Omar Berrada reveals complete Man Utd transfer strategy change under Ruben Amorim

Manchester United chief executive Omar Berrada has revealed that the Old Trafford outfit will no longer repeat their mistake of signing players for the manager, rather than the club.

The club’s co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe promised last year that United’s leadership group would settle on a style that the manager would play, only for Ruben Amorim to be stuck in his ways as one of the few top coaches in Europe who still uses a back three system – which United have adopted despite not having the best resources to make it work fully.

The Red Devils currently sit 14th in the Premier League and are well on course for their lowest finish since they were relegated in 1974, with life under Amorim proving no better than under previous manager Erik ten Hag.

The Dutchman was very clear in his intention to sign fellow countrymen or players he had coached at Ajax during his Man Utd tenure and Berrada has commented on how that approach will now change.

As reported by the Manchester Evening News, the former Manchester City employee said: “I think it’s riskier if you have a coach that doesn’t have a clear idea of how he wants to play. And with Ruben we don’t see that risk.

“And when it comes to our recruitment strategy, without commenting too much, the idea we have is to be able to bring in versatile players that can be adaptable to multiple systems.

“And ultimately Ruben himself has said it, it’s not about the 3-4-3 tactical formation, it’s about an idea, a concept of how he wants to see the team playing. He wants to see the team playing more on the front foot, more of a possession, attacking-based style of football.

“So for that, you need players that can play in multiple positions that can adapt to that vision that Ruben has. And this is what we’re going to try to do over the next years in our recruitment.”

Technical director Jason Wilcox has also assumed greater responsibility at United since the club sacked Dan Ashworth as sporting director after only five months in December.

Ashworth was not happy with the club moving for Amorim to replace Ten Hag back in November, with Ratcliffe ultimately putting his departure down to a lack of “chemistry”.

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Berrada hints at summer transfer budget

Berrada, meanwhile, has also echoed Ratcliffe’s comments that United have to improve their data analytics, which he stressed is “at the top of our list” to invest in.

The Red Devils added young centre-back Ayden Heaven from Arsenal and left-back Patrick Dorgu for £25million in January, although their budget for this summer is very much dependent on whether they are in the Champions League next season.

Their only hope of fulfilling that task is by winning the Europa League, where they face Real Sociedad at Old Trafford on Thursday night having drawn the first leg of their last-16 clash 1-1 in Spain.

And Berrada added: “There’s no doubt that if we qualify to the Champions League we will have more revenues and we’ll have more capacity to invest in the team. But we are putting in place various financial measures to allow us to go and invest at the summer, even if we’re outside of Europe.

“Ultimately, what we want to do is to be more efficient in our investment into the squad. So just because we’ll have more revenues to invest if we’re in the Champions League, it doesn’t mean we’re going to go and over-invest. We need to be cautious and we need to try to make as many good decisions as we can in recruitment.

“And also when it comes to sales, we will do it purely on the basis of whether it helps improve the team or not, not for financial reasons.

“On the technical side, we have a coach that has a very clear identity and very clear idea of how he wants the team to play. Then we have Jason Wilcox as a technical director who works extremely closely with Ruben and they’re very aligned on what we need to do in terms of recruitment.

“Then there are certain areas that need to be improved. Data analytics is one of them. And again, it’s at the top of our list of the areas that we want to invest in to get better at.

“Because as you all know, to improve, to be really good at recruitment, you need the very good technical people that are complemented by very good data analytics insights.”

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