Manchester United's first game under Ruben Amorim is mere days away, with the new manager having given a glimpse into his system during training. But with the club's best players returning from international duty in time to face Ipswich, how will he fit such a wealth of talent into the famed 3-4-2-1.
Adam Clery takes a look at the likely options, and thinks there might be big things in store for a number of the team's fringe players. Mason Mount, Antony, and Tyrell Malacia could be just as important to this team as Bruno Fernandes, Rasmus Hojlund, and Kobee Mainoo.
Adam Clery takes a look at the likely options, and thinks there might be big things in store for a number of the team's fringe players. Mason Mount, Antony, and Tyrell Malacia could be just as important to this team as Bruno Fernandes, Rasmus Hojlund, and Kobee Mainoo.
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00:00Hello everybody, Adam Cleary here for you today, and we are but mere days away from
00:08Ruben Amirim's Manchester United, going from being a concept in everybody's head to an
00:13actual football team you can watch on telly.
00:16But since we are somehow still in the vinegar strokes of an international break, I thought
00:19what would be fun for everybody, brackets literally just Manchester United fans, would
00:24be to look at how that team might set up.
00:27And to do that, we're going to look at what we know about him as a manager, what we know
00:31about a lot of these players as players, some really hard hitting insightful big brain data
00:36stuff that will tell us some things, and also just some wild rampant speculation from me.
00:43Also since I did the last England video as well, someone's been in here and messed with
00:47the studio again.
00:48So hocus pocus, I hope this is in focus.
00:53And just before we start, right, I'm going to warn you in advance.
00:57This video contains multiple, multiple potential redemption arcs, which is the best thing in
01:03football.
01:04Right.
01:05So first of all, the formation.
01:06If you have been anywhere on planet earth near a digital screen since they appointed
01:10Amirim, you will have heard about this 3-4-3, this 3-4-2-1, call it whatever you like.
01:17This is his system, and it's sort of what he's famed for.
01:20Now I, trying to be sort of contrarian and very clever, have been telling people privately
01:26that I wasn't totally sure he was going to use this system because Amirim's come out
01:29in a lot of interviews and talked about his need to adapt to Manchester United, not just
01:34about coming in and copy and pasting his sporting team over the top of them.
01:38And I thought what that might mean was that he was going to come in and instill his footballing
01:42principles into Manchester United before trying to instill his football system into Manchester
01:48United.
01:49So the 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1,
01:503-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1,
01:513-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1,
01:523-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1,
01:533-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1,
02:233-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1,
02:533-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
03:233-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
03:533-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
03:553-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
03:573-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
03:593-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:013-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:033-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:053-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:073-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:093-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:113-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:133-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:153-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:173-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:193-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:213-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:233-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:253-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:273-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:293-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:313-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:333-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:353-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:373-4-2-1, 3-4-2-1.
04:39But now we arrive at the first big conundrum
04:41of the Amirim era because nobody
04:43go watch like 20 videos on this, go read
04:45100 articles, nobody can agree
04:47who the preferred wing-back
04:49pairing should be. Now it's almost
04:51certainly going to be Dalot
04:53and Masrari because they can both play
04:55in that position and they're undoubtedly
04:57the two best players at Man United
04:59in those positions currently.
05:01But, when we did
05:03the first video, right,
05:05I said this.
05:07Spoiler alert for that video, but I may
05:09be copywriting the name
05:11the Antoniassance.
05:13Does that work? And if you have seen
05:15any of the training ground footage that's
05:17come out since Amirim's
05:19made it into Man United,
05:21you will have seen that
05:23being attempted. But why?
05:25Why did I think that would happen and why is it something
05:27he's already experimenting with? Well,
05:29because it goes under the radar
05:31because of what, like,
05:33no offence.
05:37But Antoni
05:39is actually one of the best
05:41defensive wingers
05:43in the Premier League. No, no, don't click
05:45off the video, I haven't hit my head.
05:47I can prove that with stats and stuff. If we look
05:49at his FB ref profile,
05:51the wingers in the Premier League,
05:53so attacking wingers,
05:55this is his defensive
05:57numbers. They're
05:59extraordinary. The guy's in the very,
06:01very top brackets for tackles,
06:03tackles one, tackles in the defensive
06:05and the middle third, like, percentage
06:07of tackles won, like, the number of blocks
06:09he makes, interceptions, combined
06:11tackles and interceptions, like, those are
06:13genuinely staggering,
06:15really impressive numbers. And if you've ever watched
06:17him in certain Man United
06:19games, he really does put the
06:21running in back towards his own goal
06:23when he needs to. Like, this is a clip
06:25we highlighted, I think, from, like,
06:27the Tottenham game at the start of last season.
06:29Like, he's, yeah,
06:31silly. He's a silly, silly man
06:33and he does silly things and he's not going to get
06:35you, like, 10 or 15 goals a
06:37season, but he puts the
06:39graft in and he's good at winning the ball
06:41and that, weirdly, does
06:43make him a slightly better fit for this role
06:45than either Dalot or Maserati
06:47because the way the wing-backs work in this system
06:49is they are the wide attackers. They have
06:51to provide all the width in the final
06:53third. They've got to stretch the defence, leave room
06:55for these two players to work and for people
06:57to join in from the midfield, but then
06:59when they lose the ball, they've got to get
07:01all the way back and produce
07:03a back five. It's not like a
07:05midfield position. It's a perfect
07:07balance of, like, getting the back line
07:09and getting the forward line. So
07:11having a defender who's OK
07:13in these areas is good,
07:15probably quite solid, probably quite safe,
07:17but having, like, an attacker
07:19who's solid enough back here
07:21but lethal, inverted
07:23commas, in the final third,
07:25you'd probably give that a go.
07:27And this stat here, he was
07:29the leading attacking player
07:31in the Premier League
07:33for creating a goal
07:35from a defensive action. So,
07:37like, an interception, a tackle, a block, something where
07:39you're doing a defensive action and then you
07:41immediately create a goal
07:43either for yourself or somebody else.
07:45Like, he's number one in the league at that
07:47despite his obvious lack of minutes.
07:49And also, options in these areas,
07:51I'm asked the young lad who's had, like, two or three
07:53games for them, he's a left-back but he does feel like
07:55he's really good at ball-carrying,
07:57possibly be used in this area, and
07:59Molassier! Does anyone
08:01remember Molassier?
08:03He'd be really good here as well.
08:05Going to my head,
08:07probably Dalot and Maserati
08:09to start, but
08:11the Anthonay-sons, he's this
08:13season's Joe Linton, start here.
08:15Oh, hang on.
08:17Hi, darling. I'm in
08:19the studio at the minute, I'm on camera. You are in
08:21the video? I'll clip this
08:23and send it to you, or leave it in.
08:25Alright, I'll speak to you later.
08:27Okay, bye! Bye!
08:29She loves me so much.
08:31I can't remember where I was now.
08:33Now, yes, anyway, into the midfield.
08:35And the reason I mentioned profiles before, and now
08:37they have to be different, is because these
08:39are not two sixes. These are not
08:41two eights. These are not two anythings.
08:43Amram needs different
08:45types of players in the
08:47same sort of roles. And what we will have here,
08:49if it's anything like sporting, is
08:51a ball-progressor, someone who will
08:53get the ball, carry it up the pitch, get involved in the forward
08:55line, and also a
08:57bastard. Now, Manuel Agarte
08:59has already played for Amram in this
09:01exact system, in this exact position, and the
09:03job here is to allow the wingbacks
09:05to get forward, to allow the tens
09:07to sort of support the forward, then this dude
09:09gets involved, and then you just
09:11kind of sweep around with all your athleticism
09:13and all your brain, and you
09:15stop counter-attacks, you recycle possession,
09:17things like that. It does resemble,
09:19you're right, the slightly suicidal
09:213-1-6 that Ten Hag
09:23basically could never, ever get
09:25to work, but because this player here
09:27is a little bit more up and down, and a little
09:29bit smarter in doing so, you do get
09:31this sort of better 3-2-5 balance.
09:33Which is a very roundabout way of saying that this
09:35player here has to be positionally
09:37excellent, technically excellent, and
09:39also athletically excellent.
09:41They've got a lot of ground to cover, they need
09:43to do a lot with the ball, they need to know
09:45when to be doing things and when to not.
09:47Kobi Meinu is the obvious,
09:49obvious player to play in
09:51that role. But I think,
09:53and this is going to sort of tie in to the point
09:55about the two number 10s, right,
09:57I think what Amerim will be most
09:59excited about in this job
10:01is the ability to adapt
10:03these four players as
10:05necessary. Like, at Sporting, he just
10:07had to work with what he had. They didn't have
10:09loads of money to go and spend, they didn't have an enormous
10:11squad, they pretty much had
10:13their best 11, and then a few
10:15sort of options in case of injuries
10:17around that. At Manchester United,
10:19there are loads of different
10:21profiles of players who can fill
10:23all four of these roles, and I think
10:25you'll see these changing
10:27quite a lot. Like, there's this
10:29expectation that Bruno Fernandes is an automatic
10:31pick in one of these two number 10
10:33roles, because he's fantastic
10:35to have near the opposition box. But I do think
10:37certain games will allow him
10:39to play in this role here,
10:41to be the up and down, to be the vertical
10:43presence, to get it off the backcourt, to carry it up the pitch
10:45while you have two different types of
10:47attackers sitting in front of him.
10:49Right, where did I land with that? Yeah,
10:51probably Ugarte, probably Maneu, but
10:53that might well be Casemiro, and this player
10:55will change, I think, quite
10:57a lot. Now, the really fun part of the
10:59video, the two number
11:0110s, because they are the most
11:03interesting thing about
11:05Amorim's system, in my opinion. At Sporting,
11:07they profiled massively, massively
11:09differently. Basically, you had an inverted winger,
11:11a left-footed wide player, who would
11:13come into the centre here, basically occupying
11:15this entire half-space, but then also
11:17more of like a classic number
11:1910, who would instead float
11:21out. So you can sort of imagine, very
11:23easily, these two covering these
11:25spaces, just in terms of what they would
11:27naturally choose to do. And what tended to happen,
11:29although it did change quite a lot, was that the
11:31inverted winger would sort of come in and try and get
11:33into these areas, crosses into the box, shots,
11:35direct drives at goal, and this
11:37player, the number 10, would either play-make
11:39from a more central area, or
11:41try and get in to support the forward as a
11:43second striker. And Man United have
11:45absolutely loads of options
11:47if that's what they want to do.
11:49Like, Bruno Fernandes has been basically
11:51playing as one of the top two,
11:53helping with the press, helping with goal threat
11:55and things like that. He's a really natural
11:57option to play on this
11:59side of the two, I've got to guess.
12:01Hi everyone, it's Adam Monk,
12:03whose head won't fit on the blue screen. Ah, there you go.
12:05What were we up to? Uh, what they're going to do with
12:07these two. You're not going to believe who this is.
12:09It's Anthony.
12:11We've already discussed this.
12:13I've forgotten where I was again now.
12:15Bruno Fernandes.
12:17Yes, that's what I was talking about. An automatic pick
12:19in this system, and I think if you use him on this
12:21side, then you have like an Ahmad,
12:23a Garnaccio being over on this side
12:25to provide that sort of width. Or, if you want to be
12:27really fun, you play him on the opposite side
12:29and then you can have Marcus Rashford over
12:31here as a second striker.
12:33I do think that works.
12:35Now we'll just discuss a couple of options in a
12:37second, but up here, right, this is
12:39Rasmus Hoyland. You can play Rashford
12:41there. I think he'd be very good at it. There's an option
12:43to use Joshua Xerxe in a different
12:45sort of capacity, but he is a
12:47goal-scoring, he's a finisher. Man United
12:49went and bought one. They hadn't had it
12:51for years and years, and they did not create
12:53the kind of chances he liked. And I'm
12:55just going to recycle the
12:57Victor Giocare's super cut
12:59of all the sort of get to
13:01the byline, cut it back, high
13:03XG chances for the XG nerds
13:05that Sporting used to make for him.
13:07Maybe I'll set it to classical music.
13:21And chances like this
13:23are the whole point of this
13:25system. It's why you get wing-backs further
13:27up the pitch. It's why you have these two
13:29options in the number 10. The objective
13:31is not to pass the ball to death
13:33around the 18-yard box, slowly
13:35waiting for a chance to get in. It is
13:37to drive, to run.
13:39We talked about this loads in the other video.
13:41To get to the byline, to get past
13:43defenders, and to square the ball
13:45to a natural finisher.
13:47And if Man United can create
13:49those kind of chances for Rasmus
13:51Hoyland, he will gobble
13:53those up like a pisshead with
13:55a curry. And thus, for this Manchester
13:57United team, the most important
13:59bit of data for these
14:01four players are their carrying numbers
14:03and their take-on ability.
14:05And for these four, I don't know
14:07if I'm going to get all this on screen at once.
14:09This maybe looks like a total mess. I can't
14:11see it. You'll see that there
14:13are some good players and some bad
14:15players. Now Rashford here, his last
14:17season were terrible, but he had a really
14:19bad season last season. If we flip those
14:21for the year before, you'll see he does
14:23have that in him to go past players
14:25and especially here, to carry the ball
14:27into the penalty area. Bruno Fernandes
14:29is massively the odd one out, which is why I
14:31do think occasionally, you might
14:33see him deployed a little bit further
14:35back. His ability to create is
14:37sort of at odds with what this system's going
14:39to do. So either Amirim's going to have to adapt
14:41that or he's
14:43going to play him a little deeper, I think.
14:45And over on this side, Garnaccio's
14:47a very natural dribbler. He loves to go
14:49past players. Ahmad's a natural dribbler,
14:51loves to go past players. And even Dalot,
14:53these numbers are going to look bad
14:55at first because he doesn't do a lot
14:57of carries across the course of the game. But if you look at his
14:59successful take on
15:01percentage, that's probably more a reflection
15:03of him not being asked to do it.
15:05He can, clearly, go past
15:07somebody when he needs to. So, bottom line
15:09here, right, just to sum up, I
15:11think Amirim's first few teams
15:13from Manchester United, the Ipswich game, and while
15:15he's getting his feet under the table, will look
15:17something like this. I think this is
15:19like a nice, safe compromise
15:21between what they can already do, what they're already good
15:23at, and what he wants them to do.
15:25Fernandes is in a position where he's the most
15:27effective. You've got your most solid, stable
15:29options at the wing
15:31back positions. You've got good options in the middle.
15:33You've got three central defenders.
15:35I think they're all fit. I should have checked before
15:37I recorded the video, but if they're all fit,
15:39they'll play, basically. I think this is going to be
15:41version one. But as time goes on
15:43and this team, not just this XI,
15:45but this team as a whole, starts to get
15:47more accustomed to this system of moving the
15:49ball forward, of dribbling, of taking players
15:51on, of creating those kind of chances,
15:53I think it might look
15:55a little bit more like
15:57this. You probably think that's a waste
15:59of Bruno Fernandes, and maybe it is,
16:01but him, behind
16:03these five players, able to give them
16:05the ball so they can carry it forward
16:07and make those runs, feels to me,
16:09and this is an old Geordie expression,
16:11super lethal. And
16:13finally, it would be remiss of me to record
16:15this video and not tell you a little bit
16:17about the second possible redemption
16:19arc for Manchester United, a
16:21one for a Mr M Mount.
16:23The closest thing we have ever seen to
16:25this system in the Premier League by a
16:27really, really good team is, in my opinion,
16:29not Antonio Conte's Chelsea
16:313-4-3, it is Thomas Tuchel's
16:33Chelsea 3-4-3.
16:35And in my opinion also,
16:37the best player in that system,
16:39the most effective one at using it,
16:41was Mason Mount. He was
16:43used absolutely everywhere across
16:45these four positions, and this is why I think Amram
16:47is going to be really excited about
16:49the options to adapt this Manchester
16:51United team to different opposition,
16:53not doing what he did at Sporting, which is
16:55just turning up with the same XI and
16:57knowing they would beat them. And what he was brilliant
16:59at doing in this system for Chelsea
17:01was understanding when to be in this position
17:03and when not to be.
17:05Like when the centre forward had to drop to receive the ball,
17:07he would make runs inside to try
17:09and get into the space there. He would also drop
17:11wide to allow other midfielders
17:13to come into this area to sort of evade markers,
17:15to allow wing backs to make
17:17underlapping runs instead of overlapping runs.
17:19He could be so valuable,
17:21so valuable in this team, in
17:23either of these positions. And I think
17:25genuinely, these four players here, the options
17:27he's going to have, should really excite
17:29Man United fans, because I've seen loads of people
17:31speculating on what the best XI
17:33should be, what's his starting team
17:35going to be, who's he going to buy, who's he going to sell, etc.
17:37And just the options
17:39he has with Ahmad, with
17:41Garnaccio, with Mount, with Fernandes, with
17:43Rashford, with all the other players that can slot
17:45into any of these four positions,
17:47I think this will change week
17:49on week. I think this will be specifically
17:51tailored to damage
17:53the opposition. And that's how it should be.
17:55That's how football should be. No,
17:57I hate the term best XI.
17:59You should never ever have one. You should be better
18:01than that. You should be more adaptable.
18:03Anyway though, yes, that is the hype train
18:05sufficiently started before they then
18:07go and inevitably draw 2-2
18:09with Ipswich. And if it happens,
18:11you can clip that and make me look clever.
18:13As I said at the start, we are coming out at the end of an
18:15international break and those are just
18:17hell on earth
18:19for me trying to run this channel. So please do subscribe
18:21to us here at 442
18:23because we'll have loads of more fun,
18:25more
18:27Premier League games. You can get me across
18:29all the social medias at Adam Cleary,
18:31C-L-E-R-Y. And as I said in the last
18:33two videos, I would really
18:35encourage you to do that at the minute. I'm doing
18:37some real fun
18:39stuff over there and I would
18:41really like to tell you about it. But besides that,
18:43as a little fun game down in the comments, can everyone
18:45please put their Manchester
18:47United starting XI's
18:49for the Ipswich game. Who's
18:51going to be in it? Who's going to be out of it?
18:53And then
18:55I'll find the top voted
18:57winning comment. Whoever
18:59got it right and got the most upvotes,
19:01you will
19:03win a prize. And no, no, I don't actually.
19:05I don't know what that prize is going to be.
19:07I did not think that far ahead
19:09before I opened my mouth.
19:11A signed 8x10 of Adam
19:13Monk. That'll probably be worth
19:15something someday, but if not,
19:17it still looks alright.
19:19That'll go nice on the mantle.
19:21Bye!
19:23Bye!