Ruben Amorim's tactical history
Referencing: Tracing the roots of Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-3 at Manchester United – and if he will ever change it
Mark Critchley from The Athletic talking about Ruben Amorim’s stubbornness to not want to change his system:
Take him at his word, and supposedly one of the most stubborn figures working in English football today is actually open to changing the shape that has been such a lightning rod for criticism, but he will only do so on his own terms, when the time is right.
Will that time ever arrive? Sceptics might note that despite winning three Primeira Liga titles at Sporting CP, Amorim never saw fit to ‘evolve’ past his 3-4-3 shape. He stuck by it throughout.
He has not always played this formation, though. He has changed shape before, right at the beginning of a managerial career that has taken him from Portuguese football’s third tier to Old Trafford.
And perhaps the story of that change, only a few weeks into his first job at Casa Pia, indicates whether there really is any prospect of him changing again.
You will never hear Ruben Amorim mention 3-4-3 or 5-2-3 or wingbacks unless he is prompted to use those terms in a press conference or interview from a question.
What if Amorim doesn’t see his system the same way we see it? What if he’s communicating something completely different to the players? You know managers. They don’t want to reveal their plan to the world.
The discourse around Amorim online is to me dumb. Not in the sense that the people making the comments are dumb, the comments lack context. They’re projecting what they think is happening not what is actually being communicated by Amorim, a guy with a slight language barrier, communicating to an English speaking audience about how stubborn he is.
He keeps using the words like “system.” He rarely talks about static formations or positions.
Mark Critchley does a great job going back to see what Amorim did in his previous jobs, but the talk of formations from many people across the community bothers me.
This is a good example:
When The Athletic attempted exactly that back in February, he was not giving too much away. “I don’t see the system as three or five defenders. I see principles that we can change the system and this way of playing we can adapt to different systems,” Amorim said, again indicating a desire to move on from the 3-4-3.
“I see principles that we can change the system.” There’s no talk of a strict formation to follow.