Erik Ten Hag Out, Ruben Amorim In: What Next for Manchester United?

Hello Rank Squad! We're dialling in today on the big news that broke this week - Manchester United's sacking of Erik ten Hag and their approach to replace him with Sporting CP's Rúben Amorim - which at the time of recording looks very close to being completed. First of all, Dean walks us through the ins and outs of how the Manchester United backroom came to the conclusion that they were going to part ways with Ten Hag, and why it happened at this point; before detailing their approach for Amorim and how they were able to move so swiftly and efficiently in securing their first-choice target. Then, in Part Two, Jack takes over to talk about what Amorim brings to the table, both on a personal level and from a tactical perspective. We discuss the nature of Sporting when he took over there, and how he has form for turning around a huge club which is on its knees, as well as his communication mastery and how he has got a disparate group of players to buy into his methods and turned Sporting from also-rans to the dominant force in Portuguese football. There's also a chat around how his formation and ideology maps onto this current Manchester United squad - the players who will thrive in Amorim's 3-4-2-1 and those who might struggle for minutes, as well as some thoughts about problem areas which United will probably have to look to tackle in the January transfer market or the summer. Finally, in Part Three, we talk a little bit about Monday's Ballon d'Or trophy, which was awarded to Rodri of Manchester City and Spain. There was quite a fallout from his victory, including Real Madrid somewhat throwing their toys out of the pram about the fact that Vinicius Jr didn't win it, so we give our thoughts on the entire unsavoury scene. It's Ranks! And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.