Manchester United Banter Mobile

19 Oct 2026 21:02:29
For me the standout replacement if Carrick is sacked (and I hope Carrick can turn things around) is Emery

doesn't panic loses his best players but replaces them with good ones and bloods youngsters too.

His teams play with intensity and a recognisable style.

19 Oct 2026 21:30:10
That and he's proven at Premier League and European level. Standout candidate if we r anyway serious.

19 Oct 2026 22:17:59
Emery is better than our current status. Ask yourself, why would he leave Villa?

19 Oct 2026 23:17:11
If, and it's a big if, if he is properly supported the ceiling for him is far higher at United plus with due respect to Villa we are a far bigger club with huge tradition and fan base.

19 Oct 2026 14:51:27
Amorim has given an interview released over the weekend, with the second part coming on Wednesday. It's in the Portuguese press there are some translations online. The Man United parts are really interesting.
The Manchester United job came, but the rumours said that you wanted to complete the season with Sporting and go to Manchester in the summer?

It's true, it's true.

Yet you found yourself in Manchester? How?

It's really simple, the offer was "we really believe in you, we want you, but come now or we'll find somebody who will".

Wow

Yes, and believe me when I say I wanted Manchester United. It's a huge club, a club with such history, one of the really special teams in football. In a bad moment, sure, but I believed so, so much that I can be the one to help turn it around. When the offer arrives instantly my head was full of ideas: how I can help, a plan for the transfer market, a multi-year idea.

So your mind was made up?

Don't misunderstand me, I was clear that - not just for me, but for the club - that arriving in the summer would be best. On a personal level it's such a big change. You have to change your entire life, your country, your language, your home, your family has to leave their home, their friends, their school, even smaller things like memberships, property, the things you don't think of. And then you get asked to do it overnight with no advanced notice? It's a big step, a huge step. But even more than that I felt, for the club, with the ideas I have, it's going to need a strong preseason, multiple weeks where we can drill the automatisms, the fitness standards, the tactical ideas. To do that mid-season, with a group - a good group, a hard-working group - who aren't used to these ideas? It's tough. Tough for them.

You explained this to Manchester United

Yes. I will be careful with my words but yes I explained it, and the message was "we want you, we want to go with you, to trust you even if it's tough". So hearing that, it's enough for me. I want the club so much, I want Manchester United, I had such pride imagining it. So when I hear this message I said "Yes, I'll do it, I'll change everything overnight". That's how much I wanted it.

And it was tough?

Yes. I felt it would be. Trying to change everything, and I really mean everything in the club, while you're playing matches? It's like changing your tyres while you drive on the motorway. Even with the best intentions it's hard. But week by week I felt like "yes it's happening, we're learning, the fitness is getting better" and then you hit a hard speed-bump and it feels like it's back to square one. But it wasn't back to square one, it was just a process. I felt like the first season gave us a foundation as a group: trust, familiarity, finding out who's right for the team, who wants to be there, wants to work hard for it. I feel like, looking back, arriving early had some positives. Some negatives too of course. The negatives? I could feel, and I understand it completely, that the patience for the ideas had slipped because of the results and setbacks throughout the season. Not from the players but other people.

The formation was a talking point?

Oh yeah! [laughs] I heard a lot that the system was defensive, but in a perfect world it's the opposite. My intention, my dream, was to bring Manchester United back to the top and to do it with tradition - attacking, fast, entertaining, high pressure football.

Can you explain that more? The system I mean, for Manchester United specifically.

Well, the characteristics of our centre-backs. In the centre, De Ligt or Harry [Maguire]. Two strong guys, great in duels, good organisation. Wide centre-backs, I want them to break the lines with passing or dribbles, to push aggressively for turnovers. Guys like Leny [Yoro], Licha [Lisandro Martinez], Luke [Shaw] and Nous [Noussair Mazraoui]. Wing-backs, this is where I say it's an attacking formation. In my perfect world, wing-backs are wingers who will defend, not defenders who can attack. Amad [Diallo], excellent. Pat [Patrick Dorgu] always improving, a really good guy, hard-worker. My idea was that we needed one or two more in this position. Characteristics? 1 on 1 killers, dribblers, physical capacity to cover the flank. Central midfield my idea is a line-breaker paired with a physically dominant player. For me it was Bruno and Casemiro. In an perfect situation, maybe more athleticism, but I was so happy with these guys.

Sorry to interrupt, but Bruno playing central midfield caused issues?

Not for Bruno. Not for me. I loved how he played the position. I know that he enjoyed it. It's natural for playmakers, as they age, to move further back. I feel like Bruno was so underrated playing this position. Physical capacity, fighting spirit, intelligence. He became a high volume passer, high percentage passer, while still influencing the game so much. Maybe he didn't always play the final pass, but he played so many important passes every game that aren't so recognised by people.

So back to the system?

Yes, so Bruno I've explained. Casemiro is, again, such an intelligent footballer, such a hard worker, a spirit for the team. Together with Bruno it was a good base. Of course, I don't hide that you don't have the athleticism, so you have to adapt the system a little bit for that, but two excellent footballers. Both fantastic picture of the game: when Casemiro arrives in the box, Bruno holds the position, when Bruno is pressing further up the pitch, arriving in the box, Casemiro holds the position. Wide 10's we had Bryan [Mbeumo] and Cunha. In the striker position Ben [Benjamin Sesko]. He's such a good kid, always working, improving, listening to advice, a phenomenal athlete.

And so where do you see the improvements, the changes that can be made to the squad?

I don't want to go over that. I don't think it's helpful.

I'll rephrase, you talked about a multi-year plan. What was the goal? Would the system change?

A midfielder with athleticism. The biggest goal was 1 on 1 dribblers with speed and acceleration, it's something we lacked, it's something I feel we - sorry, they [laughs], it's still habit - lacked for many years. A chaos creator. Either in the wing-back position or as one of the 10's. In the longer term, athleticism in defence. Truly, I don't feel like we were so far away from something special. I know it's easy to say that, I know many people don't see it, but I felt it, and I know many of the players did too.

You never thought of changing the formation when the results were bad?

I thought of it. Believe me I thought of it! [laughs] Like I said, I wanted this so much, I stayed up at nights watching replays of matches, looking at the tiny details, thinking about what I did wrong, how I could do better, how to explain the ideas in a better way. But there's a saying "If you're going through hell, keep going". It doesn't make sense to make the players go through the pain of the adaptation, learning, figuring things out, working so hard to change and then because of some bad results I decide - because I want to make it better for myself - I say to the boys "No, we're playing back-four next week, no pressing, hit on the break". No. That would be a selfish decision, a decision that takes away all the players hard work. Why? To remove pressure from myself? No I'll take the pressure.

My goal was to build a team that can win trophies, who can be at the top for a long, long time, not to have a team that can win some matches in certain fixtures, and then next season we're back where we started. And to build a team like that you start by having tactical principles, enforcing and building standards of fitness, behaviour, mentality. And I felt like we were doing that, even though the results just weren't coming.

19 Oct 2026 16:39:46
Rewz, RedDouglas has an opinion on Amorim: "For me, this is such a pointless topic because at the end of the day it was Amarim who got himself sacked.".

19 Oct 2026 18:20:21
He wanted athleticism and pace, yet had Bruno and Cass in Midfield and McGuire Delight and Yoro CBs which I would say not one of them got both .and bought Cunha who got zero pace
Then says Sesko super fit kid, how's that turn out.

The football was awful under RA I don't know where this romantic notion of it was so great come from

He had no plan B and so fixed in his ways

We can all say we want to get United back to the top, but of course it's a pipe dream.

19 Oct 2026 18:20:32
Interesting to hear it from his perspective. As you know fizz i was very much all in on amorim.
I believed in what he was doing and that's it would improve. With his window i think we would be a lot neutered odf now if we had stick with him.
But we never did and it's history now.
I think Carrick did a brilliant job as interim results wise.
I didn't want him to be appointed as manager but once he was i backed him despite my personal reservations.
But at the moment he has lost any trust or faith i had in him.
I think he was backed into a corner with rashford being kept but imo he should not have been in a matchday squad until we needed him to be.
The players were poorly prepared for the season.


His interviews and expressions don't give me confidence they remind me of ole.
Our play and creatovity is poor.
Playing unfit players is counter productive.
So at the moment i'd rather we change our manager i don't see us winning 6 on the bounce like we need to unless something changes quickly.
He could do with sesko being available and deligt but even allowing for that we should be playing better.
I look at teilimens santos and baleba when they get the ball they are used to runners and players moving for them but we are static and slow. No generating give and go 2 v1s no pass and move with quick acceleration no players bombing past the man on the ball from deep.
No movement is painful to watch.

19 Oct 2026 19:02:45
Well summed up Ken 👍.

19 Oct 2026 20:04:23
Don't worry it's a Fresh Start that's how deluded his press conferences are!

19 Oct 2026 21:10:32
Ken spot on we are generally way too static especially when playing teams with a low block. The old Shankly mantra of "pass and move" is as relevant today as ever. The best teams do it. It's drilled into them so that it becomes second nature.

18 Oct 2026 20:49:50
Any coincidence that our best performance of the season (still pretty bleak viewing) was with 5 at the back? Maybe Amorim was on to something after all and just didn't have the players.

If Amorim had Baleba I think things could have been quite different.

18 Oct 2026 21:40:33
100% JD.
The most sickening part, Wilcox and crew got Baleba (injured), and Carrick is muddling through trying to figure out how to get the best out of the sum of parts Amorim was assembling.

It is comical to watch.

19 Oct 2026 00:21:54
Wilcox told Amorim to play a back 4 and now he's telling carrick to play a back 5.

19 Oct 2026 09:25:54
I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. Watching United is a sort of autodestructive behaviour.

19 Oct 2026 12:17:35
I wish people would stop talking about Amorim like he was a managerial god. Everyone here mostly wanted him gone yet now most change their tune.

19 Oct 2026 17:59:44
I think your wrong Spence.
The ones that wanted him gone are sat quiet now because Mr 14.3% was their saviour and the footballing intelligence CATW serves up is the worst I've seen in almost 50years.

19 Oct 2026 18:21:14
I am not quiet. RA was poor really Poor.

19 Oct 2026 18:22:20
What is CATW. I can't work it out you've used it a few times🤣.

19 Oct 2026 19:03:24
Carrick at the wheel!

19 Oct 2026 19:07:16
Jsu, Amorim's football had an end product, in that it was a process, we all knew that from board down to fans. He said as much from the outset. We all knew, from board to fans, we had assembled a squad of misfits, and it would take several transfer windows to reverse those bad decisions.
Yes he got himself sacked, but that was after fan pressure and board not backing him that he self imploded.

With Carrick, there is no vision, the football is the worst we have seen for generations, the players aren't with him and he will be gone soon.

I struggle to see how anyone can make a case for Carrick over amorim.

In every metric Amorim. wins.

19 Oct 2026 20:08:50
That's the same when people say Lammens is great keeper Yes if you are measuring him against Onana, but the reality is he ain't a great keeper he is OK. RA was exactly that OK I don't get the stars in your eyes RA was great are we forgetting the teams he lost to, the state of our play and after 2 seasons no one could even see a plan B
Carrick is no better, neither should have been anywhere near the level required to manage United, none of them would make any other supposedly top 4 club, Scousers looked at RA and said no thanks for good reason .

19 Oct 2026 22:19:26
He is a great keeper. Put a crap defense in even the best keepers and they become average..

19 Oct 2026 23:02:48
I think he is well above average he sees easy too much of the ball start his feet for my liking so will make more mistakes from there.
He same his fair share when not favourite. Would look better with different tactics imo. Still the least of our worries in defence imo.

20 Oct 2026 00:05:08
People keep forgetting that at the time Amorim was struggling for results, key players were gone for AFCON and we had some injuries, Bruno in particular.

Too bad he got himself sacked, I really believed in him.

18 Oct 2026 17:51:10
I didn't watch, and was out anyway.

Were there any signs of improvement? How did the midfield 3 with Baleba, Santos and Tielemans fare?

Should Lacey get Amad's place?

18 Oct 2026 18:25:39
I am in the minority but yes there was good signs. Without Bruno we were better and certainly more compact at the center. Both Santos and especially Baleba had a good game. Maybe Tielemans had his best with us with the double pivot providing steal behind him.


I don't think they will, but that must be a performance to build on. Stay compact, win some games ugly (we could win ugly today), bring the confidence up and then start from there. In both the atleti and Leeds game we were more solid and better overall.

18 Oct 2026 18:44:53
We had Bruno, Mount, Tielemans, Cunha, Amad and Mbeumo on the field and none of them played in their best positions.

18 Oct 2026 18:50:48
Thought the middle was much better. had legs and looked half decent. Its something because I feared a hammering pre game, so to see constructive passes movement and energy pleased me. Also we didn't buckle when leeds scored, another plus. feared a total collapse. It's not much but its better. simply need a few wins thou.

18 Oct 2026 19:25:42
Wow, anyone who thinks that was good what are you judging us on the quality of the game was atrocious, virtually every player was out of position but all worked harder, but that don't make it any good, Draw was about fair .
And if we now saying Santos and Teilemans were good in that game. Well I'm speechless.

18 Oct 2026 19:42:21
I think there has been signs of improvement in the last 2 games, we should have won in Madrid. Yoro was brilliant again, as he was in Madrid until the ridiculous red card.

Draw was probably about right on the balance of the game, we deserved to go ahead when we did but 2nd half Leeds pushed hard before their goal. A point at Leeds isn't a bad result in the grand scheme of things, they have had a good start to the season and pushed Arsenal hard last week, but we really need to start winning games as soon as possible.

18 Oct 2026 15:57:55
CATW!!

EPL win % 14.3!!

Overall win % 20%!!

Amazing.

I will say, it was refreshing to see some of the changes made, and I think he may even come good.