Manchester United are enduring a miserable campaign. The Red Devils have already lost 11 domestic matches and are on course for their worst ever Premier League finish.
Despite United’s owners replacing Erik ten Hag with Ruben Amorim in November, very little has changed. In fact, some would argue United have taken a step backwards under the Portuguese boss.
Sitting 13th in the table, the Red Devils are in a rut, and once again, must rely on the Europa League and FA Cup to save their season.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 12 |  Crystal PalaceCrystal Palace |
24 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 28 | 30 | -2 | 30 |
| 13 |  Man UtdManchester United |
24 | 8 | 5 | 11 | 28 | 34 | -6 | 29 |
| 14 |  TottenhamTottenham |
24 | 8 | 3 | 13 | 48 | 37 | 11 | 27 |
And although the damage to their league hopes was done long before last weekend’s game at home to Crystal Palace, one tactical decision Amorim made will be remembered for years to come.
Ruben Amorim slammed for failed Kobbie Mainoo experiment
After he produced a fine display in a more advanced role against FCSB in the Europa League earlier in the week, Kobbie Mainoo was tasked with leading United’s line against Palace at the expense of Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee.
Amorim left the two forwards on the bench and named Mainoo as a False 9 with Alejandro Garnacho and Amad on either side. Unfortunately, despite how exciting the lineup appeared on paper, the experiment went about as badly as it could have.
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Like all his teammates, Mainoo failed to find the back of the net in what was an embarrassing 2-0 defeat, and ESPN’s Julien Laurens has questioned why Amorim opted for that system when his players had no time to prepare.
“They played in the Europa League on Thursday, they would have come back in the night between Thursday and Friday,” he said on ESPN’s Gabs and Jules Show.
“Friday you don’t train. Saturday you don’t train because you’re the day before the game, so they would have played in this formation now, with Kobbie Mainoo as a number nine without having worked on it at all, against a team that was in decent form, too. Why would you do this?!”
When it’s put like this, it’s really hard to disagree. How can a manager expect his players to play in a totally new system while in unfamiliar roles when they haven’t even had a chance to practice?
Got what he deserved
In a remarkable rant, Laurens went on to slam Amorim for his tactical mishap which ended up costing United another three points.
“There’s no justification for what you did. This is ridiculous. You’re shooting yourself in the foot. I have had enough of it already, man,” he added.
“You’ve been there two minutes and you do silly things like this. This was stupid from Amorim. This was really silly. It made no sense whatsoever and he got punished for it and he deserved it.”
Listen to the pundit’s stunning assessment below. We have timestamped it at the right moment for you.
Manchester United’s next match is an important FA Cup Fourth Round tie, again at home, against Leicester City.
Failure to beat Ruud van Nistelrooy’s travelling Foxes, who are one of the only sides to perform worse than United this season, will see the heat on Amorim turned up a notch.
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