"You have no idea what you're going to get" - Gary Neville gives his take on Amorim's stint as Manchester United boss so far

Gary Neville has shared his thoughts on Ruben Amorim's tenure as Manchester United's manager thus far. The former United defender was critical of Amorim’s performance at Old Trafford so far as he berated the former Portuguese gaffer for a lack of flexibility in his tactical approach.

Amorim was appointed as Manchester United’s head coach in November last year following the departure of Erik ten Hag. However, his tenure at Old Trafford has seen the Red Devils go from the frying pan into the fire, as his overall win ratio at the club is 20 percent lower than it was under his predecessor.

Prior to Manchester United’s Premier League match with Tottenham, Ruben Amorim claimed that he is flexible and that he is at a bigger club than Ange Postecoglou, who currently manages Tottenham Hotspur.

In a discussion on Sky Sports, Gary Neville was asked to give his take on the former Sporting CP manager, to which he responded:

''Yeah, I think the strength of his interviews in the early days is that he wasn’t flexible that he said I’m going to stick with my idea. So, I’m not quite sure when he’s referring to now being flexible because he plays the same system every single week.’’

He added:

''Yeah, they do maybe a little bit at times but not that much. I think it’s a real concern. He’s talking about physically trying to get games once so that you can convince the players of his idea that’s not happening at the moment. He’s just talked about Ange Postecoglou. We have seen Ange Postecoglou’s team play exceptional football where he’s been at Tottenham. We’ve not yet seen that from Rubem Amorim at Manchester United.

''Now, whether that’s because he’s just settling in, because he has not had enough time on the training pitch, because the players are not good enough to adapt to the system or can’t fit into the system. All of this is a concern, I thought it would be so much better when he came. I thought they would actually adapt to the three at the back. I thought it’d be a new idea; give them a bit more strength. I don’t think any of them are good enough to play in a center-back pairing. I think the midfield’s a bit weak.

''So, I thought the idea of having three of them at the back, maybe five at times, would give them a platform be able to build off. But when you look at Manchester United, you still look at game to game. You have not idea what you’re going to get. You have no idea what you’re going to see today. And they are a bizarre team at times.’’

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''Absolute madness'' – Gary Neville slams ‘awful’ Manchester United structure in PL clash with Tottenham

Manchester United traveled to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium for their 25th game of the 2024-25 Premier League campaign. However, Gary Neville wasn’t happy with Ruben Amorim’s setup during the first half of the clash with Spurs.

Neville particularly slammed where Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes were deployed and pointed out the former’s struggles. He said (via Manchester Evening News)

"You just said about the distance between the two central midfielders. Look at where Casemiro is and look at where Bruno Fernandes is, that cannot be right. It breaks all rules in football. Absolute madness, that.

"United may score goals today but the structure of the team is awful. The gaps in that midfield between Casemiro and Fernandes. That's a tactic, Fernandes has been asked to come out to this side, it isn't right."

On Casemiro's struggles, Neville said:

"He's struggling, he's getting on in his years and to have him out there is tough enough in itself but to leave him on his own! Look where Bruno is now, that's a central midfield partner. Look at the space they can play through to Maddison or Tel."

Rubem Amorim’s men fell to another consecutive defeat in the Premier League as they suffered a narrow 1-0 loss to Spurs.