Next Manchester United Manager: Everything you need to know about Ruben Amorim | OneFootball

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Ruben Amorim is Manchester United's top choice to replace Erik ten Hag

Manchester United have finally sacked manager Erik ten Hag after a poor start to the campaign, and Sporting coach Ruben Amorim is the odds-on favourite. We've asked Betfair tipster and European football journalist Kevin Hatchard to explain why two-time title winner Amorim could be an outstanding choice at Old Trafford.

Ten Hag dismissed, but should have gone in summer

While Erik ten Hag's spell as Manchester United boss won't exactly be deemed a roaring success, he did at least deliver two trophies, winning the League Cup in his first year and the FA Cup in his second. That makes him their most successful manager since Jose Mourinho in terms of trophies won, after the irascible Portuguese veteran lifted the League Cup and the Europa League.

However, that FA Cup final victory over crosstown rivals Manchester City should've been a sparkling last act as United manager for ten Hag, and he should have been sent on his way with a firm handshake and best wishes. The league season had been a disaster, with the Red Devils finishing eighth in the top flight, losing 14 of their matches. That was more league defeats than the top three suffered between them.

Not only did United fail in the league last term, but they finished bottom of their Champions League group. They conceded an eye-watering 15 goals across their six group-stage matches, and their only win was a scraped 1-0 victory against Copenhagen at Old Trafford.

There's no doubt that United suffered a spate of injury problems last term, but an expensively assembled squad should have been able to cope with the strain, and Ten Hag's baffling tactics did him few favours. Put simply, the Red Devils were simply far too easy to play against.

United were coughing up shots left, right and centre - according to fbRef.com, they allowed 17.37 shots per 90 (only hapless Sheffield United gave up more), and they allowed 5.16 shots on target per 90, which was the fifth-worst record in the division. If you examine a number of Expected Points models, United were regularly being placed in the bottom six rather than the top eight.

So when it came to the summer, the new INEOS-led regime should have acted. It appears they spoke to a number of potential candidates including the now-England boss Thomas Tuchel (you can read our profile of him here), Brentford's Thomas Frank and former United assistant coach Kieran McKenna, but bafflingly they kept ten Hag in situ.

There was no sign of Dutchman turning United around

Although some of the metrics improved this season, the results did not. United haven't won any of their Europa League games, and have played out draws against Twente, Porto and Fenerbahce. In the Premier League, things have worsened, with United languishing in 14th spot after nine matchdays.

The lack of confidence and ruthlessness was clear to see on Sunday, as United blew a host of first-half chances before collapsing to a 2-1 defeat at a West Ham team that had only won twice in the league. The late concession of a wrongly-given penalty sealed the defeat, but even if Ten Hag had escaped the London Stadium with a draw, the axe would still have fallen eventually. This was a tenure of diminishing returns, and a change had to be made.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about ten Hag's tenure at Old Trafford is that he failed to build on a largely impressive first campaign that saw him deliver a top-three finish and the League Cup. The summer after he got the ball-playing goalkeeper he wanted in Andre Onana and a highly-rated young striker in Rasmus Hojlund.

Both players seemed to struggle to adjust, as Ten Hag increasingly developed the air of an angry supply teacher, ranting unconvincingly in press conferences and sounding ever more deluded.

This was a far cry from the coach that gained respect for leading Ajax to the semi-finals of the 2019 Champions League, a run that included a fine win over Juventus and a total demolition of Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. Four of the starting XI that night ended up playing for Ten Hag at Old Trafford (Matthijs de Ligt, Donny van de Beek, Noussair Mazraoui and Andre Onana), but the old magic proved impossible to recapture.

Amorim the front runner, and he's an excellent choice

It's now being widely reported that Sporting coach Ruben Amorim is United's top target, and it's easy to see why. The 39-year-old has transformed the Portuguese giants' fortunes, and is seen as one of the sharpest tactical minds in Europe.

It was assumed by some that Manchester City's move for the Lisbon club's sporting director Hugo Viana was a precursor to Amorim being hired as the successor to Pep Guardiola.

Amorim was a midfielder for Belenenses and Benfica, and with the latter he won three league titles, a Taca da Portugal and five League Cups. He also started the 2014 Europa League final, as Benfica lost on penalties to Sevilla after a goalless draw in Turin. At international level, Amorim won 14 caps for Portugal, and went to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

As a coach, Amorim made an inauspicious start in the sense that he worked at Casa Pia without the required qualifications, and with the club facing punishment he stepped down. He snubbed a B-team role at his old club Benfica to take a similar position at Braga, and it was when the Archbishops promoted him to the top job that his career accelerated.

He helped Braga to a top-three finish (they were eighth when he took charge) and won the Taca da Liga in his first season. His first game in charge in January 2020 had been a 7-1 win at his old club Belenenses, and he later led Braga to their first win at Benfica for 65 years.

The only team he lost to was Rangers, who knocked Braga out of that season's Europa League.

These heroics hadn't gone unnoticed, and Sporting were so enamoured by Amorim's work that they paid Braga 10 million euros to release Amorim from his contract just two months after he had started work as their senior boss. That fee would prove to be a bargain.

Amorim ended Sporting's long wait for league glory

Amorim produced a top-four finish in his first few months, but established a clear tactical identity. Then, in his first full season in charge (the 2020-21 campaign), he delivered the Lions' first Primeira Liga title for 19 years.

Sporting lost just one of their 34 league games, and finished five points clear of the previous season's champions Porto. They conceded a paltry 20 goals, and goalkeeper Antonio Adan racked up 19 clean sheets. Attacking midfielder Pedro Goncalves (also known as Pote) was a revelation, thrashing in a league-high 23 goals.

Former Liverpool centre-back Sebastian Coates was a centre-piece of the back three, Nuno Mendes and Pedro Porro were outstanding wing-backs, while Joao Palhinha was a tackling machine in midfield. Not only did that group of players deliver a long-awaited league title, but they lifted the Taca da Liga, as Amorim snatched the trophy away from his old club Braga.

Sporting weren't a dull team, but they certainly weren't a side that played with abandon. Amorim has never hidden his admiration for Jose Mourinho, and he had visited Mourinho at Manchester United back in 2018. For Amorim, having a strong work ethic and playing with intensity were non-negotiables, and he admitted being excited by the idea of stopping his opponents from scoring.

Rebuild in Lisbon shows Amorim's coaching quality

While Sporting weren't able to defend their league title, they did reach the last 16 of the Champions League in the 2021-22 season, the first time they'd done that for 13 years. Amorim also won his third consecutive Taca da Liga.

The 2022-23 season also brought domestic disappointment, as Roger Schmidt's electrifying Benfica raced to the Primeira Liga title, and Sporting failed to qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League. They would go on to knock Arsenal out of the Europa League, but they then crashed out in the quarter-finals.

When analysing these two seasons without winning the league, it has to be borne in mind that Amorim lost key players in that period. Nuno Mendes, Matheus Nunes, Pedro Porro and Joao Palhinha all moved on, with Mendes heading to PSG and the other three joining Premier League clubs.

Amorim needed time to rebuild, and that painstaking work bore fruit last term, as Sporting won the league for the second time in his tenure. The summer signing of Swedish goal-getter Viktor Gyökeres from Coventry proved crucial, as he netted 29 league goals and set up ten more.

Pote was again outstanding, delivering double figures when it came to goals and assists. Old Amorim favourites like Paulinho and Nuno Santos delivered in attack, while Coates got excellent support in the back three from Goncalo Inacio and youngster Ousmane Diomande.

Amorim has a lot going for him

Amorim is seen as an excellent communicator, and his English is more than adequate. He handles the media well, and seems to manage well up as well as down. When he made a mis-step by meeting West Ham about a potential move to east London, he apologised and managed to smooth things over.

He is an outstanding developer of young talent, but he can also improve more established players. That ability has made Sporting a lot of money in recent years, and while United don't have the same financial imperatives, the hope at Old Trafford will be that he can unlock the potential of a talented squad that appears to have completely lost confidence.

Amorim is wedded to a three-man back-line that is bolstered by the wing-backs without the ball. He has shown that he can be flexible within that structure (sometimes 3-4-3, sometimes 3-4-2-1, and he tweaked things to be more direct when Gyökeres arrived), and he is a coach that will adapt to the players he has, rather than making them slavishly follow his tactics.

In short, if United can pull this off and agree a deal with Sporting and with Amorim, they will be getting one of Europe's brightest young coaches.

What if they don't get Amorim?

At time of writing, Amorim was the 1.22 favourite to be Manchester United's next permanent manager on the Betfair Exchange, but let's look at a few of the other names in the market.

Ruud van Nistelrooy - 17.0

The former United striker will temporarily step up from the assistant's role, and he has head coaching experience with PSV. However, while he knows the club well, he can't hold a candle to Amorim in terms of track record, and there was talk of player unrest when he decided to step down in Eindhoven.

Gareth Southgate - 30.0

If United fail to land Amorim, Southgate feels like a live contender. He showed in his eight-year tenure as England boss that he can deal with high-pressure situations, and he has a knack for handling media scrutiny with a cerebral calm. INEOS are believed to be big fans of him, although questions over his tactical nous persist.

Thomas Frank - 28.0

Frank is thought to have spoken to United in the summer, so it stands to reason that he'd be considered again. The Dane has worked wonders at Brentford, and has shown he can develop young stars and more experienced talents like Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo. Again, an option if the Amorim pursuit falls over.

Julian Nagelsmann - 10.0

This feels like a total non-starter to me. While there have been reports that Nagelsmann is open to leaving the Germany job, that's not my understanding, and I fully expect the former Bayern and Leipzig boss to lead his country at the 2026 World Cup finals in North America. Nagelsmann has a good relationship with the German FA, and walking out now would do severe reputational damage in his homeland.

If Amorim gets the job, I'd back United to finish in the Premier League's top six at 3.2 on the Exchange. He has shown he can make a quick impact, and there's enough time in the season to repair some of the damage.