Ruben Amorim has been delivered a stark warning over the Manchester United job from club legends Roy Keane and Gary Nevile.
Amorim has agreed to replace the sacked Erik ten Hag later this month with Ruud van Nistelrooy overseeing the team on an interim basis until then, and has beaten Leicester in the Carabao Cup before a 1-1 draw with Chelsea in the Premier League.
Keane and Neville have been discussing the task at hand for the incoming 39-year-old, from players to tactics.
"Ruben Amorim should have signed a longer contract," Keane said on Sky Sports. "There’s a long way back for this team. This is an average United team, all the stats back it up.
"From the managers point of view, this team is way off it. A really disappointing performance. United are a bit average at everything and they are not special. The lack of goals is hard to believe."
He added: "Job number one has got to be to stop this rot of players coming to Manchester United, who were fancied because other clubs wanted them as well and who have not been able to achieve the levels of potential they demonstrated before they signed.
"So, with the players he inherits - which he's going to be stuck with for the next eight months - he has to try and get the maximum out of them and that's going to be a big job."
Neville is keen to see Amorim get United back on the front foot, having seen the Portugese's current club Sporting win all 10 of league games so far this season and scoring 35 goals in the process.
You've got to be a team of dominance; dominating the ball in the final third, dominating your forwards and staying high up the pitch
"It was sober reading about how high Manchester United play up the pitch," Neville said. "When I looked at the average start distance of the teams up the pitch, Manchester City are first, Arsenal second, Liverpool third, Tottenham fourth and Brighton are fifth. Manchester United are down in tenth.
"If you want to push your defence up the pitch, which is what I think every team looks to do nowadays, Amorim has got to start with that because Manchester United quite often have to travel 70, 80 yards to score a goal because they're so deep and they play like the underdog in games.
"The other metric was possession one in the final third. So possession won high up the pitch: first was Manchester City, second was Tottenham, third was Arsenal and fourth was Liverpool. Manchester United are ninth.
"These three things are critical to performance levels. Man Utd played like a team that is sat behind the ball. 'Let's try and get them on the counter or score from a set piece'.
"That's got to change. You've got to be a team of dominance. And I mean dominance. I mean dominating the ball in the final third, dominating your forwards and staying high up the pitch."
