Disclaimer: I’m biased. No doubts. For me, Ruben is one of the best Coaches and certainly the right Coach for a Club with the dimension of Manchester United. Not (only) because he’s Portuguese, but because I’ve studied him intensively for the past years, seen his growth, strategies and errors. He can change, definitely, just like Guardiola did. But, if so, he will lose me just like I lost some interest in observing Pep’s teams.

With that said, there’s been a lot of talks about United performances.

Myself included, naturally since Ruben joined the Club.

And the constant criticism about their performances lately are completely out of context, in my perspective.

I’ve made an extensive analysis on the last 2 and a half to 3 years transfers policy – here at https://tactictalks.org/2024/12/23/man-united-suffering-and-more-suffering-where-was-everyone-for-the-past-2-years/ .

Another factual element is that, about the paradigm change from what it was done recently and what needs to happen with good scouting, Dorgu is the 2nd cheapest player bought for this Season. 

And I believe undoubtedly one of the best performers on the team currently.

This alone shows a lot.

Moreover, added to the lack of quality mentioned several times, there are injuries with significant impact on the offensive strategies with Amad, Mainoo or Mount among those who can’t play for some matches now.

The problem is not only what they can’t offer now but not playing, but also what the other elements that get on the field to substitute them on the team can offer.

The question may be, “well, if the problem is quality why did Ruben sent Rashford and Antony away?”

(I will answer that below)

Then, more recently we’ve seen a wave of comments on how Ruben should change his tactics (consider that because Zirkzee and Højlund are playing together since Amad got injured, they are already pressing in a GK+4+4+2 formation) to get better results, or that players themselves are not entirely happy with the tactics because it doesn’t fit them…

All non-senses and a clear signal that some haven’t understood Ruben just yet.

To start, because United’s results before his arrival weren’t great either.

And this, in my understanding, gives us 2 things: it’s not about the system and, therefore, the players have no power to ask for anything at the moment.

Simply, there’s no leverage here.

So, why change?
Why should he change?

well, let’s make it clear, he will not change.

And, for the matter, I don’t think he should. 

The Principles are clear, even if far from perfect.

And the most important is not on the match, but starts at the Training Ground.

If you can’t show your commitment, your readiness, your desire, your fitness to add value, you better forget it.

Yoro already made it clear “with Ruben, if you don’t train well, you got no chance”.

It starts there, simple.

The teams needs improvements, yesterday’s match was just another proof that it will be very hard to see the games over the next few months, but it will get better in the future.

When you have consistently players not shooting, not creating, not winning duels, it gets really hard.

Garnacho, Zirkzee, Bruno, Obi and Højlund had 39 duels (both ground and aerial) and won only 13 duels in total – being 8 from Bruno alone… and 0 from Højlund (out of 8 duels)…
The same 5 players made 3 shots…

It’s not a Coach’s role to make the pass when the side-back is overlapping, when you’re facing the Goalkeeper and have multiple players in better position and decide to shoot out, it’s not him that needs to fight for the duels, it’s not the Coach that passes the ball constantly to the wrong foot of its colleague, or makes good decisions on the field.

Coaches have to create opportunities for when each players has the ball, to establish behaviors in a synchronized manner that are recognized from everyone.

If we can see the Principles, and we can even see the team reflecting them occasionally, it’s definitely not the Coach.

Survival mode is ON until the end of the Season.

Let’s wait and hope results can be better.

Because performances will hardly change significantly.

Data presented here is from sofascore.com