Former Manchester United assistant Rene Meulensteen is worried about the similarities between the appointment of Ruben Amorim and his unsuccessful predecessor, Erik ten Hag. Amorim has endured a dismal early run of results as United’s head coach, losing six of his first 11 games after walking away from his dominant Sporting side.
He arrived at Old Trafford as one of the world’s most highly rated coaches, having lifted Sporting from ruin to Portugal’s primary powerhouse.
Erik ten Hag descended on Manchester with a similar reputation in 2022 after helming an era of supremacy at Ajax but struggled to transfer his philosophy across.
The Dutchman will argue his two-and-a-half-year reign was a triumph, reaching three major finals and lifting the FA Cup and Carabao Cup.
But United suffered their worst-ever Premier League and Champions League campaigns in 2023/24 and that woeful form leaked into the start of this season.
Amorim is currently picking up the pieces during a relentless fixture schedule, and there is still confidence he will spearhead improvement once the dust settles this year.
Yet, while Meulensteen is a fan of the 39-year-old’s style of football, he has questioned United’s decision to mirror their capture of Ten Hag.
“It’s more to do with the appointment process than anything about his management style or coaching,” Meulensteen told Express Sport with Instant Casino.
“You look at when United went for Ten Hag. He was the manager at Ajax in a smaller league in Europe and did really well winning the league and did well in the Champions League.
“It’s exactly the same pattern with Amorim in Portugal. Sporting, a smaller league, does well, wins the league, and does really well in the Champions League.
“He’s got a really nice football style about him; that’s where the similarities are. I think they’re two different characters with two different personalities.
“The way that Ten Hag communicated compared to the way that Amorim communicates, the way that Amorim likes to play his team in a 3-4-3 is different from Ten Hag.
“But that was the concern for me with United actually copying exactly what they did by appointing Ten Hag. They do exactly what they did with Amorim.
“Because Ten Hag had no experience in the Premier League, Amorim has no experience in the Premier League. When Ten Hag came in, everybody was keen because of the way that Ajax played.
“Man United never played anywhere near the same attractive style under Ten Hag with Ajax. Now, Amorim comes in, and he says very clearly, ‘This is the way I’m going to play’.
“But he’s got a completely different set of players, a completely different league, you know what I mean? So it is very hard for him to recreate that because it’s very different.”
