Gary Neville slams Amorim for repeating Ten Hag mistake after Man Utd become a ‘mess’

Gary Neville slams Amorim for repeating Ten Hag mistake after Man Utd become a ‘mess’

Gary Neville and former Manchester United goalkeeper Tim Howard have criticised Ruben Amorim for repeating a mistake made by Erik ten Hag during his final days at Old Trafford.

After an encouraging start that saw Man Utd unbeaten in Amorim’s first three games in charge, the Red Devils have suffered two consecutive defeats. Both of Arsenal’s goals in their 2-0 win last weekend came from set pieces.

Nikola Milenkovic’s opening goal for Nottingham Forest in their 3-2 win on Saturday also came from a corner.

But when asked for their assessment of Amorim’s performance and management so far, former United goalkeeper Tim Howard and club legend Gary Neville took aim at the manager’s use of substitutes.

Howard took aim at Amorimi, who changed key parts of his defence midway through the game.

Neville explained why the policy was a mistake and a move that did not serve former boss Ten Hag well in his final days in Manchester. “There’s still a long way to go,” Howard told NBC Soccer. “It was difficult. I think what’s worrying – it’s not a major issue – is the substitutions for me “Similar substitutions, changing two of your three defenders in the 65th minute.

There must be other issues that need to be resolved. “Sometimes you have to let the players suffer a little.

Removing a player almost allows them to escape. You have ideas that you want to convey, let them develop. “He (Amorimi) follows the show, I think you follow the show in a different way. This shows what a long-term project it is.” Gary Neville replied: “When you constantly change players, when you constantly change the back three and remove the back five, you are actually telling everyone – actually because you left them out at the start of the game – that you don’t have to trust them.

“Ten Hag kept doing that for a few weeks. He kept changing defenders and midfielders and suddenly you end up with a completely different system and a completely different set of players on the pitch at the end of the game and you can never get the consistency or stability. “I think there’s an element of what Tim said. We have to leave it on the pitch, they (the players) didn’t play that badly in the first half. “Obviously they were undermined by the set-pieces (from Forest) but the football wasn’t that bad overall.

Then you make two mistakes after half-time in the first 10 minutes and you get hurt, then you make changes and suddenly everything falls apart. “It was really poor, really poor, it looked like a disaster at the end for United, no real form. In the first half they weren’t great but at least they had some form.”

 

What changes did Amorim make? Amorim decided to replace Leny Yoro and Matthijs De Ligt with Noussair Mazraoui and Harry Maguire in the 65th minute against Forest. Yoro’s substitution in particular shouldn’t come as a huge surprise as Amorim recently said the young Frenchman was under a “time limit”.

Basically, Amorim said Yoro’s minutes would be strictly managed after his return from a four-month absence with a broken metatarsal.

Last week against Arsenal, Amorim replaced defender Tyrell Malacia at half-time (with Amad Diallo) before replacing Yoro with Maguire in the 59th minute.

Two changes were made to the five-man defence in the 56th minute against Everton, three defensive changes before the hour mark against Bodo/Glimt and one defensive change (56th minute) against Ipswich Town.

Therefore, Amorim has yet to have a game at Manchester United in which he hasn’t broken through the five-man defense with at least one substitution in the 65th minute or earlier.