“I know it is frustrating for the fans but we are changing so much in this moment… We are going to suffer for a long period. We will try to win games but this will take time.
“We have to risk it a little bit [now] and in the next year we will be better [otherwise] next year at the same stage we will be here with the same problems."
He clearly recognises that a bunch of problems remain with the squad (he’s spoken about fitness/physicality and about decisionmaking already), as well as the time it’s going to take to explain and implement the system to the players, then understand who really suits which roles and who needs replacing.
I think we have a good few months of a very bumpy ride ahead. There’ll be a few players who won’t buy in to the system/Amorim’s methods, there’ll be a few who get dropped and sulk, and there’ll be a few whom his team will decide aren’t suitable for the demands of and/or kind of football we’re ultimately going to be playing.
But the approach he seems to be setting out is the right one for me, which is the system first, and make the difficult decisions sooner rather than later. We have the model of the ideal (which is Sporting 2.0), and we focus 100% on that. No more of the, “these players aren’t up to that, so we’ll find some kind of hybrid system or plan B," both of which approaches of course failed for ETH.
Where there are conflicts with the needs of the system - players who won’t run, players who don’t understand what’s being asked of them, players whose attributes just don’t fit - those are dealt with, rather than pandered to or worked around.
It’s going to take very minimum two summer windows and a lot of hard work and probably acrimony in between to get there, IMO. In the meantime, a great deal of patience will be required if we aren’t to be back to square one for the sixth time.
First item on the agenda for him this morning: Working out how to address the fact that we were comprehensively out-run by Ipswich Town yesterday afternoon.
Reality
posted 2 days, 14 hours ago
Free bakka flaming into midfield is something we’ve missed for a long time, so glad to have it back.
posted 2 days, 14 hours ago
comment by RRRU-ben a-moo-REENG (U17054)
posted 3 hours, 10 minutes ago
Don’t know how much of it is smoke, but the press are now going loopy here about United’s interest in Quenda.
They’re saying we want a deal tied up asap for him to move in the summer. The fee is supposedly €60m.
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So Quenda is a left-footed RWB, right? Does Amorim tend to play a right-footed player as LWB? I don't know how other 3-4-3 coaches (e.g. Alonso) approach this, but interesting that it's the opposite to the template in a 4-3-3 etc. where you tend to have inverted wingers who like to cut in, supported by overlapping runs from attacking full backs who can cross / cut back using their favoured foot. Did Amorim's Sporting tend to encourage wing backs to cut inside, and therefore to have the narrow wingers / 10s sometimes make runs to create space for them?
posted 2 days, 14 hours ago
Related question, Rosso: putting aside your clearly emotional attachment to Pote, which players in the current Sporting side do you think might be sensible transfer targets, given age, potential to adapt, our budget limitations and our priority positions to strengthen?
posted 2 days, 13 hours ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by RRRU-ben a-moo-REENG (U17054)
posted 3 hours, 10 minutes ago
Don’t know how much of it is smoke, but the press are now going loopy here about United’s interest in Quenda.
They’re saying we want a deal tied up asap for him to move in the summer. The fee is supposedly €60m.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So Quenda is a left-footed RWB, right? Does Amorim tend to play a right-footed player as LWB? I don't know how other 3-4-3 coaches (e.g. Alonso) approach this, but interesting that it's the opposite to the template in a 4-3-3 etc. where you tend to have inverted wingers who like to cut in, supported by overlapping runs from attacking full backs who can cross / cut back using their favoured foot. Did Amorim's Sporting tend to encourage wing backs to cut inside, and therefore to have the narrow wingers / 10s sometimes make runs to create space for them?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No; he generally played a left-footed LWB (Santos, Caetano) with a right-footed inside left, and a left-footed RWB (Quenda, Caetano, Edwards) with a left-footed inside right.
(Sporting’s squad is FULL of left-footed players. Like to a ridiculous extent. How much of that was purposeful and how much was coincidental, I don’t know.)
Both wing backs hug the touchline, particularly with Santos on the left, who spends a lot of time standing in space waiting for a big switch. On the right, though, Quenda and the inside right (Trincão) will often double up as like two inverted wingers, combining and taking it in turns to cut in/go outside.
posted 2 days, 13 hours ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 6 minutes ago
Related question, Rosso: putting aside your clearly emotional attachment to Pote, which players in the current Sporting side do you think might be sensible transfer targets, given age, potential to adapt, our budget limitations and our priority positions to strengthen?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s an article, not a post, mate
Maybe I’ll do it at some point, but depending on the price point and what happens in terms of our outgoings, there are a few you could make arguments for: Quenda, Araujo, Inácio, Diomande, and yes, Pote
Probably more the pick of the wingbacks and CMs though, rather than the central players/forwards.
posted 2 days, 13 hours ago
Oops, sorry, I meant pick of the wingbacks and *CBs*.
I’m not sure that any of the CMs barring Ugarte’s replacement Hjulmand would be up to PL football.
posted 2 days, 12 hours ago
Rosso
Interesting about the left footers and wing backs. I saw a few general commentariat suggested United line-ups that put Antony as RWB, which implied to me an assumption that Amorim likes them to invert/cut in or people assuming that Antony would stay on the same flank he has occupied as a winger.
posted 2 days, 12 hours ago
comment by RRRU-ben a-moo-REENG (U17054)
posted 1 hour, 33 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 6 minutes ago
Related question, Rosso: putting aside your clearly emotional attachment to Pote, which players in the current Sporting side do you think might be sensible transfer targets, given age, potential to adapt, our budget limitations and our priority positions to strengthen?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s an article, not a post, mate
Maybe I’ll do it at some point
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Get to work Rosso. We're all hungry for content these days.
posted 2 days, 11 hours ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 20 minutes ago
Rosso
Interesting about the left footers and wing backs. I saw a few general commentariat suggested United line-ups that put Antony as RWB, which implied to me an assumption that Amorim likes them to invert/cut in or people assuming that Antony would stay on the same flank he has occupied as a winger.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If he can convert Antony into some kind of productive footballer that would be a start.
posted 2 days, 10 hours ago
comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 1 hour, 10 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 20 minutes ago
Rosso
Interesting about the left footers and wing backs. I saw a few general commentariat suggested United line-ups that put Antony as RWB, which implied to me an assumption that Amorim likes them to invert/cut in or people assuming that Antony would stay on the same flank he has occupied as a winger.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If he can convert Antony into some kind of productive footballer that would be a start.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Obviously, Antony's United career has been a shatshow and I don't hold out hope of a long-term stay. But I would say he has some virtues as a footballer alongside the massive flaws we have seen. I think the wing-back role will get more value from his assets (work rate, discipline in tracking back, good at retaining the ball in tight spaces) while his shortcomings won't be quite so exposed (less emphasis on supplying the final pass / goal contributions; under less intense pressure when ball carrying). In the temporary situation where we're using square pegs for round holes, and in some cases sh*t pegs in round holes, he's not necessarily the worst option.