Man Utd told two players will struggle to follow Ruben Amorim's 'quite basic' plan

Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee may may not fit into Ruben Amorim’s “basic” game plan at Manchester United, according to Micah Richards.

After Erik ten Hag was shown the door and Ruud van Nistelrooy's brief stint as caretaker boss, Amorim is set to kick off his tenure at Ipswich next weekend. With the Portuguese coach getting down to business at Carrington, Richards has shed light on his tactics, which have earned plaudits across Europe.

Richards, who watched Amorim's Sporting thrash Manchester City 4-1 in the Champions League, found the strategy straightforward but effective. Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast with Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer, the ex-City centre-back said: "It was good seeing Sporting Lisbon and how Amorim wants to set up because there were a lot of grumbles of, 'he plays three at the back, then to goes to a five, then he goes to a four, then the midfield does this'.

"It's actually quite basic really. Against a team who have the ball like Manchester City, he goes to five at the back, he has his two midfielders who are willing to press really high.

"Then he presses with his front three. If you play through the lines of the front three, they just get back into position. I don't want to say it's nothing special, but the basic sort of tactic is when they're in a low block.

"When they're trying to press, they do get really high and they are adventurous. Manchester City, in the first half, exposed all those aspects of what they were trying to do, but they couldn't put the ball in the back of the net."

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There is hope at United that Amorim improve Hojlund and Zirkzee, just as he did with Viktor Gyokeres, who bagged a hat-trick against City. However, Richards doesn't believe the pair have the same assets as the ex-Coventry City forward and urged United to raid Sporting again.

"If I was Man United, I would go and buy him [Gyokeres] tomorrow," he said. "They've got Hojlund, they've got Zirkzee, and they come to feet a lot.

Image: Gualter Fatia/Getty Images) Gualter Fatia/Getty Images)

"When they try to spin, they don't have that blistering pace or that running power. I don't want to say he's rapid like Mbappe but the first thing Gyokeres wants to do is run in behind.

"He constantly makes runs, not just centrally, but to the left, to the right. He kept stretching Man City's defence and they didn't know how to deal with it. And when he gets in front of goal, he's composed."

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