Amorim, United and a squad needing rebuilding.
Ruben Amorim will have an immediate impact on Manchester United because he will organise and energise, and there will be an inevitable lift in mood now that Erik ten Hag has mercifully been put of his misery. Amorim’s arrival is a coup for United because he is so respected by his coaching peers, and loved by his players at Sporting Lisbon. He will doubtless get more out of the United players, especially Manuel Ugarte, a player he knows well, but poor recruitment over the past decade remains United’s key problem.
You can change the manager, pay compensation of £20m+, but changing the squad is far more complicated and expensive. Amorim does not arrive with a magic wand to transform a collection of players that cannot rival those that United dream of competing with.
How many United players would get into an all-star Liverpool-United XI? Goalkeeper? No. Alisson is better than Andre Onana. Defence? Even Lisandro Martinez at his very best wouldn’t usurp Virgil van Dijk as the left-sided centre-back. None of United midfielders would start. Alejandro Garnacho would certainly compete for the left side of attack but otherwise it’s Diogo Jota ahead of Rasmus Hojlund and Mo Salah before Marcus Rashford. So that’s Liverpool 10, United 1 and probably the same for a combined Manchester United-City XI. Would a manager rather have Arsenal’s squad or United’s? Arsenal’s.