"I have a lot of problems. My job is so hard," Ruben Amorim told Sky Sports after seeing his Manchester United team suffer a miserable 1-0 defeat at Tottenham on Sunday. That result saw United hit a new 51-year low in the top flight as they dropped to 15th in the table. Worse still, there were no signs of the situation improving any time soon.
Amorim has been refreshingly honest about the standard of the squad he inherited from Erik ten Hag after leaving his comfort zone at Sporting CP back in November, but even he surely couldn't have imagined things would be this bad barely three months into his reign. The players have so far failed to adapt to his preferred 3-4-3 system, and with each passing game relegation becomes a more realistic threat.
Some critics believe Amorim should shift away from his core beliefs to halt United's slide, but they are missing the bigger picture: It doesn't matter what formation he chooses with a team as rotten as this.
Positive change will only start taking effect at Old Trafford when Amorim is free to make his own signings this summer. To do that, sales will be needed first as part-owners INEOS strive to stay within the boundaries of the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules, and a select group of underperforming players will almost certainly be on the chopping block unless they buck their ideas up.
GOAL has run through the six United flops who will be playing for their futures between now and May, from the man failing as their last line of defence to the one floundering as the figurehead at the other end of the pitch...
