Do Manchester United have the personnel to play Ruben Amorim’s style?

A look at the on the pitch situation at MUFC.

Transcript

00:00Just looking at on-the-pitch situations, you had a lot of success, especially recently

00:05with a 3-4-3 shape at Sporting, obviously unbeaten in the Champions League, up to second

00:11in the new format. How does it go about implementing that at Manchester United? Do they have the

00:17personnel? Do they have what it takes to adjust to that straight away or do you think it could

00:23take time?

00:25I think a bit of both. I think you hit the nail on the head with what is the big question

00:29around all this is, do they have the personnel? Because United don't have a huge amount of

00:33resources to go into the transfer market in January, obviously always a very difficult

00:37window anyway to complete major business. I think they'll already be looking at the

00:41summer before they can actually really start shaping Amarim's squad. So he's going to have

00:45to get through really until the majority of the rest of the season with the players that

00:48he's got. I think in terms of the players that he has, goalkeepers obviously not a huge

00:53issue in that. I think he's got a plethora of centre-backs, I think he's got six centre-backs

00:57to choose from. So playing three at the back actually suits really nicely with that. Plenty

01:01of midfield choices, obviously Ten Hag play with three central midfielders, Amarim's only

01:05going to play with two, so already you're working with smaller numbers, no issue there.

01:09You've got two options up front, don't think that's a problem and you've got plenty of

01:12options in the wide attacking areas, Garnaccio, Rashford, Ahmad Anthony, so plenty of players

01:18there to choose from. The big question mark, the big uncertainty in my eyes is the wing-back

01:22roles because they've got Diogo Dalo and Masraoui who can both play in those positions,

01:27but I don't think you would describe either of them as natural wing-backs, so it's just

01:31interesting to see how they will adapt to that. And they're both of course right-footed,

01:35they're only really the two full-back options United have got at the moment. I mean, Lissandra

01:39Martinez has been filling in at left-back over the last couple of games as well, so

01:43that underlines the problems United have in the wide defensive areas. Luke Shaw is coming

01:47back from a long-term injury, should maybe be back in the next couple of weeks anyway.

01:54I don't know if he's suited to the wing-back role, I think it seems like quite a physically

01:57demanding position for him. He has played on the left centre-back role as well, I think

02:02he's more suited to the left of a back three rather than the wing-back roles, so be interested

02:07in that one. And then Tyrone Molassi, who knows when he's going to be back, he's had

02:10this long-term knee injury, been out for 18 months, I don't think Amarin will be able

02:15to rely on him for a long time. So that's a big question mark for me, is the wing-back

02:19areas. And Amarin has already said that he will, he hasn't said it explicitly, but has

02:24very heavily implied that he will play 3-4-3. I think he said something like he's got to

02:29stick with what he knows, certainly at the start. And the difficult thing for him is

02:32he comes in, I mean, Man United have got 10 fixtures across December, he's got two the

02:37end of November, and it is going to be a very condensed fixture list for him. He's not going

02:42to have time to get on the training ground and try and implement his ideas, so that is

02:45going to be the challenge for Amarin, but I'd be really interested to see how he copes

02:48with that over the next couple of weeks.