Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United slumped to their ninth defeat of the Premier League season on Monday night as their miserable campaign showed no sign of improvement.
The 2-0 defeat by Newcastle was the Red Devils’ fifth in eight league matches under the Portuguese boss and remarkably left the side sweating over their future status as a top-flight club.
United sit just seven points clear of the relegation zone. Any faint hope of Champions League or European qualification that may have accompanied Amorim’s appointment has been replaced by the cold reality of their situation.
On and off-field issues far predate the 39-year-old’s arrival at Old Trafford, indeed culpability for their current predicament lays somewhere between the feet of former boss Erik ten Hag, the club’s minority owners Ineos and its chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
But now tied to this awful mess, increasingly Amorim is being stained by the putrid stench that has clung to every manager who has arrived at the club since Sir Alex Ferguson.
Only, under the smooth-talking former Sporting boss, it’s worse. United have not taken well to his 3-4-3 system, which has seen Amorim make the worst start of any Red Devils manager in more than a century – 103 years to be precise. Unfortunately for him, there are even more statistics that highlight the side’s regression since his arrival last month.
Ruben Amorim has made a worst start of any Manchester United manager in the past 103 years
The Red Devils suffered their fifth Premier League defeat in eight matches under the Portuguese boss on Monday
The year-ending loss to Newcastle was the cherry on top of a grotesque Manchester United cake. Defeat saw the club amass their fewest points tally in a calendar year since 1989 (51), while they suffered three home losses on the spin for the first time since 1979.
United’s six defeats in December is the most the club has suffered in a month since September 1930 and they conceded 18 goals – a tie for the most allowed since March 1964.
‘It is also my fault. I think the team is not improving,’ Amorim admitted after their humbling by the Magpies. ‘It is a little bit lost in this moment.
‘It is a bit embarrassing to be Manchester United coach and lose a lot of games. But we have to cope with difficult moments in the life of everybody.’
In such a low-scoring sport, results can often be misleading in football. What will truly concern Amorim is the underlying numbers that accompany his side’s worrisome form.
In the eight league matches he has taken charge of, United rank among the worst teams in the division in an array of the key metrics. These include goals, shot conversion, shots on target, clean sheets, goals conceded and errors leading to goals, to name a few.
The nine goals the side have scored under Amorim is the fourth worst in the top-flight since November 22. Additionally, United’s shot conversion of 9.18 per cent puts them in 14th place.
It’s a similar story for their shots on target (32), while their solitary clean sheet is the second worst in the league. Furthermore, United have made four errors leading to goals, with only two sides having an inferior record.
United conceded 18 goals in December, the most they have allowed in a single month since March 1964
Only four teams in the division have scored fewer than Manchester United’s nine since Amorim’s appointment
Amorim took responsibility for United’s miserable run, admitting that his new system is proving difficult for some players to master
Had the Premier League begun when Amorim started this enormous undertaking, the Red Devils would be 17th with seven points from eight games. Their position outside of the relegation zone would only be achieved with a superior goals scored record to newly-promoted Ipswich.
But even in this reality, somehow, relegation is a real threat for the 20-time top-flight champions at the halfway stage of the campaign.
‘That is really clear, so we have to fight,’ said Amorim when asked about the possibility of falling into the drop zone. ‘It is a really difficult moment, one of the more difficult moments in the history of Manchester United and we have to address it with honesty.
‘I am responsible. I don’t like to arrive here and make excuses. I think people are tired of excuses in this club. I think our club needs a shock and we have to understand that. It is a very difficult moment and we have to fight for the next game.’
Just as Amorim prophesised a storm upon his arrival, his latest forecast may be similarly prescient. United make the daunting trip to Anfield to face the league leaders Liverpool in their next match on Sunday before an FA Cup third round tie against Arsenal in north London.
The shock may just come when they welcome Southampton to Old Trafford on January 16. Defeat to the Saints, who have improved under new manager Ivan Juric, really would have the older generation of United supporters reliving the torment of the 1973-74 season – United’s last relegation.
It might even prompt Amorim to abandon his favoured system, which may simply be too complicated for this current crop of players to grasp.
‘I have to sell my idea,’ he added. ‘If I change all the time it is going to be even worse. But I understand they have a lot of difficulties because they spent two years playing one way. You can feel it, I can feel it. But I have to sell my idea, I don’t have another one.
‘When you have a change of coach, especially in this type of club, it is because they were not winning. They play in the system they were bought for and were losing.
‘So, I am going to change to that system? If I think the players with the right profile for each position, it will be different. This team was already in problems.’