Manchester United have started the new year with the kind of resilience and unity that Ruben Amorim’s budding system needs to flourish across so many years.
Make no mistake, it’s been a tumultuous decade for the Red Devils, and though the trophy-winning aura has remained intact, threaded so carefully into the club’s fabric, consistency and the biggest prizes have been elusive.
Amorim has enjoyed some statement results in recent weeks, dispatching Manchester City in their backyard, drawing against Liverpool at Anfield and leaving the Emirates with the win in the third round of the FA Cup.
INEOS will no doubt see the potential that his sharp-minded Portuguese has to offer. However, he needs to be backed and, more importantly, still, allowed to sign the right players.
Why Ruben Amorim needs to be backed at Man United
Amorim has proven through these recent and tentative steps that he has the capacity to galvanise a Manchester United side that have suffered a dearth of confidence and togetherness this season.
Spirit is the watchword. Etihad, Anfield, Emirates. Ostensibly, they are the toughest grounds in English football right now, but United have impressed at each in recent weeks.
Bruno Fernandes has been the talisman that the outfit needs, an influential leader. You’d think that the one-time Sporting Lisbon star, who left for Manchester a matter of months before Amorim’s appointment, will be central over the coming seasons.
2025 is going to be a big year for INEOS, for all of an Old Trafford persuasion. Amorim, certainly, will expect backing to marry into his promising vision. That’s why we should pay attention to transfer news relating to United’s interest in Goncalo Inacio.
Amorim looking to raid Sporting
As per Portuguese outlet A Bola, Amorim is interested in raiding his former club for one of Portugal’s prized defenders. It’s understood that INEOS chiefs have held discussions with Inacio’s agent and are ready to make their move preferably on a loan deal with an obligation to buy for a reported €60m (£50m) fee.
The agent, Miguel Pinho, also oversees Fernandes in a link that could hold sway as Liverpool weigh up a move themselves. The left-footed defender would add depth and dynamism to Amorim’s backline.
Most importantly, however, he’d dovetail right in, with his breezy ball-playing game exactly what is needed to create a technical domino effect and advance the resurgence at the Theatre of Dreams.
Why Man Utd should sign Goncalo Inacio
First, the obvious reason. Inacio is a tried and tested success in Amorim’s preferred style of play, winning two Liga Portugal titles and two Taça da Liga cups too.
The 23-year-old has been described as a high-level distributor by analyst Raj Chohan, who said that his “build-up quality is extraordinary.” This is imperative for the success of Amorim’s project.
Man United ranked tenth for possession in the Premier League last term with a 50.6% average, as per FBref, whereas title-winning Sporting were Portugal’s joint-second-most dominant team on the ball for 2023/24 with a 59.1% retention rate.
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Such metrics will swing toward the upper end of the graph now that Amorim is in charge, but he needs to put his own stamp on the outfit and Amorim would be key in achieving this.
Goals
0.11
0.00
0.07
0.06
Assists
0.22
0.00
0.00
0.06
Shot-creating actions
1.99
0.89
0.35
1.39
Passes attempted
97.2
58.89
61.75
68.74
Pass completion
90.6%
86.2%
91.4%
89.6%
Progressive passes
9.50
2.78
1.86
5.92
Progressive carries
2.21
0.33
0.21
1.03
Ball recoveries
5.52
3.00
2.62
4.41
Tackles
1.66
1.35
0.97
2.05
Duel success
49%
62%
59%
55%
While Sporting’s centre-back lacks authority and command in the duel, this can be worked on, and given that Amorim employs a three-back central defence, he might sit nicely on that left side, jockeying with Lisandro Martinez for a starting berth and perhaps even working well alongside him.
As you can also see from the table, Inacio is by far the most expansive and technical defender in possession, looking to make sweeping forward strokes that reach the surging wide players or, say, Fernandes in the centre. He’s actually been praised for his “insane” level of technical quality by journalist Antonio Mango.
On the note of Fernandes, Amorim could find that signing Inacio this January would mark his own version of the deal that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer oversaw for the Portugal playmaker’s signing back in January 2020, for a fee rising to £68m.
Manchester’s Magnifico has been the architect of most of the good stuff that’s emerged from the Red side of the city in recent years, instrumental in winning Carabao Cup and FA Cup trophies across the past two campaigns.
His debut half-season was an unforgettable thing, the now 30-year-old posting 12 goals and eight assists across 22 appearances as he revelled in a 14-match unbeaten run in the Premier League.
It was the lift that the club needed, and while Solskjaer’s feel-good project proved to be a fleeting thing, there’s little question that Amorim has more than a bit more tactical nous than the Norwegian coach, capable of bringing a player like Inacio into the fold to an emphatic and lasting success.
The Red Devils have long enjoyed a forged Portuguese connection and that’s hardly going to flake away now that Amorim has displayed signs of growth at the helm.
The manager’s fellow countryman, Inacio, isn’t there yet, but he’s still only 23 and has showcased so much exciting potential. Just imagine if United fail to show the kind of decisiveness required in this situation, and Liverpool steal ahead in the race.
INEOS need to get it done, repeating a one-time winter trick in bringing Fernandes to Old Trafford and turning a corner – perhaps this time it can be sustained.
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