As Manchester United show great signs of life again for the reason that dismissal of Ruben Amorim, the previous Red Devils manager has been slammed for his ‘arrogance’ while in charge.
Amorim was sacked earlier this month after a 1-1 draw with Leeds United, not due to the result, but after an outburst in a press conference which revealed a clash with the Manchester United hierarchy.
Results didn’t immediately pick up, with caretaker boss Darren Fletcher drawing with Burnley in the highest flight and losing to Brighton within the FA Cup.
Nonetheless, since Michael Carrick has arrived in an interim role for the remaining of the season, things have modified spectacularly.
A 2-0 win over Manchester City at Old Trafford was followed by a 3-2 victory over Arsenal on the Emirates on Sunday, with fans purring with excitement after two positive performances.
The Red Devils have climbed to fourth because of the back-to-back wins and a return to the Champions League looks an excellent possibility again.
Carrick has switched from Amorim’s laboured 3-4-3 formation to a 4-2-3-1, which appears to have helped significantly, while he has also brought Kobbie Mainoo back into the starting XI after he dropped down the pecking order under the previous boss.
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The Premier League’s record goal-scorer, Alan Shearer, feels Amorim’s ‘arrogance’ let him down as he stuck to his preferred formation despite performances and results not improving.
‘What on earth is Ruben Amorim sat doing, considering, taking a look at those two performances? I mean truthfully, I don’t know what he’ll be considering,’ Shearer said on The Rest Is Football.
‘It’s absolutely crazy [to not change his formation]. The arrogance to say, “No, I’m not doing another thing. That is my way or the highway.”
‘I mean, to not even shift or to just accept that this might be not working, “Perhaps I should try something else.”
‘He put all his eggs into that basket, and if that didn’t work, he was done. And it didn’t.’
Gary Neville feels the performances of two players during the last two games have been illustrative of the advance since Amorim’s exit.
Speaking on his Sky Sports podcast after the win at Arsenal, Neville said Amorim had ‘conditioned’ people to think Mainoo couldn’t play alongside Bruno Fernandes, but that just isn’t the case.
‘Kobbie Mainoo in midfield, to be fair, he’s not his very best today. But what you do see is a player,’ said the previous Red Devils full-back.
‘This concept, we were type of conditioned to think that he couldn’t play with Bruno Fernandes within the team…. him or Fernandes. I mean, that’s improper. That’s improper.
‘I believe that Kobbie Mainoo is demonstrating that he can play the 2 in midfield, even with Casemiro, who’s getting on just a little bit now, but even he looks different on this last couple.
‘They play nice little passes with one another. I’m absolutely delighted with the performances.’
Neville also had praise for Patrick Dorgu, who he felt looked like ‘such a mean wing-back’ under Amorim’s management, but has now scored two goals in two games playing further forward under Carrick.
‘You may’t really say anything bad about him because he’s a willing runner, he all the time wanted the ball and worked hard under Ruben Amorim,’ said Neville.
‘But you thought, what’s he? And the way is he going to get man United back to where they should be?
‘The primary time we saw a glimpse of what he might be was actually under Amorim when he played him as a large right.
‘I assumed he could play a bit when he could play a bit higher up and had a player behind him, I assumed he might be an excellent wide player and cause problems and get crosses in.
‘Then Amorim put him back at wing-back and also you thought, oh no. him now he’s obviously a winger, he’s obviously a winger.
‘His goal was absolutely good. Patrick Dorgu typifies what has happened at Manchester United on this last week.’
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