Ruben Amorim drops major hint over Man Utd plans in first training session

Manchester United have been given their first taste of their new tactical set-up after Ruben Amorim took charge of his first training session.

Amorim has now got to work on the training pitches at Carrington after arriving from Sporting Lisbon to succeed Erik ten Hag as head coach. The 39-year-old was without many of his key players, who are still away on international duty, but made up the numbers with academy players on Monday.

He arrived at United with a stellar reputation having turned around a struggling Sporting side to win two Portuguese league titles. And Amorim and his staff are now trying to impart his coaching philosophy on the United squad ahead of his first game in charge, away to Ipswich on Sunday.

Amorim played a 3-4-3 formation with Sporting and had been expected to introduce the set-up to his new players. United chiefs have told Amorim not to expect much of a transfer budget, because they expect him to improve the player he already has – and he will do so by ripping up Ten Hag’s approach.

“I know how I am going to play in the beginning because you have to start with a structure that you know,” Amorin explained in the press conference after his final Sporting match. “We don’t have a lot of time to train, so I have to show something that I know very well.”

That approach was evident on the training pitch on Monday, with eagle-eyed United fans taking a hard look at the footage uploaded on social media to find clues. Although many players are missing on international duty, Amorim showed his hand through his set-up during a practice match.

The players were split up into two teams, with the ‘A team’ appearing to line up in a 3-4-3 shape, with Leny Yoro, Jonny Evans and Luke Shaw as a back three. In front of them were Antony, Casemiro, Kobbie Mainoo and Tyrell Malacia, with Amad Diallo, Marcus Rashford and Mason Mount as the three most attacking players.

Former United defender Gary Neville is predicting some growing pains under Amorim, with United used to playing in a 4-2-3-1 shape under Ten Hag. "I can see why he wanted the job next summer because he would rather have pre-season to implement the brand-new system,” he said on the Stick to Football podcast. “Those players have not played three at the back at all, some of them might never have played it.”

Paul Scholes has called for patience while the team adapts. “The old-fashioned three at the back – we tried it a few times, and I reckon we lasted about 10-12 minutes before we said ‘it’s not working,’” Scholes said on The Overlap Fan Debate.

“We always went back to a back four, which is what we knew. We are in a position now where you can’t look and think we’re a 4-4-2 team, or a 4-4-1-1 team – we’ve got to bow to whatever this new coach wants.”

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