November 5th 2024.
Legendary former England striker Michael Owen has shared his insights on the potential lineup that new Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim might choose. The Portuguese coach will officially take over the reins at the struggling Premier League giants on November 11, replacing Erik ten Hag who left for Old Trafford from Sporting Lisbon.
Regardless of the outcome of their upcoming match against Leicester City, Manchester United will find themselves in the bottom half of the table when Amorim arrives. The 3-4-3 formation has been Amorim's preferred style throughout his managerial career and Owen believes he will implement it as soon as he starts his new job.
Owen envisions a back-three consisting of Matthijs de Ligt, Lisandro Martinez, and Leny Yoro, who joined the club for a whopping £52 million in the summer but has yet to make an appearance due to a pre-season injury. "I think that's an important position for Ruben Amorim," Owen commented on the central defender in a discussion about the potential team lineup on Premier League Productions. "Amorim has a reputation of having that central defender coming into the midfield a little bit, so that player has to be decent on the ball. De Ligt and Martinez are aggressive defenders who like to challenge strikers, so that middle player has to be good on the ball and Yoro fits the bill. If everyone is fit, that's the back-three he would pick."
Moving on to the midfield, Owen believes Amorim would choose his former Sporting star Manuel Ugarte over Manchester United's £70 million signing Casemiro. As for the wing-backs, it could be Diogo Dalot and Luke Shaw, although the latter has yet to play this season due to injury problems. "He can only pick 11 players and we did debate Ugarte or Casemiro, it was a bit of a toss of a coin between the two," Owen said. "But we just felt he would go with Ugarte because he's played under him before, and that might just tip it in Ugarte's favour." Former Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey added, "They won the league together at Sporting, so Ugarte clearly understands the manager and knows what he expects from him in that position and in the formation he likes to play. Casemiro has had a great career and is still a quality player, but I think Ugarte just pips him given the experience he's had with him previously."
Amorim usually plays two No. 10s behind the striker, and if he continues this trend at Old Trafford, Owen predicts that captain Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford will be the chosen ones. "It's important to mention that these two players play almost inside in a lot of his formations," Owen added. "They are not necessarily wide players, so they come in and play more like number 10s, which plays into Bruno's favor. With those players coming inside, you could ask, can Rashford play inside? I think he can. I think he's got decent vision. He's not going to play otherwise unless he ends up playing him up front instead of Hojlund. I think Rashford will start, but it will be in that more inside position." Ramsey also believes that Rashford could thrive as a forward under Amorim and could even "get a new lease of life" following his recent struggles. "Rashford has loads of quality," the Welsh hero said. "Hopefully, he gets a new lease of life under the new manager and reaches the levels he has in the past and shows more consistency. He's an unbelievable player on his day. In this system, I feel he can be suited in the little pockets and holes."
The majority of Amorim's squad will be away on international duty when he takes over, leaving him with little time to work with his players before their first Premier League game against Ipswich Town on November 24. This will be followed by a packed schedule of two games a week for the next two months, with crucial matches in the Premier League, Europa League, and Carabao Cup. "He will want to implement his new system straightaway," Ramsey noted. "The difficult thing is he will only have a few training sessions to prepare for his first game and get the players up to speed. I'm sure they'll have a lot of meetings in the initial few weeks because there's just not enough time on the grass." Owen added, "What's the alternative? Playing the current formation? It's not working at the moment, they're in the bottom half of the Premier League. Can he implement it straightaway? It's so radical and so different, it completely changes the dynamic. But they've got to start somewhere. They might as well start it straight away because this thing has been broken for some time. They might get beaten by Ipswich, but so what? At least they'll be on the road to something more positive."
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