Mikel Arteta believes Ruben Amorim in 'better place' at Manchester United than he was early in Arsenal reign | OneFootball

Arteta had never managed before taking the Arsenal job in 2019

Mikel Arteta believes Ruben Amorim is taking over Manchester United in a “better place” than when he was handed the reins at Arsenal.

Like Arteta, the 39-year-old has taken over in the middle of the season and has spoken about the difficulties of implementing his style.

Arteta, however, believes the circumstances are different for Amorim - who arrived after an impressive stint with Sporting Lisbon.

“Well Ruben has a lot more experience than I had at the time as well, so he’s in a better place and there’s no Covid,” said Arteta.

“So I think he’s got better options in that case, it is tough because you need time to implement your ideas especially your way of playing and explaining that and when you have that many games it's tricky so I understand that.

“Every manager when he gets appointed is for a reason. The reasons can be different. Sometimes it is just to improve a football team, to get more performance out of certain players and sometimes it is to transform a football club.

“That is a totally different dimension of a job. If I have to relate to mine it was more towards that than the previous one that I mentioned.”

Amorim has had mixed results since taking over - but he has claimed some big scalps. United beat Manchester City last month and they claimed a draw at Anfield last week.

“When you look especially at the big teams and the results he got and how they (United) performed, very impressive,” said Arteta.

“I know him well. I followed him a lot when he was in Portugal and there is a big reason he is where he is at the moment. He fully deserves to be there.

“They play a bit different with the personnel that they use with the certain players, the characteristic of the players at the end dictates what they do.

“Whether they have more threat on the ball side, two feet, in behind because that’s what determines the behaviour of a team, it is different the last few weeks to when we played them here at home so I’m expecting a few different things.”