“Identity” was the key takeaway from Ruben Amorim’s first interview as Manchester United head coach. It’s something that many former players and analysts believe the club have lost, especially so under Erik ten Hag and his ambiguous tactical set-up. Amorim has made it his first task to bring that back.
“From day one we will start with our identity,” said the 39-year-old, who has become the second-youngest Premier League boss behind Brighton’s 31-year-old Fabian Hurzeler. “How to play, how to press, these small details.
“You cannot go 100 per cent on every detail because it will be confusing for the players. So if I have to say one thing, my main goal, my first goal, is identity.”
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United look set to adopt a new philosophy under Amorim, who almost exclusively used his 3-4-3 formation at Sporting CP. “We know that we need time, but we have to win time,” the Portuguese insisted.
His initial comments have chimed well with supporters, with whom Amorim believes he will attain a strong connection. The response to his first interview indicates that fans agree. Though, generally speaking, this is not unusual.
Even Ten Hag, Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal won initial appraisals during their unveilings. Ten Hag declared that “eras can come to an end” in his debut press conference when asked about Liverpool and Manchester City’s domestic dominance.
“The challenge doesn’t make me nervous because my history was always to live with big clubs’ expectations,” is what Mourinho said in his.
And for Van Gaal? “To me the challenge is always first, and not fourth.”
All won cups but none a Premier League title and that is what the end goal will ultimately be for Amorim. First though, foundations need to be laid and set in stone.
Every United manager since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement has remarked on the club’s illustrious history and how he wishes to emulate those heights. Enough time has passed since the last title lift – 11 years – for the pressure of the past not to so weigh heavy on Amorim.
He is instead aiming to use the club’s history as an ethos-driver, having already spent nearly a week at the club. “When the players come here, they should take the stadium tour all the time,” Amorim added. “I think this is very important to do.
“It’s normal if you go a lot of years without winning, you start losing that feeling. So I think we need to put all the players doing the same thing, to regain that feeling.”
This is something Roy Keane suggested in October, prior to Amorim’s appointment. Appearing on the Overlap, Peter Schmeichel mentioned how former chairman Martin Edwards took him to the club museum for two hours – before anything else – upon arriving to seal his move in 1991.
Keane replied: “That’s good. Learn the history of the club, they should do that with every player. Dead right. A lot of players don’t know the history of the club, even know.
“I think it’s a really good idea. I was aware of it growing up in Ireland but I think a lot of players don’t know the history of the football club. I think it’s important.”
Amorim has already offered something slightly different to his predecessors by his encouragement of this, attempting to marry the past with the present rather than using it as a benchmark. Of course, the north star is always the Premier League title and more.
But United fans will hope he can carry the club into a new era under new ownership amidst a potential move to a new stadium.
It’s been all change at United over the past 18 months so it is key the club holds onto its identity to help form its destiny.
