I’ve seen incoming Man Utd manager Rúben Amorim in action – big changes are coming to Old Trafford

The Erik ten Hag era has finally concluded with a drawn-out death knell featuring some abysmal football, and change is coming to Old Trafford once again – most likely in the form of Sporting head coach Rúben Amorim. 11 years and five permanent managers on from Sir Alex Ferguson, is he finally going to be the man who can fix Manchester United?

Amorim himself has insisted that “nothing is decided yet” but United have made their pursuit of him very public and seem keen to hand him the keys to the kingdom as quickly as possible. Liverpool’s move to make him manager over the summer broke down amid suggestions that he wanted a squad overhaul that the board were resistant to, but it seems likely that Ineos would have fewer qualms given that they appear intent on spending heavily over the coming seasons anyway.

All Amorim needs to do now is to determine whether his desire to become the first coach to win back-to-back Portuguese titles with Sporting since the 1950s is greater than his desire to coach one of Europe’s elite superclubs – and there are few managers who can resist that particular temptation, even when the superclub in question is as dysfunctional as Manchester United. The chances are that he will be taking the reins very soon – so what will change?

I’ve been watching his work at Sporting for some time now, and there is little doubt that he plays some compelling football. Working with a base 3-4-3 formation, something he has seldom deviated from across his managerial career, he focusses on a high press with a narrow, compact spine to the team and with most of the width generated by his wing-backs, whose role has become more and more aggressive as he has developed his style.

At first glance, that presents some issues for United’s squad. They probably have the depth at centre-back to handle a transition to a back three, and between Lisandro Martínez, Luke Shaw and Leny Yoro may well have enough technical prowess and dynamism to play with wide centre-backs to support the wing-backs and provide passing options – although that’s something that Amorim seems to have moved away from this season anyway, preferring a more rigid back three to combat fast counter-attacks. There probably aren’t any problems up front either, with players like Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho likely comfortable enough in more narrow roles.

The issues would come across that midfield and with the wing-backs. Partly, that’s because United lack wing-backs with the kind of dynamic attacking qualities (and sheer speed) that Amorim requires in his wide men, but it’s also because it’s not clear whether he has enough midfielders who can act as the hard-working defensive shield in midfield.

Kobbie Mainoo can probably handle that role, but otherwise the players at Manchester United’s disposal are either too immobile to play an effective back-to-front pressing game (like Casemiro and Christian Eriksen) or too far away from their best form, in the case of Manuel Ugarte. Perhaps Nouassir Mazraoui could supplement the interior of the midfield, but that would just reduce the options out wide even further. In any case, it isn’t clear what former Sporting player Bruno Fernandes would play.

It’s similar sticking points that likely led to Liverpool and Amorim deciding not to move forward – Liverpool had too few defenders and too many unsuitable midfielders to make his methods work. That said, Amorim does have a pragmatic streak, and while that has typically emerged in the form of style compromises when required, such as switching to a low block to defend leads late on, he may have more ideas for formation and broader tactical set-up than he has let on so far.

Certainly he has found some relatively unorthodox solutions to personnel issues at wing-back this season. On the left, for instance, he has been starting Mozambican right winger Geny Catamo, switching him away from his typical inside forward position and over to the left where he has the benefit of playing wide on his favoured foot. Meanwhile, on the right, he has turned to youth and put his trust in 17-year-old Geovany Quenda, another player who more typically operates as an inside right winger, and been rewarded with impressive performances and a new record for the club’s youngest league goalscorer.

Based on that willingness to find unexpected solutions to problems, we could easily see either young players from the academy promoted ahead of what may otherwise have been their time, or perhaps players used ‘out of position’ – Amorim’s wing-backs have become so aggressive and play so far upfield that using a player like Garnacho in that role wouldn’t be as radical as it may initially appear. Just like Xabi Alonso’s invincible Bayer Leverkusen side last season, the wing-backs are arguably closer to being part of a five-man attack than defenders or midfielders as they are usually notated on a team sheet.

That can lead to some exciting football, but Amorim has struck a strong balance between attack and defence at Sporting. This season, for instance, they have scored 30 league goals while conceding just twice on their way to a perfect record of nine wins in nine games. The only teams to take anything from them are PSV in the Champions League (a 1-1 draw in Eindhoven) and Porto, who won the Portuguese equivalent of the Community Shield but lost 2-0 to Sporting in the league anyway.

In short, all that hard pressing up front and the wide overloads in possession do not come at the cost of a compact team structure (something Ten Hag never came close to obtaining at Old Trafford) and nor does it leave excessive space in behind - at least at Sporting.

It will help matters that Amorim is a charismatic man who has been deeply popular in his dressing room in recent years. He will inherit a situation in which a number of players on the United payroll have been either publicly or privately unhappy, with consequences for form and team cohesion. He should have the diplomatic qualities to deal with that, although such predictions are hard to back up with statistics and data.

In short, United fans should be excited and encouraged by the potential appointment, but not without caveats related to the way the squad is put together and whether it can fit comfortably into Amorim’s mould. Once again, it feels as though United are just one or two transfer windows away from a competitive team united behind a coherent vision, which has been an almost permanent state of being since Ferguson retired in 2013. But Amorim has the tactical qualities and the personality to make it work. The only problem is that most pundits said similar things about Ten Hag a few short years ago – at United, very little is certain.