Gary Neville slams Amorim for repeating Ten Hag mistake after Man Utd become a ‘mess’

Gary Neville and former Manchester United goalkeeper Tim Howard both criticised Ruben Amorim for repeating a mistake made by Erik ten Hag in his final days at Old Trafford.

After an encouraging start that saw Man Utd go unbeaten in Amorim’s first three matches in charge, the Red Devils have suffered back-to-back defeats. Both of Arsenal’s goals in their 2-0 victory last weekend came via set pieces. Nikola Milenkovic’s opener for Nottingham Forest in their 3-2 win on Saturday also came via a corner.

But when asked for their assessment of the performance and Amorim’s management so far, former United goalkeeper Tim Howard and club legend Gary Neville took aim at the manager’s use of substitutions.

Howard zeroed in on Amorim changing significant parts of his defence mid-way through the contest. Neville explained why that policy is a mistake and is a move that did not serve former boss Ten Hag well in his final days in Manchester.

“Still a long way to go,” Howard told NBC Soccer. “This was tough. I think what’s concerning – it’s not a grave concern – the substitutions for me.

“The like-for-like substitutions, changing two of your back three in the 65th minute. There have to be other issues that are going on and need changing and fixing.

“Sometimes you have to let players suffer a little bit. Bringing a player off almost lets them off the hook. You have ideas that you want to get across, let them play through it.

“He (Amorim) is chasing the game, I think you chase the game in other ways. It just shows what a long-term project this is.”

Gary Neville responded: “When you keep changing players, when you keep changing your back three and take five players off you’re basically saying to all of them – effectively because you’ve left them out at the start of the game – that you don’t trust them.

“Ten Hag kept doing that a few weeks ago. He kept changing the defenders and changing the midfielders and all of a sudden you’ve got a completely different system and completely different set of players on the pitch at the end of the game and you can never get consistency or stability.

“I think there’s an element of what Tim just said. Just leave them on, they (the players) weren’t actually playing that bad in the first half.

“Obviously they were undermined by the set pieces (from Forest) but the football generally wasn’t that bad. Then you allow two mistakes that were made after half time within the first 10 minutes to undermine you, then you make changes and all of a sudden everything falls to pieces.

“It looked really scruffy, really scruffy, it looked a mess at the end for United with no real shape. In the first half they weren’t brilliant but at least they had a shape to them.”

What changes is Amorim making?

Amorim elected to replace both Leny Yoro and Matthijs De Ligt with Noussair Mazraoui and Harry Maguire in the 65th minute against Forest.

Yoro’s substitution in particular should not be all that surprising given Amorim recently stated the young Frenchman is on a “time limit.”

In essence, Amorim was stating Yoro’s minutes will be closely managed after only just returning from four months out with a fractured metatarsal.

Against Arsenal last week Amorim replaced wing-back Tyrell Malacia at half-time (for Amad Diallo) before subbing Yoro on for Maguire in the 59th minute.

Two changes to the back five were made in the 56th minute against Everton, three changes in defence before the hour mark against Bodo/Glimt, and one change at the back (56th minute) against Ipswich Town.

As such, Amorim is yet to manage a match at Man Utd in which he’s not disrupted the back five with at least one substitution on or before the 65-minute mark.

READ MORE: The 13 players who left Man Utd this summer and how they’re faring with next step

Latest Man Utd news – Martinez “bullied” / Antony exit

In other news, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp claimed Lisandro Martinez was “bullied” in the Forest defeat.

“Martinez gets bullied, let’s be honest. Milenkovic will be thinking it’s his lucky day. ‘I’m too big, too powerful, too strong for you,’” Redknapp said on Sky Sports.

Former Man Utd defender Phil Jones also questioned the positioning from the Argentine during his failed attempts to stop Milenkovic from powering his header home.

“United will be really disappointed they didn’t make the header. He’s [Martinez] almost too fixated on stopping him from scoring (rather than winning the header himself). His body shape is probably wrong, he should be a bit more side on,” said Jones.

Elsewhere, Sky Germany claim Man Utd will consider ‘suitable offers’ for Antony in January.

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