After Manchester United hit rock bottom, are the good times finally coming? | OneFootball

If nothing else, Ruben Amorim does not try to sugarcoat things. The manager who had said he had perhaps the worst team in Manchester United’s history stood in the middle of the Old Trafford pitch and said: “Today, after this disaster season.” The disaster season: piercing as some of the criticisms of a campaign where United had fared worse than had seemed possible, few were as pithy as Amorim’s description. The rest of his message marked a real shift in tone. “I want to tell you the good days are coming,” he added.

That was May. In Amorim’s own timescale, therefore, the good days are arriving, beginning now. There is a sense they have to: not merely for Amorim, who was probably guilty of smiling exaggeration when he said on the pre-season tour of the United States that he wanted to stay for 20 years but is actually in the last two of his contract, but for the club.

Comparisons with the past are neither invariably accurate nor helpful, but the immediate precedent is of Erik ten Hag, retained after a disappointing season with the prospect the next could be better and sacked in October after some £200m of summer spending. Now Sir Jim Ratcliffe has disposed of some 450 members of staff but not Amorim. Furnished with new attackers, in Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko, his summer outlay is up to around £200m.

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Manchester United have spent big on a new front three (Getty Images)

History is not doomed to forever repeat itself; but United know that from bitter experience because last season was so much worse than any other in more than three decades. It contained a run to the Europa League final, some hints of the spirit of old and the potential for the future, but also stunningly bad league form. A 15th place finish may have flattered Amorim: under him, United got only 27 points from as many games, better only than the relegated trio and their Europa League final conquerors, Tottenham, and they were flattered by some of the better results they achieved.

A capacity to look the worse side in virtually any league game boded badly. The counter-argument was that United merely had to adjust to Amorim’s increasingly infamous tactical demands. It certainly took longer than they envisaged – sacking Ten Hag came with the hope of salvaging a top-four finish – but pre-season has offered some belated signs of players adjusting more to the 3-4-3 formation that suited too few.

It helps that two transfer windows have yielded a specialist left wing-back, even if Patrick Dorgu’s displays have been mixed, and now two No 10s, even if United seem to have a surfeit, given that Bruno Fernandes, Mason Mount and Amad Diallo are alternatives to Cunha and Mbeumo.

Yet Amorim, who has said he is now happy with the squad he has, cannot be accused of ignoring United’s greatest shortcomings. He has bought inside-forwards and a centre-forward after they mustered a mere 44 league goals last season. Cunha and Mbeumo got 35 on their own for Wolves and Brentford respectively. Sesko scored 13 in the Bundesliga for RB Leipzig.

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A new forward line, more suited to his tactics, could give Ruben Amorim the weapons to succeed at Old Trafford (PA)

The attacking overhaul has come at the expense of men who were supposed to form the basis of United’s forward line for years to come. Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee look like being demoted. Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Alejandro Garnacho and Antony formed four of the bomb squad. A recurring theme at Old Trafford is that deciding to sell players is easier than actually cashing in on them and so far only Rashford is gone, and even then only on loan.

United probably needed to bring more money in, and not merely because, as they often seem to, they arguably required more players: in particular a goalkeeper better than Andre Onana and a high-class No 6 which, in both cases, is an indictment of past signings. If Cunha and Mbeumo succeed, it implies that Amad Diallo will spend more time at right wing-back and Bruno Fernandes deep in midfield. The captain’s decision to reject a lucrative move to Al-Hilal because he wanted to play at the highest level prompted a few quips at United’s expense but also provided an invaluable boost: how would the one-man team have fared without the one man?

The hope is that Fernandes will receive more support and not merely because United now have a six-man leadership group. Without European football, they may need fewer players: perhaps United’s past failures will work to their advantage in a division where nine others have continental commitments.

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Manchester United have beefed up their leadership group around captain Bruno Fernandes (Getty Images)

Yet it will not be easy. United’s first eight games include all the four title favourites. A team who got a mere 42 points last season probably required at least about 25. Every element, from the number of goals scored to the home record, needs to improve. Ludicrously, United did not win two consecutive league games once last season. The disaster season at least suggested United have finally hit rock bottom. But even if that is true, it does not guarantee the return of the good times.