants. If any of the rest of the squad feel uncomfortable talking to the manager about anything, these are the players they can go to who can then pass that message onto the manager.

Being a manager means you can't necessarily be 'one of the boys'. You have to keep some distance. Sir Alex Ferguson said that so before you start thinking I know everything, it was from the greatest manager of all time in his book Leading.

I would urge you to read it as even though it's about a decade old and things have changed in football, a lot of what he says still wrings true today. Amorim could read it tbh.

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As you keep a bit of a distance, you may not be 'one of the bros' which could make things difficult for a player to come and talk to you. The likes of Bruno, Dalot, Maguire and the others seem like great characters and guys who are easy to get along with which could make your job much simpler.

So it's understandable that he would want players like that as part of this leadership group. As they have also been at the club a long time and have a lot of experience, they would know the ropes much better than Amorim who only joined a year ago although it seems like he's been manager for about 20.

I honestly thought he would've added players like Shaw and Casemiro because they too fall under that ilk of Bruno, Maguire and Dalot specifically.

A player I don't understand as to why they're not included is De Ligt who for me, screams leader.

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Getting back to my original point of why Amorim selected those three specific players, he does know they are specialists in failure, right? Despite their experience, they aren't experienced like a Casemiro for example or even Mazraoui. Those guys have been at the top levels of football, have won a lot and in Casemiro's case, has won quite a lot.

Which is another reason to not have them as part of the leadership group: they aren't winners.

Lifting the Carabao Cup and FA Cup in five to eight years (which is how long Bruno, Maguire and Dalot have been here, yes that fucking long!), isn't winning. It was nice to win those trophies but it's hardly league titles and Champions League's.

They have also been some of the most inconsistent and in more recent times, worst players in our team. How can you expect others to follow someone who isn't even good at their own job?

Bruno and Maguire have had Solskjaer, Rangnick, ten Hag and now Amorim as their managers while Dalot goes one further as he was signed by Mourinho! Four and five managers these three players have outlasted.

Good Lord!

When you put it like that, you do wonder how they've managed to stay here so long.

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How can you trust such players? What made Amorim think that 'yes, they are the ones who I shall look to to be my leaders.'

Well, this is what he said as to why he handpicked them:

"There are some things that in the last year I had to deal with and I said to them this season: ‘You deal with that. Small issues are with you guys. You’re responsible.’”

"They are the guys responsible to keep everyone in line."

😂😂😂. 'Keep everyone in line.' 🤣🤣🤣.

I'm sorry but that one just takes the cake. How are they supposed to keep the players in line? They can't even take care of themselves properly with how they perform.

Maguire failed as captain and Bruno is now failing as captain. At least with Maguire though, he managed to make quite the comeback after all his online abuse and nor did he throw teammates under the bus unlike Bruno.

When asked what part he played in allowing Phil Foden to have a free header in the box for the opener in the 3-0 derby defeat, Bruno provided incredible detail in his response.

"I was trying to press Rodri. Because the aim before the game was one of the midfielders to drop on Rodri and one of the defenders jumping on Foden. In the moment I can cover both, Leny [Yoro] decides to come up. When I look at him, I see he comes up, so I try to go a little bit more towards Rodri. [Josko] Gvardiol does a good pass to Foden and Leny is going backwards because our miscommunication.

"We end up giving too much space for them to go up the pitch."

Those were the captain's comments after that defeat in which he spoke specifically about Yoro.

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This was the moment in question.

Why Bruno is saying he's trying to press Rodri when Sesko is already there is confusing. Foden is Bruno's man as he is their attacking midfielder and Bruno is our no 8. Bruno should be marking Foden.

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This was just before Foden's header. Who lets him go? Captain Bruno Fernandes. Even if he wasn't his man (which he was), you're the closest to him. You should be checking around you for potential runs into the box.

Why is he picking on Yoro as well? He was maybe partially to blame but before that goal United had so many chances to prevent it only we didn't. You don't throw specific teammates under the bus even if they are entirely at fault which in this instance, Yoro wasn't, Bruno was more at fault than him but never took the onus onto himself.

Yoro is also young and will make some mistakes so you can give him a bit of leeway.

It's also been noticed that ever since these Bruno comments about the Frenchman, he hasn't started in the following two matches as Maguire has been brought back in. This is the same Maguire who was the last man for two identical goals we conceded against City and Brentford. He is the slowest defender when we should've had our quickest one on the field (Yoro).

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Is the manager simply playing his favourites?

He wouldn't be the first but those in past who did were questioned as to why they continuously picked players who were let downs. They were also big reasons as to why they got sacked due to inconsistent performances and in some cases, poor attitude.

I really didn't like when previous managers kept picking favourites because we could all see how useless they were and if anything, how they held the team back and caused the manager to not be able to play the style he wanted as they were constantly in the side.

Amorim is heading down that same path and probably to the same end as Solksjaer, ten Hag and more.

He'll only have himself to blame.

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Maguire also didn't blame others when he himself messed up. Bruno does this stupid thing where he tells his teammates what he wanted them to do rather than what they did even though their pass wasn't that bad and due to his poor control or quality, the ball is lost. He will then point to where he actually wanted the ball even though the pass was perfect.

What type of captain does that?!

He also whines and moans a lot for absolutely no reason. Even as a United fan, it is quite irritating to see him 'writhe in pain' whenever he goes down. He then gets up like nothing happened and we think to ourselves 'why act like that in the first place?'

Not very leader-like from him in that sense too.

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With Maguire and Dalot, I don't question their attitude and professionalism that much and to an extent even with Bruno although he can be very frustrating, but with these two, it's more about quality and whether they can actually play a modern style of football.

Clearly they can't and when you aren't good enough, that is reason enough to be moved on. At United, we make them part of a leadership group.

Make it make sense 😐.

They've also been at the club for a long time and have never really consistently played well to a point where we felt like they were 'Man Utd' players.

The problem with Martinez and Mazraoui is that they are injured at the moment. It's great that they are part of the leadership group and I believe they are better suited for it but why include them when you know they won't be playing as both were injured before this group was created?

I get that they can still be leaders but I would prefer to also see them on the field.

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My six leaders would include:

Mazraoui

Martinez

De Ligt

Mainoo - so that we have one of the young players as part of the leaders that other young players can look up to

Cunha

Mbeumo

That's a group that includes the new players, ones who are also experienced, some who've been around the block and actually won things, they seem like great characters and you remove all those who've failed in the past. That inclusion of Mainoo is key for him as well because it will indicate to him that he is seen as an important member of the squad and a potential leader of the future.

What do you think of this leadership group?

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I also have to add to this, what made Amorim so positive and excited during pre-season?

There was all this talk about how things have changed and that there is a different atmosphere about the place. Hell, even I believed it because of how often it was said.

We then saw that leadership group and how the season has unfolded and you think, nothing has actually changed. We're playing terribly just as we were last season and we're using a lot of players that have let us down in the past.

Something really doesn't add up.

And the thing is, every new manager seems to put their faith in players who have failed before only to have them fail the new manager and help get them sacked too.

I'm sorry to be repeating myself but why trust Bruno, Dalot and Maguire and even Shaw when looking at team selection as they have been a part of so many sackings?

Having these players as part of that frankly very important group also tells them that they are quite important to this manager and maybe for the future as well. This then gives them another opportunity to stay for at least one more year.

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It's decisions like these that gives you more questions than answers and makes you think that perhaps Amorim may not be the guy.

Why do you think this was the leadership group Amorim went with? Who do you think he should've gone with instead?

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Bruno Fernandes is Ruben Amorim's main man at Man Utd but could be big reason for potential sacking | Creator: George Wood | Credit: Getty Images Copyright: 2025 Getty Images via Man Utd News