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What can Man Utd fans learn about Ruben Amorim from Sporting’s win over Manchester City?

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“My focus is on winning the match for Sporting. The conclusions are not important for me because they could be erroneous: if we win tomorrow, they will think the new Alex Ferguson has arrived. That will be very difficult. It could increase expectations. I don’t know what is better when I start my new adventure.”

One 4-1 victory for Sporting Lisbon over Manchester City later and Ruben Amorim, who said the words above before that game in Portugal last night, finds himself in an interesting situation.

Manchester United fans are — understandably — excited their incoming head coach has just comprehensively beaten Pep Guardiola head-to-head. Was this a one-off masterclass from the Sporting players to give their departing coach the ideal send-off? Or will Amorim prove Guardiola’s kryptonite and power United back up the Premier League table?

What, if anything, can be taken from Sporting’s Champions League big win against City that could be important for United fans in the weeks and months ahead?

First of all, how did Sporting pull this off?

The cheeky/succinct answer: They played on the break, got two penalties and scored two quality counter-attacking goals.

The answer most relevant to United fans: Amorim recognised City’s weaknesses and exploited them.

Sporting lined up in their typical 3-4-3, which shifted to a compact and deep-sitting 3-5-2 when out of possession. This was helped by them being led by a counter-attacking outlet as good as Viktor Gyokeres (yesterday’s hat-trick means he has 23 goals in 17 club games this season and 53 for Sporting and Sweden this calendar year). And it was turbocharged by Amorim’s use of his wing-backs when seeking attacking overloads.

The best example of this can be found in their second goal, which occurred right after the second half kicked off.

After passing to the back three, the ball is worked to Pedro Goncalves (the left-sided forward behind Gyokeres), with Max Araujo at left wing-back.

Goncalves plays a one-two with Araujo before peeling out to the left wing, dragging City defenders along with him.

As he carries down the left, he is joined by Gyokeres ahead of him.

Crucial to the move is Araujo inverting from the wing and running into the half-space.

Two seconds later, Goncalves’ run has caused City’s defensive structure to collapse in on him. He opts to thread a pass through to Araujo up ahead. (Note the amount of space available for a switch ball on the opposite flank. This is a good attack that can be finished in multiple ways.)

Once Araujo is through on goal, he scores with a straightforward finish.

This is a goal we recommend you seek the video highlights for as well to appreciate it in full flow. The below clip should start at 2:40.

And for U.S. viewers, in this one it’s at 0:43.

This was no smash-and-grab win burnished by penalties; Sporting had a game plan and executed it. City were 1-0 up in the 37th minute, and 3-1 down in the 50th. Sporting decided to throw sand in City’s midfield gears, and when that structure began to slow, Amorim’s side stretched their defence to breaking point.

Though they won 4-1, Sporting had only 28 per cent of the possession. This is not a tactical approach you can use against every team, but “hunker down, pressure on City’s sloppy passes and then counter down the middle” has had success in recent weeks.

In beating them 2-1 on Saturday in the Premier League, Bournemouth registered 35 per cent possession and had six quick attacks, which are defined as passing sequences that start in a team’s own half and result in either a touch or a shot inside the opposition penalty area within 15 seconds.

United’s FA Cup final win over neighbours City by the same score in May saw Erik ten Hag’s side register 26 per cent possession. Alejandro Garnacho’s opening goal of the match for United came from a stroke of luck/defensive miscommunication between left-back Josko Gvardiol and goalkeeper Stefan Ortega. Kobbie Mainoo’s goal to make it 2-0 capped off a fine counter-attacking move.

City’s per-game average for direct attacks conceded in the opening months of this season (2.9) is more than twice as high as it was during 2023-24. Teams are finding it easier to exploit the Premier League champions’ soft underbelly since 2024 Ballon d’Or-winning midfielder Rodri suffered a season-ending knee injury in late September.

Beating them often requires you to ride your luck in some defensive moments. It also needs you to be aggressive in your pressing and counter-pressing and utterly ruthless when counter-attacking opportunities arrive. Sporting had the right alchemy on Tuesday.

“We had a fantastic first half but we are struggling to score when we create,” Guardiola told the game’s UK broadcaster, TNT Sports. “They (Sporting) can run and they punished us a little bit. Emotionally, we were not stable enough. In this competition, you have to be stable. With the third and fourth goals, we have to be emotionally more stable.”

Are there any asterisks to this victory that might lead to ‘erroneous’ conclusions?

City are one of the best football teams in the world, led by one of the best football managers in the world. But they have not been the same formidable prospect since losing some of the best footballers in the world to injury.

Rodri is usually there to stamp out City’s vulnerabilities to counter-attacks. Kevin De Bruyne’s absence means they are not the same irresistible force in the final third. Ruben Dias, Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku have all missed games this season too, and Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden and Mateo Kovacic are struggling to cover the emerging cracks.

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The four-titles-in-a-row English champions are not in full-blown crisis mode (not yet) but three consecutive defeats in a week across all competitions have dented their previously impervious mystique. The class of 2024-25 are City’s most vulnerable team in years. They can be hurt if you look past their history of recent success, and focus on their present-day weaknesses.

Yet, even in their current, injury-hobbled state, they still manufactured several dangerous chances last night for Erling Haaland, and the Norway international also missed a penalty. City had dominated for the majority of the first half until Gyokeres’ opening goal on 38 minutes. Even then, he had to produce a tremendous finish to beat goalkeeper Ederson. While a handful of United players might have the technical prowess to pull off something similar, they might not have the confidence to repeat such a skill if such an opportunity arose on the weekend.

Watching the 4-1 and thinking that Amorim is going to fix United immediately overlooks:

  1. City are going through a small dip.
  2. Sporting are on the crest of a wave.
  3. United are in a bit of a tailspin.

Amorim warned against “erroneous” conclusions. The Athletic is politely asking you not to get too carried away by one result.

So how much of this can translate to United?

According to Amorim himself, not that much.

“We cannot transport one reality to another,” said the 39-year-old. “United cannot play the way we play, they cannot be so defensive. Of course it’s good to beat City. But I’ll be living in a different world (once he starts work at United on Monday); we’ll have to start from a different point.”

The quote resembles Ten Hag’s “The football that we played at (his previous club) Ajax, we will never play here” line to streamer Viaplay from October 2023 after a 3-0 home defeat to City. Both men admit their successes at other clubs might not be translatable to Old Trafford.

Ten Hag’s response to that was to allow the players available to him to shape his approach at United and pursue a pacy, direct style of attacking football. Amorim may opt for a different tack and have his approach shape the players at the club.

Sporting’s win last night was built on strong structural and tactical foundations and carried out by a group of players who have steadily grown in ability and confidence under their manager. At United, Amorim will inherit an unbalanced and fractured squad low in confidence and lacking a handful of the player profiles key to making his 3-4-3 click. Work must be done to restructure and reshape the squad into a unit capable of Tuesday’s performance.

Further improvements will need to be made if Amorim’s United are to push on and compete for trophies. One conundrum for the soon-to-be head coach is how best to iterate and improve the team’s approach to goalscoring. Garnacho and Marcus Rashford can be good counter-attacking threats when fed by Bruno Fernandes, but United tend to be one-dimensional when facing opponents who defend deep and seek to frustrate.

Amorim is not the first United manager/head coach to pick up impressive victories before taking over at Old Trafford. In summer 2014, the fans wondered if Louis van Gaal would be able to conjure some more of the magic he had brought to the Netherlands’ national team on their way to a third-place finish in the World Cup weeks earlier. Before Ten Hag’s arrival, The Athletic wrote about some of his most impressive victories with Ajax and what we could learn from them.

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Amorim’s internship with Mourinho at Manchester United – by those who were involved

United’s modern-day malaise is a unique mess with no simple way of being fixed.

Guardiola highlighting Sporting’s ability to run as a collective is essential to what Amorium will need. United’s current squad does not have a similar amount of athletic players who can press and win their various defensive duels. Amorim’s version of the team is likely to become taller, younger, faster and more cunning than it is today.

It will also need time, patience, and a group of people working in alignment, both around and above the man currently packing a suitcase somewhere in Lisbon.

Sporting’s 4-1 victory over City is evidence that Amorim is a good head coach.

United’s challenge in the future is to nourish those qualities as best they can.

(Photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)







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