Ruben Amorim will hit the ground running at Man Utd but his big challenge comes in 18 months

Portuguese coach must succeed where his recent predecessors failed by turning club into Premier League and Champions League contenders again

When he eventually arrives at Old Trafford, Ruben Amorim has a basic, instant remit; make Manchester United compete for honours again.
That should not be especially daunting.
Louis van Gaal did it, winning the FA Cup in 2016.
Jose Mourinho did it, lifting the League Cup and the Europa League in his first season (2016/17) and finishing second in 2018.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did it, reaching the Europa League final and also being a Premier League runner-up in 2021.
And Erik Ten Hag did it, winning a trophy and qualifying for the Champions League in a fine debut campaign before lifting the FA Cup last May.
With respect to all of them, leading United back to that level is not the greatest challenge in football for a competent coach.
The resources are available, the home stadium ought to be one of the most difficult in the world to visit, and no matter how much the club are struggling, United will always be an attractive destination to top players for status, sporting and financial reasons.
Van Gaal, Mourinho, Solskjaer and Ten Hag excelled making the relatively easy first step of being much better than what immediately preceded them. It was the next step – the arduous challenge of creating a team capable of winning the Premier League – which was beyond them. United’s problem for the past 11 years is that every time they get to a point where they need to move up a gear to get closer to Manchester City, everything goes into reverse.
All United’s past three permanent managers inherited a situation similar to right now, the initial enthusiasm after a promising start giving way to inconsistency until eventually the downward spiral and distance from the Premier League and Champions League contenders became unsustainable.
Amorim will undoubtedly generate a short-term, feel-good factor, too. New United managers are welcomed like a breath of fresh air and there is not a lot of work needed to make the team massively improve very quickly.
One of the reasons the United job is so alluring right now is because every top coach working in Europe will have been watching their games for the past 15 months and believed they could organise the same set of players to perform much better. There is talent there with no evidence of world-class coaching to get the most from them.
Amorim’s real challenge will be in 18 months’ time – just as it was for those who left Old Trafford believing they needed more time and patience to get it right.
That is when clearer assessments will be made as to whether he is creating a side that has the consistency to actually win the title and Champions League. That is the currency United managers must deal in – the standard against which Manchester United will and must always be judged.
Faith in Mourinho, Solskjaer and Ten Hag evaporated because after a couple of seasons each, fans and media were scrutinising the team and making what has become the cliched observation that they were still five years away from reaching Manchester City’s level.
It will take a while before we can know if Amorim can succeed where his recent predecessors were found wanting. He is clearly a highly rated coach who has been on the radar of top clubs for a while. But as with any appointment – and I wrote exactly the same about Arne Slot when he joined Liverpool last summer – there is an element of risk when headhunting someone who is on their way up and jumping into the first experience of managing one of the biggest clubs in the world.
For United to recruit a 39-year-old is bold, the calculation being Amorim is “the next big thing” and will follow the trail blazed by Mourinho of Portuguese coaches leading the way in Europe.
From a tactical point of view, the way he constructs his side and how it reflects the long-term vision of sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox makes for a fascinating dynamic and sub-plot regarding the timing of the change.
Recommended
Without lingering further on why it was such a mistake to keep Ten Hag last summer, one of the immediate problems Amorim faces is that the players the Dutchman signed were brought in to execute his plans and may not be suited to the system the new manager played at Sporting Lisbon.
Amorim is one of the current generations of coaches who play three centre-halves – Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso and Inter Milan’s Simone Inzaghi are the same. My suspicion is that one of the reasons Liverpool favoured Slot over Amorim last summer is because the Dutchman prefers the more traditional four at the back, so the transition was easier for the squad he inherited. Under Jurgen Klopp, the style of the first team was mirrored down to academy level to ensure those who made the step up were familiar with the playing patterns.
Did Ashworth and Wilcox consider the change in style from Ten Hag to Amorim a potential problem at United? Or have they reached a point where it had to be a secondary concern as they want to give the right man a blank canvas to start afresh, regardless of the profile of players at his immediate disposal?
On the positive side, critics argued with some justification it was never entirely clear what Ten Hag’s style was supposed to be, so, however Amorim chooses to play, it will be distinguishable.
Aside from the coaching talent, you need a strong personality to thrive at a club such as United – the capacity to impose authority in an environment where the players are increasingly listening to the voices of their representatives or “entourage” as much as the management staff.
Whenever a new manager takes over a failing side, it is a common response to anticipate a mass clear-out – as if the squad is lined up like a firing squad awaiting to see who survives the cut.
That is always a huge over-reaction. Nothing is ever that bad at a club of United’s stature, so forget any idea of eight or nine of the current preferred starting XI being dumped at the earliest opportunity. That rarely needs to happen for an instant uplift.
You only have to look at the example of Unai Emery at Aston Villa, recently celebrating his second anniversary in charge, with the club flying in the Champions League. Villa were 14th when Emery arrived. United would love Amorim to have the same impact within that timescale.
You can also look at Chelsea this season. Go back to last season’s Carabao Cup final when the flak was flying about “billionaire bottle jobs” and it seemed like the club were at their lowest ebb.
Now they look like they can finish in the top four and will be a force over the next few years. That is the influence a good coach has in the club game, drilling the players on the training pitch every day, creating good habits and the right culture.
Chelsea are an example to United that no matter how low the side sinks, it often only needs a couple of tweaks to move in the right direction.
It will be no surprise if Amorim has the same influence between now and next season. If he becomes the first United manager since Sir Alex Ferguson to last beyond a third year, Sir Jim Ratcliffe can be confident he has found the right man for the job.