“It will change my life; it will not change me,”Ruben Amorim told the BBCnot long after becoming Manchester United manager, his underpinning sentiment – that self-worth comes from within – a cornerstone of therapeutic thinking. Sure enough, as the interview continued, he unabashedly raised his own therapy, in the process showing disarming candour, a man supremely comfortable in his own head.
Effective treatment requires going backwards to go forwards and it is easy to chortle that under Amorim, United have done just that. As they prepare for a final we could characterise as two bald men fighting over a wig, there may be a very specific regression taking place: back to good old 1990, when United finished 13th in the league and then beat an even worse team to win a cup, changing everything in the process.
When we are struggling, the hope is that things improve things quickly. But given we spend years training our brains to think unhelpfully, embedding pain deep inside ourselves, it should come as no surprise to learn that repair also takes time, as it did when Alex Ferguson took over. On accepting the job, Amorim was clear there is no quick fix for a disgrace20 years in the making, United finally seeking to solve not salve their problems, and for that reason he asked to join in the close season so there would be time to inculcate his methods. When the request was refused, he was clear this made suffering inevitable, as it is when renewing an ailing psyche.
An outsider sharing uncomfortable truths while eschewing glib platitudes and ingratiating flattery is how effective therapy works. Though much of what Amorim says will be hard to hear for a squad not renowned for its devotion to self-improvement, the suggestion he should keep his opinions to himself – or, to put a finer point on it, lie to everyone more often – is nonsensical. Only with unstinting, open-hearted honesty – on both sides – can well-ensconced issues be resolved, expertise gathered over years then guiding the subject to a better place.
Not everyone is ready to be told about themselves. On the one hand, Casemiro – a player Amorim refused to use when he arrived – is now a mainstay while, on the other, Marcus Rashford was excluded because, though Amorim knew his impotent outfit could ill-afford to lose so talented an attacker, a successful therapeutic journey required that all involved were deeply committed to it.
In such context, he was right to have trepidation about arriving mid-season and United chose upheaval over new-manager bounce and goodwill by insisting he did.
But the scale of the job meant it needed starting as soon as possible, before more damage could be done and with scope for Amorim to grasp the full expanse of the malaise with little at stake.
He has a long run-up at next season, with no excuse for not knowing the kind of players he needs and level of players the competition demands. The importance of this cannot be overestimated: it was not until United had been humiliated in their first two games that Erik ten Hag, a summer appointment, learned that what worked in the Netherlands, with the best players and most money, could not simply be transposed to the Premier League. His inability to adapt thereafter was the principal reason he failed.
Where, under Ten Hag, United were criticised for lacking any discernible style, Amorim’s side are criticised for their defined style – sometimes by the same people. There are also those who believe his system does not suit his players, but this is not necessarily so. The absence of a reliable goalkeeper costs points; the centre-backs are experienced in, and protected by, playing as a three; Bruno Fernandes and Amad Diallo, the squad’s best attackers, are thriving. Otherwise, though it is true that wing-back in an Amorim team is a specialised role demanding a bespoke profile, the remaining midfielders and strikers were not exactly excelling in a different formation.
It is unfortunate that Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho, two of United’s best young players, are not obvious fits. But Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 is only a starting point, its aim flexibility not rigidity.
In the BBC interview, he explains that while things can look one-dimensional initially, as the team develop self-understanding they will learn to switch between different iterations of the structure’s character as circumstance demands; a long, complex process requires simplicity at the start. The system is there to serve the players – just as therapeutic techniques are adapted for each individual without losing their defining essence.
The idea is to dominate with overloads all over the pitch: three centre-backs to outnumber opposition strikers; wide centre-backs carrying the ball forward to make extra, unmarked men in midfield and attack; the central centre-back also stepping into midfield; and two No 10s augmenting that area while also, along with the wide centre- backs, ensuring the wing-backs are not left alone.
The problem is that the system is demanding, so when it doesn’t work, the opposition dominate with overloads – this happens to United often.
In particular, they lack midfielders able to both build play and cover ground but, though tweaks are necessary – the central centre-back in midfield is not working – it feels almost banal to state that United’s major problems are of quality and mentality, not configuration and execution.
One of football’s lasting beauties is its balance and variety: add something in one place, lose it in another, nothing is perfect. The best sides do not have the best system, they have the best players, characters and blend; if Amorim is furnished with that, they, supported and empowered by his signature magnetism and empathy, should be able to cover the holes baked into every system.
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For Amorim to change method on account of a difficult patient would intimate nothing but weakness. He was employed on account of the work he did at Sporting, where he turned a poor side into repeat champions capable ofbeating the best teams in England.
United, though they keep losing, have changed from a team that cannot create chances into one that continually miss them, an improvement not reflected in points accumulated but an important evolution nevertheless.
Amorim is not the first foreign manager to need time after arriving in England. Pep Guardiola inherited a squad full of champions and lavishly appointed with his needs in mind, but failed to win anything in his first season at Manchester City; Jürgen Klopp ostracised Christian Benteke, a good player who did not fit his formula, then took two and a half seasons to build something proper; and a year into his reign at Arsenal, Mikel Arteta’s position was close to untenable after seven defeats in 10 games.
It is, though, fair to say that despite multifarious mitigating factors, United ought not to be as bad as they are.
But where his predecessors largely blamed everyone but themselves, Amorim takes responsibility for the poverty of performances, in the process reminding his players that the standards he demands of them he applies to himself, with greater ferocity; it is telling that Fernandes, the squad’s best player and professional, also regularly accepts personal culpability for collective failings no one is doing more to redeem. Taking full ownership of weakness, moving beyond the temptation to deflect and deny, is a marker of emotional maturity and the only path towards growth.
As such, Amorim cannot be judged fairly or sensibly at this point, even if United suffer the epochal stain of losing a European final – not just to Tottenham, but to this Tottenham.
After a decade-long search, they finally have a modern manager bristling with charisma and emotional intelligence, in thrall neither to himself nor the club.
The hardest part of therapy is starting it – everything else, however painful, a step in the right direction.
By appointing Amorim, United submitted themselves to the process, and even if he cannot finish the job, the integrity of his diagnostics will benefit them for years to come.