Graham Ruthven: Fernandes out of position, Shaw chasing shadows, Ugarte out of his depth… Man Utd’s summer rebuild didn’t go far enough

“IN two years you will understand if I am the right man to be in this process,” Ruben Amorim stated upon his appointment as Manchester United manager. That was in November 2024, and the Portuguese is still to reach his one-year anniversary as United boss, but as Amorim nears the halfway point of his own timeframe, the signs are far from positive.

Sunday’s derby defeat to Manchester City was a crystallisation of every issue Amorim’s team is currently suffering from. United had comfortable spells in the match but rarely threatened Gianluigi Donnarumma’s goal. When it mattered, City found it easy to find space behind and around the opposition defence.

This defensive weakness stemmed from the centre of the pitch. Everyone could see Manchester United’s midfield setup would be a problem. Everyone besides Amorim, who continues to insist on using Bruno Fernandes as a number eight despite the Portuguese lacking the defensive instincts required to play there.

Alongside Fernandes, Manuel Ugarte was deployed as the other half of United’s double pivot despite the Uruguayan’s weakness in progressing the ball forward. To stand any chance of success, Amorim needs two do-everything midfielders to connect all areas of the side. Instead, Fernandes and Ugarte were overrun by the numbers City pushed into the centre.

Amorim’s approach is designed to create overloads. The only component of Manchester United’s current system that is working is the ploy to get Bryan Mbeumo into space through quick switches and long passes out to the Cameroonian on the right wing. He was United’s biggest attacking threat in the derby.

However, Manchester United don’t play quickly enough to make this a consistent source of attacking threat. What’s more, their reliance on overloads eliminates rotations through the midfield and into the final third. United simply don’t play with the same positional freedom as their rivals. They are extremely rigid all over the pitch.

This means Amorim’s approach is only ever as strong as the individual match-ups on the pitch. His system does nothing to embolden his players, which is a problem when Manchester United no longer have a talent advantage even against some of the lower-calibre teams in the Premier League.

#EPL Manchester United 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 under Rúben Amorim🇵🇹:📉 31 points in 31 PL games8 wins • 7 draws • 16 defeats36 goals scored • 49 concededUnited’s worst league run since 1992/93 ❌Another #derby loss vs City 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (0-3).#MUFC #Amorim #PremierLeague pic.twitter.com/l9r5W876vb

— Muha El Gadamsi 🇱🇾 (@ElBigMue) September 15, 2025

United spent big to revamp their forward line over the summer, but they are doing very little to give the likes of Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha, and Mbeumo a chance when the framework around them is so flawed. Sesko had just 20 touches of the ball against City. Compare the lack of service he had to the supply line Erling Haaland had.

 

By essentially every measure, Manchester United have got worse under Amorim. Since the Portuguese’s appointment in November 2024, the Old Trafford outfit have the worst record of any Premier League team not to have been promoted or relegated. 31 points from 30 games is an abysmal return and there’s no sign that this record will get any better any time soon.

“It is not a record you should have at Manchester United,” said Amorim after Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Manchester City. “You have no idea what happened [privately] during these [past] months, but I accept that. I am not going to change. When I want to change my philosophy, I will change. If not, you have to change the man.”

The way things are going, Manchester United might have no choice but to change the man, as Amorim puts it. Their rebuild won’t be worth much if the architect’s core vision is the wrong one. Sunday’s derby defeat won’t define Amorim’s tenure at Old Trafford, but it might be another indicator of why it will never work for him at United.

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