Interesting and detailed discussion going over every one of our players & each position in Amorim usual 3-4-3 setup.
Ruben Amorim, the road to Manchester United: ‘He was special, like a magician’ - The Athletic Good in depth article on his background
From the sounds of it, he came to Sporting at point of "civil war." Communication was a big key for him. I felt that was ten Hag's major weakness.
Been spending time trying to determine how Amorim will be able to use the current squad in his system and keep getting stuck on the wing backs and how to get Bruno / Garnacho / Amad / Rashford into the lineup. Does anyone know what Amorim did when he first took over Sporting? I assume the same issues must have been there in that his predecessor would have played 4 at the back. Did he reshape fullbacks or wingers into wingbacks or dip into the market?
Bruno would play Pote role, Garnaco and Amad would play Trincao position. Rashford doesn't really have a role if you're doing a like for like. For RWB we used to have Porro on loan from City. LWB he converted Nuno Santos from more of a traditional winger to play that role.
Statman Dave thinks will be good for Yoro, Hojlund, Ugarte, Amad & the Academy. Plus shows where he sees other players fitting in.
Yoro I'm not going to say I've seen much of at all, but people say he's quite mobile. If Amorim tries to play a like for like of his current formation the CBs need to be VERY mobile and able to drift wide. I think it's something non of our current CBs are great at, so it'll be tough. Ugarte is easy, he and Mainoo are a Amorim CM pairing drop in replacement. Academy for sure if we have the talent, if you have the right attitude you'll get games. Quenda was dropped in it at the start of this season as a young 17 year old and hit the ground running and displaced Geny who was GREAT for us last season. But we've also had players we've shipped out like Esteves who was meant to be a top talent, but had no attidue. So if there's talent there he won't let it rot
I know it'd be sacrelige to watch city play. But Sporting came out firing to score 2 goals in first minute after half time 3-1 to Sporting in Amorim's last game at home so far
4-1 Gyokeres with a Hattrick (2 from the Spot, but Halaand missed his penalty) Our Viking dad can beat up your Viking dad!
********ing brilliant Also seeing Paulinho to be second guy to shake Pep's hand 2 seconds after Amorim was super cute
Welcome back Interesting timing - does waiting until we have a manager who after this result against City looks like he may know what he is doing amount to Glory Hunting
Haha. Nah, I'm not back. Just thought I'd poke my head in and see how everyone was reacting to the Amorim news. Seems like cautious optimism is the general consensus.
Just got round to watching it, and honestly it's a load of bollocks Guy clearly hasn't seen us play or done his research. He's seen a formation written and then just gone with it, when he's going on about long balls and through-balls into the box, it's the complete opposite. Of all the videos people have made, this is probably the most reflective on Amorim and how he's had Sporting play. If you watch this you'll know what our players actually excel at and will be able to make your own judgement. You'll also see exactly from Stats why I said the long balls and focus on through balls into the box is comical
The 2-0 flattered Braga, we were ehhh in the first half, but their first goal was a joke from a referring decision. I'm think GKs are overprotected, but you surely can't just bundle over and take them out of play..... Definitely a fire in their bellies in the second half, really enjoyed it and hope the players realise that with their talent they can kick on even without RA
Given your pretty unique perspective how do you see things working out for RA at United? Short term (transition) ie remainder of this season and also longer term? How will the players, fans & media take to him given his personality given cultural and circumstantial differences in UK and at a club like United? Overall how do you feel as a Sporting fan? Happy / Sad and how do you think his replacement will do? Thanks
Players - I think that he will be a breath of fresh air to the players compared to any manager we've had except Ole. He's been loved by his players at Sporting and you can see it, even in the way that last night he was clearly trying to leave the celebrations to the players to not take the focus from them, but they were all dragging him back into it. You could see they wanted to fight for him still and they wanted to fight for themselves as a team (not individuals). He asks a lot of players but only one's he knows are capable of achieving it. It's probably a good thing that the international break lands where it does, as whilst I'm sure he's watched footage, and been given access to plenty of things in this digital age, I'm still not sure what the hell he's going to do with the team. With Amorim having so little history outside of Sporting other than his brief Braga stint there's no real pattern yet for what he'd do in a new scenario. People call him stubborn because he doesn't shift away from his idea of playing, but at the same time he's only had one proper job. I think the biggest thing that's a positive that few people mention about his system, is that it's very simple in where he puts players. He doesn't need a "Cancelo type right back who's comfortable on both sides and has an innate talent for sliding into the midfield", he will just want a "left footed RW", his formation just normally depends upon players playing in a position that is natural to them and as such they're very replicable, and it also makes it much easier for a scouting team to go out and find a player for those positions, or to promote from the youth team. If it's a system that the directors can get behind it makes Amorim's job of "head coach" make a lot more sense. The only thing is, these are his players his squad. It'll be interesting to see who buys into him when he arrives, when he turned up at Sporting though he was a super inexperienced manager arriving middle of the season with a struggling team, and he managed to get them to buy into his plan quickly. I think he just quickly needs to work out who is and isn't going to be in his plans and to make that clear. Some of our players feel a bit toxic when they're not getting their own way. I think the cultural point is a fair one as I was thinking this last night, as cliched as it sounds Sporting feels like a family, it's a big club still, but not the massive commercial juggernaut the top Premier league teams are. Man Utd is a McDonalds whilst Sporting is more like a successful fast-food local chain that's contained to a single state. The global nature of the abuse and focus that will com the teams way when something inevitably goes wrong will be different. United is definitely not someone who would employ Paulinho the kit man like Sporting. Though on the same side he'll be fine with the ABU culture, Benfica are and always have been the media darlings, the referees favourites and just generally the 'preferred' team in the country. Porto then being the little brother for the north, with Sporting in modern times being the undesired gatecrasher. I don't think he'll have any issues with critics in England as he's already his own biggest critic and can channel it to get his players going (unlike EtH who REALLY seemed to struggle with the media's attitude and always felt like it broke him each time). Losing Amorim feels quite sad tbh, mostly because it's an odd time to lose a manager, especially when everything is going so right (11 League games, 11 wins. 3 wins+Draw in CL, still in both cups) but the jobs not done. It's like when Ronaldo left for Madrid, you always knew it was going to happen but when it did it still felt bad. I think it's potentially a positive that he's going now before Hugo Viana does, so at least he and Varandas can get someone in that can continue the project, I'd prefer someone internal who understand the system has seen why it's been working and can continue it at least for the end to the season so João Pereira to me is a risk worth taking.