By Opta Analyst | Created at 2024-12-26 07:54:53 | Updated at 2024-12-29 17:49:20
3 days ago
Over his first few weeks in charge of Manchester United, Ruben Amorim has rotated his squad significantly. But he knows it is not a long-term answer to the team’s woes.
Ruben Amorim’s appointment as Manchester United’s new head coach was always going to usher in a period of significant upheaval and change at Old Trafford.
The main focus has related to their game model and formation, with Amorim immediately implementing a back three after enjoying considerable success with a few variations of a 3-4-3 setup at Sporting CP.
Jonathan Manuel / Data AnalystUnited have never been a side who’ve played with a back three regularly. Amorim downplayed the alteration during his first press conference, but there’s no doubt this was to be a pretty notable change for a club who’ve traditionally been associated with a back four and flying wingers.
“As a coach, you have to choose one way or another. I always chose 100% our way,” he said in his first press conference as coach. “I prefer to risk a little bit but to push from the first moment. If [the team] feel since the first day that I believe so much in our way of playing, they will believe too. So, there is no second doubts, no second way.”
However, he made this point while acknowledging that he’s taken over a squad “built for a different system.”
Experimentation has been prevalent during Amorim’s early weeks, with the 39-year-old forcing many of his players to test their own levels of adaptability as square pegs are squeezed into round holes.
For example, Amad has been solely deployed at right wing-back, Alejandro Garnacho has featured in a narrower role as one of the No 10s, while Noussair Mazraoui has mostly played as a right-sided centre-back.
Amorim has also had to factor in fitness. Certain players have returned from lengthy injury layoffs, while others were perhaps underutilised by Ten Hag.
He alluded to this prior to the Europa League win over Bodø/Glimt at the end of November, referring to his squad as “split” before outlining how “if Bruno [Fernandes] trains tomorrow, he cannot train for two days, he can only train slowly”.
The consequence is vast rotation.
Last week’s defeat to Arsenal saw United make six changes to their starting XI from the 4-0 win over Everton three days earlier, with their two goalscorers against the Toffees – Marcus Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee, who netted two apiece – reduced to substitute roles at the Emirates Stadium.
Amorim has now presided over four games in the Premier League, making at least three changes to the starting XI from the previous match each time.
If you add the Europa League visit of Bodø/Glimt to the equation, Amorim made five changes from his starting XI vs Ipswich to face the Norwegians, and then he made another five alterations between that lineup and the one that began the 4-0 win over Everton.
Rotating the squad between competitions makes sense, especially given the revamped format of the Europa League provides clubs like United more margin for error in their quest for progression.
Nevertheless, it’s understandable that some supporters might feel somewhat concerned about the prospect of continually shuffling the pack for Premier League matches.
Amorim is averaging 4.0 lineup changes per match across his four top-flight games in charge. It’s a small sample size, obviously, but among the other managers to preside over at least two matches in the Premier League this season, no one else is averaging more than 2.9 lineup changes.
Using the same criteria as above but also excluding Amorim and interim managers, the average number of lineup changes in the Premier League this term is 2.1. Erik ten Hag, just for reference, averaged 2.0 before he was dismissed.
Amorim’s tinkering has been significant. Across his four Premier League games at the helm, his total lineup changes from the previous XI is 16 – United haven’t tallied 16 lineup changes across a four-game spell in the Premier League since Ralf Rangnick’s time as interim manager.
It’s also worth noting that the number of permitted substitutions during Rangnick’s time in charge was three per game, so there was a greater need to rotate lineups than in 2024-25.
Amorim is rotating during matches as well, making the maximum five substitutions in all five games in charge. In the Premier League, he’s the only coach (excluding interim/caretaker managers) to have used all permitted substitutions in 100% of his matches this season. Pep Guardiola has only made five subs during three games, Mikel Arteta and Arne Slot have done so in four each. Ten Hag did so in five.
When you add lineup alterations and substitutions together, only Chelsea (37) have made more team changes in the Premier League since Amorim took over in the last international break, with United just behind on 36.
Of course, it’s not just about player fitness.
What’s made Amorim’s job – and that of the players – harder is the fact he was appointed mid-season. There’s obviously not much he could’ve done about that, but with United playing two games pretty much every week, there’s limited time on the training ground to put new tactics, triggers and roles into practice.
To a degree, United players are having to learn a new system on the job while Amorim assesses them in match situations almost as much as in the more forgiving environment of the training field.
“With this schedule, we need to rotate the team. So, we will try to use [matches] to train, to improve the team and to win matches. That is the point,” he said in the build-up to the Bodø/Glimt victory.
“Without time, we have to find the time and I think this is the only way. Some of the guys are going to play, some of the guys on the next day will work on our idea, and then they will [swap].”
As such, much of the squad has seen their proportion of time on the pitch change considerably. Injuries play a part here, of course, as Leny Yoro, Tyrell Malacia and Luke Shaw (who’s injured again) were all unavailable to Ten Hag, while Mason Mount and others had time out, too.
Nevertheless, Amad Diallo has been the biggest beneficiary of Amorim’s rotating. He only played 48.7% of available minutes under Ten Hag and Ruud van Nistelrooy across all competitions – that’s improved by 28 percentage points to 76.6% under Amorim.
Rasmus Højlund (23.1%), Manuel Ugarte (15.7%) and Matthijs De Ligt are among the other outfielders to see their playing time increase by more than 10 percentage points.
Casemiro is the player who’s seen the biggest decrease in playing time, reducing by 36.1 percentage points to 32.4%; next is Christian Eriksen, down by 35.2 percentage points, then Lisandro Martínez (from 81.6% to 53.3%).
Rashford is also down there; he played 73.7% of available minutes under Amorim and Ten Hag compared to 17.9% since Amorim arrived.
Rashford, of course, scored the opening goal of Amorim’s reign – he was then benched for the visit of Bodø/Glimt. Garnacho and Højlund were the goalscorers against them, only to be among the subs for the meeting with Everton.
Rashford and Zirkzee then got the goals against Everton only to be dropped back to the bench for the trip to Arsenal. So, ahead of Thursday’s Europa League away game against Viktoria Plzen, no player who has scored for Amorim has retained their place in the starting XI for the very next game.
If Højlund and Bruno Fernandes are rested in Plzen, which doesn’t seem unrealistic, that run will continue after their goals against Nottingham Forest in Saturday’s disappointing 3-2 defeat at Old Trafford.
It was ahead of that game that Amorim suggested he had “more or less” developed an understanding of his strongest XI – but the team he picked ended up falling well short of expectations on the pitch, with errors by André Onana and Martínez proving costly in defeat.
Amorim has in some ways treated his first few weeks in charge like pre-season, chopping and changing frequently as he gets to know the players and while they get to grips with how he wants them to operate.
An adaptation period was always going to be necessary, but how long will it last? Rotation isn’t an inherently bad thing – a perceived lack of rotation was a common criticism of Ten Hag, while Manchester City have ranked in the top four for lineup changes in each of their past four title-winning seasons.
However, United need to start picking up results fast in the Premier League. If they want to strengthen the squad in the manner Amorim desires, Champions League football is pretty much a requirement, but at the moment the Opta supercomputer gives them just a 0.5% chance of finishing in the top four. Fifth could also be a UCL qualification spot, though their 3.2% likelihood of taking that isn’t exactly nailed-on.
There’s a strong argument they don’t really have the time for much more experimentation, and that if someone plays well, perhaps they ought to be kept in the team to help build some momentum.
Amorim did at least insist his rotation policy was a necessity rather than preference after the Arsenal defeat, saying that it’s “not because I like to change all the time, but we have to have all the squad fit”. Therefore, presumably, we’re close to a point where the United team starts to look a little more settled.
He’s giving players opportunities to adapt and stake their claims, but conclusions need to be made soon if United are to save their season.
Enjoy this? Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You can also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
