When Ruben Amorim took over the reins at Manchester United in November 2024, the Portuguese predicted chaos. He intended to introduce his football immediately in order to use the season to clean up the problems the United squad had been struggling with for a long time. If he postponed the clean-up job to do this gradually, Amorim believed the problems would continue next season. Five months later, there is still chaos, just four months before the new season kicks off. On Sunday, it is again relevant to ask a question that cannot be answered, but must be asked.
We hope Ruben Amorim will succeed, but stand by what we wrote before the Portuguese’s arrival at Carrington training ground. That it was downright crazy not to keep Ruud van Nistelrooy for the rest of the season.
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Van Nistelrooy took over as a substitute when Ten Hag was sacked. By “keeping 85 per cent and doing 15 per cent different”, the United legend gave the players the much-needed boost in the match arena. Van Nistelrooy, like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, had a credibility with players and supporters and a bearer of the Man Utd DNA. They have both delivered under the extreme pressure of representing Manchester United at the match venue. The results came with Van Nistelrooy, the same as with Solskjaer, six years earlier.
The United management pressured Ruben Amorim to take over the job already in November, even though the Sporting coach himself wanted to finish the season in Portugal. This also pushed out Ruud van Nistelrooy, who himself wanted to stay to help United – regardless of the role he would be assigned.
On Sunday, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Leicester were sent out of the Premier League after losing to Liverpool. At the same time, Wolverhampton sent the Manchester United players to the dressing room at Old Trafford with a loss and the United supporters slyly went to the pub on their way home to “extinguish their sorrows”. From a fantastic turnaround against Lyon to zero points and toothless football against one of the bottom teams in the Premier Leagues (now à points with United…).
Ruud van Nistelrooy didn’t have many games as head coach at United, but showed he played to the players’ strengths. We still think everyone would have benefited from letting Van Nistelrooy lead United for the rest of the season and bringing in a well-prepared Ruben Amorim who had been given more than three days to decide to take the job and a week or two to prepare for the world’s toughest league.
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The supporters are suffering, but the United management has unfortunately got what they deserve. Ruud van Nistelrooy should never have been tipped out of the club before the end of the season.
