When Ruben Amorim’s appointment at Manchester United was officially confirmed after several days of intense speculation, he breathed an almighty sigh of relief and said: “The soap opera is ending.” But it had only just begun.
Amorim’s 14 months at Old Trafford produced moments of failure and farce befitting any daytime drama. It wasn’t a period entirely without its peaks, although the troughs lasted far longer and sunk much deeper than any positive counterpoint.
The peak arguably came after just 81 seconds, when Marcus Rashford scored United’s first goal in the second minute of Amorim’s debut against Ipswich Town back in November 2024. The Tractor Boys, however, would come back to equalise in a campaign which ultimately ended in relegation.
United themselves were not that far clear of the drop in the 2024–25 campaign, yet Amorim battled on for six more months littered with his unique talent for self-destruction.
‘The Storm Will Come’
After that debut draw with Ipswich, Amorim oversaw consecutive victories against Bodø/Glimt and Everton to kickstart his tenure. A 4–0 triumph over the Toffees had Old Trafford belting out “Ruben Amorim’s red and white army.” The subject of that adulation soon put a stop to it.
“The storm will come,” he declared. “We are going to have difficult moments and we will be found out in some games. And I know that because I know my players and I know football and I follow football.”
How prescient it would prove.
Marcus Rashford Fallout
Rashford scored the first goal of Amorim’s reign and netted twice against Everton in that thumping Premier League home debut. Yet, within three weeks he had been frozen out entirely.
Amorim never quite divulged the precise details behind Rashford’s sour exit, which initially took the form of a January loan spell at Aston Villa before he joined Barcelona on another temporary deal for the current campaign. Before those exits, the figure of United’s most successful modern academy graduate loomed large over the club thanks to Amorim’s refusal to reconcile or explain his decisions.
The nature of this standoff quickly grew ugly. After once again leaving Rashford out of his squad entirely for a 1–0 win over Fulham, Amorim suggested that he would sooner turn to Jorge Vital, his then-63-year-old goalkeeping coach, rather than “a player who doesn’t give the maximum every day.”
During the nebulous period between the end of Rashford’s Villa stay and the start of his Barcelona adventure, Amorim set about burning every olive branch in sight. The club’s 15th top scorer of all time was reportedly asked to refrain from using United’s training facility over the summer before 5 p.m., ensuring that Amorim and the first team could leave the building without crossing paths with Rashford. He may now be welcome back.
‘The Worst Team in Man Utd History’
After losing 3–1 to Brighton in January 2025, Amorim uttered 12 words which would haunt him for the rest of his tenure and perhaps his entire senior managerial career: “We are the worst team maybe in the history of Manchester United.”
“Here you go,” Amorim added, directly addressing the gawping journalists gathered in front of this figure seemingly on the brink of a breakdown. “[Have] your headlines.”
At that point of Amorim’s reign, United had a record of won five, drawn three and lost seven from his first 15 games in charge. He would improve that dire return but still departed with the lowest Premier League points-per-game ratio of any permanent coach in the club’s history.
Europa League Final Heartache
The Europa League brought the best moments of Amorim’s United spell. The unfathomable 5–4 comeback against Lyon in the quarterfinals, which was witnessed by a depleted Old Trafford with much of the crowd already on their way home in disgust, was followed up with a remarkably assured 7–1 aggregate semifinal win over Athletic Club.
Unfortunately, Europe’s secondary cup competition also brought one of the darkest nadirs.
Both Tottenham Hotspur and United were insipid in the Bilbao showpiece yet Spurs emerged with the spoils thanks to a fittingly scrappy Brennan Johnson scuff. Amorim not only missed out on a piece of silverware which would have papered over the club’s lowest ever Premier League finish, but also watched his transfer budget get slashed after missing out on the revenue which comes with Champions League qualification.
Grimsby Fiasco
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim was spotted 'fiddling with a tactics board with magnetic players' during his team's defeat to fourth-tier Grimsby in the Carabao Cup.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 28, 2025
Sky's @RobHarris says he 'looked befuddled'. Read his full analysis 🔗 https://t.co/nEVFV7G8PL pic.twitter.com/S7DZmalgKJ
After Amorim survived United’s Carabao Cup second round exit to fourth-tier Grimsby Town, it appeared that nothing could convince the Red Devils to get rid of him. While his side fell 2–0 down to their League Two hosts in the driving rain, Amorim was spotted hunkered inside his dugout frantically shifting the counters on his magnetic tactics board. He may as well have been rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
"Sometimes I want to quit, sometimes I want to be here for 20 years,” Amorim declared in the aftermath of the penalty shootout blunder. “Sometimes I hate my players, sometimes I love my players.” Sometimes it’s better not to speak your mind.
Kobbie Mainoo Standoff
Amorim’s relationship with Kobbie Mainoo is even more puzzling than his disdain for Rashford. At least it’s clear that he had no time for the winger and his supposedly poor work ethic. Yet, Amorim has taken time to praise the English central midfielder who was an early fixture of the team.
An injury at the start of 2025 derailed Mainoo’s development and by the time he had returned, Amorim had clearly decided that his varied skillset didn’t fit the demands of a player in the engine room of United’s 3-4-2-1 system. “He was struggling a lot defending as a midfielder,” Amorim would later muse. “Now more as a No. 10, you can feel it that he was so free, playing the ball near the box, and near the box he is really good, making the small connections.”
Yet, that flirtation with an attacking midfield position faded over a summer which saw Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo added. Amorim made it clear that Mainoo was then effectively bound to the bench as the ever-present Bruno Fernandes held his spot as the creative half of a double pivot. But without any playing time on the table, Amorim repeatedly denied Mainoo an exit.
Academy Swipe
Not content with dragging two Manchester United academy graduates through the mud, Amorim set about burning all the youngsters produced by a club which prides itself on a flourishing youth system.
During a discussion explicitly about Mainoo, Amorim took it upon himself to belittle Toby Collyer, Harry Amass and Chido Obi as evidence of the limited resources he had to work with. “[Collyer] is from the academy, he played here, went to West Bromwich [Albion] and he’s not playing,” the Portuguese boss sniffed in December. “Amass is now struggling in the Championship. Chido is not always a starter in U21s. All these guys played when a lot of people were saying, ‘Sack the manager.’ You can see that I’m not worried.”
After Amass and Obi both took to social media to bite back at the senior boss, Amorim doubled down on criticising United’s “entitled” kids.
3-4-2-1 Fixation
Amorim’s obsession with his back-three system dates all the way back to his days in charge of third-tier Portuguese outfit Casa Pia. After two defeats to start his tenure, the budding tactician oversaw a 4–0 win with a 4-4-2 formation. It was at this point he told the club’s sporting director, Carlos Pires, he would be changing the system.
“I asked him why,” Pires recalled, “because we had won, so it made no sense to change it. But with the 3-4-3, Ruben told me to trust in the process because, with a line of five players at the back, we will be more consistent and balanced. And he never changed, with Braga B, Braga and with Sporting. From that game, he always used that system.”
That stubborn dependency on the 3-4-2-1 would last for 62 of his 63 games at United. The main issue for Amorim was a lack of presence in midfield considering he only had two central players, giving opposition managers the simple solution of flooding this area of the pitch. The opening weeks of the 2025–26 campaign almost became a competition among Premier League managers to try and explain how they outwitted Amorim with the fewest words.
Amorim’s own comments on the subject exposed the staggering level of stubbornness behind the decision to stick with the formation for as long as he did. After insisting that “not even the Pope” could force him into a tactical tweak, when Amorim did finally deploy a back four in the Boxing Day win over Newcastle United, he admitted that the pressure of the media had convinced him to defiantly retain this losing formula until it spluttered out a win.
Woeful Wolves
Four days after beating Newcastle in a back four, Amorim reverted to his 3-4-2-1 against a Wolverhampton Wanderers side with a pitiful two points from 18 Premier League games. They would leave Old Trafford with a 33% increase in their seasonal haul and a sense of disappointment it wasn’t more.
“I think it was the least we deserved,” Wolves boss Rob Edwards claimed following the 1–1 draw. Few could argue with that damning verdict.
One Final Tantrum
Amorim went down swinging. An explosive meeting with director of football Jason Wilcox had already reportedly taken place before the Manchester United boss vented his spleen in the Elland Road press room.
Furious at his demarcation as a “head coach” rather than “the manager,” Amorim went on the attack, demanding Wilcox “do his job” while he did his own.
“I just want to say that I’m going to be the manager of this team, not just the coach,” he fumed. “And I was really clear on that. And that is going to finish in 18 months. And then everyone is going to move on.” 18 hours had barely elapsed before Amorim was moved on.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Man Utd’s Worst and Weirdest Moments Under Ruben Amorim.
