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Mike Phelan has expressed concern over the club’s decision to appoint Ruben Amorim as manager given the his relative lack of experience and questions whether the 39-year-old will be able to implement his tactical set-up at Old Trafford.
Phelan, the right-hand man to Sir Alex Ferguson during one of the most successful periods in Manchester United’s history, believes there are striking parallels between the hiring of Amorim and the club’s previous incumbent, Erik ten Hag.
“Everything leading up to it with Amorim and Ten Hag seems like the same talk. Same qualifications, Sporting being one, Ajax the other,” the 62-year-old states. “Amorim is certainly not an unknown, he’s got experience in Europe, but it seems to be the same sort of remit. You wonder whether Manchester United need a seriously experienced manager.”
And it’s a lack of experience at the top level which Ralf Rangnick and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – the two previous managers before Ten Hag – both lacked as well, suggesting Phelan’s view holds some weight.
However, both Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal possessed glittering CVs with success at a host of Europe’s biggest clubs, and they too fell foul of the same fate as their less experienced successors.
Rather, it appears United need a “seriously experienced” executive structure which puts in place the correct conditions for a manager (or head coach) to succeed. And that is exactly what INEOS – who gained full control over the football operation at Old Trafford in February – have focused on in the first year of their tenure.
Omar Berrada and Dan Ashworth, the club’s Chief Executive and Sporting Director respectively, are considered two ‘best-in-class’ appointments but were only able to begin work at United in July. By this point, INEOS had already decided to stick with Ten Hag following an end-of-season review.
This choice, however, appears one borne out of a lack of viable alternatives than any meaningful belief in the Dutch manager. But it was a decision made without the Chief Executive or Sporting Director being in the building.
And following United’s dismal start to the new campaign, with the team demonstrating many of the same issues which plagued last season, Berrada and Ashworth appear to have made up for lost time by moving quickly to replace Ten Hag with a candidate who is clearly their choice.
The hope will be that the structure above Amorim at Old Trafford will provide the 39-year-old coach with everything he needs to be able to coach his new side to the best of his ability; which was on clear display in last night’s thrilling 4-1 dismantling of Manchester City in the Champions League.
Phelan believes the 3-4-3 system favoured by the Portuguese coach is “great if you can get it going”, as Sporting were able to do yesterday, but he questions whether the United squad will be able to adapt to it: “It all depends on what he has got at his disposal.”
Berrada and Ashworth, and by extension INEOS, will hope their new man will have whatever he requires at his disposal in order to succeed where so many others have failed in the post-Ferguson malaise at Old Trafford.
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
