RUBEN AMORIM aimed a dig at Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche’s fleeting punditry stint ahead of Manchester United’s trip to the City Ground.
While he was out of work in August, Dyche claimed he could win more games if he was in charge of United and if they played in a 4-4-2 formation.
Amorim remains wedded to his 3-4-2-1 system and United have won three successive games for the first time since February 2024 to rise to sixth in the Premier League table.
Forest are 18th in the league and Dyche is their third manager of the season following the sackings of Nuno Espirito Santo and Ange Postecoglou in successive months.
Amorim suggested Dyche possibly had a point about a possible formation change but suggested he aired a stronger opinion as he was not managing at the time.
He said: “First of all, maybe it’s true if we play 4-4-2 we win more games.
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“But I always said that I have a way of playing that is going to take a while, but in the future it’s going to be better. So we don’t know that.
“Then I can look at Sean Dyche as a manager and then as a pundit.
“If you are a pundit and you don’t say very strong things, I don’t want to watch you! I’m the same.
“So I can understand that it’s a completely different job. I know that Sean Dyche is really smart and he knows how to play the game.
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“And he also understands that one thing is when we are seeing the game and talking about the game, the other thing is to coach a team.
“So I understand that, I have nothing to say, I just want to win the next game.”
Dyche, also speaking on Thursday, said he didn’t question Amorim as a person and that “clickbait kills everything, it changes the whole story”.
He said: “They said, ‘What would be a fair timeline?’ and I said, ‘Half a season to continue the work he was doing’ but unfortunately that doesn’t make the story, we all know that.
“For the points tally, I was suggesting maybe the basics would have worked better. They have changed their style, fair play to him, his coaching staff, the players. They have changed their style, not necessarily their beliefs, but just their style.
“They are being a bit quicker to play forwards and longer, a bit tighter and getting back into their shape. That’s management, that’s coaching.
“That doesn’t mean he’s changed his whole philosophy, it just means he’s adapting it to the challenge that’s right in front of him. Fair play to him.”
Forest did the double over United last season under Nuno and Amorim was in charge of both games.
However, Forest are languishing in the relegation zone after only one win from their first 19 games.
United’s Afcon headache over Mbeumo and Amad
By Samuel Luckhurst
MANCHESTER UNITED manager Ruben Amorim admits the team will “struggle” and “suffer” without Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo during the Africa Cup of Nations.
Mbeumo is United’s top scorer with five goals and he has collaborated productively with Amad, with the left-footed duo occupying the right-sided roles in Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 system.
Amad and Mbeumo are expected to be called up by Ivory Coast and Cameroon for AFCON, which starts on December 21.
African nations tend to opt for a pre-tournament training camp, which could deprive United of two of their starting players for most of December.
The group stage of AFCON finishes on New Year’s Eve and the final is on January 18.
The likelihood is Amad and Mbeumo will be unavailable for at least four fixtures against Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Wolves and Leeds United.
Full back Noussair Mazraoui is also due to be in host nation Morocco’s squad for AFCON.
Amorim said: “We will have time to suffer. We are going to struggle a little bit, but we already knew.
“It’s going to be an opportunity. When I watch the training, there are players that should be playing.
“But it’s hard with one game to take some players from the team, because they are doing well also during the training in games.
“So other players are going to have the opportunity to help us. They are understanding the way we want to play.
“So if we are improving on that, the change of characteristics is not going to change the idea or the momentum of the team.
“But let’s use Amad and Bryan in these games and we will see in general.”
United defender Lisandro Martinez has started team training as he ups his recovery from an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Martinez has been sidelined since February 2 but will not be in the squad for the Premier League trip to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Harry Maguire, who missed the win against Brighton last week with a knock, is still a doubt.
Amorim said: “He (Martinez) wants to go to this one. He’s not going to this one.
“He’s done training with us, he does some things in the exercise for him. So slowly he’s going to get better.
“He’s really good and he gives us that edge in every training session, that is also really good for us.
“The rest of the guys we have one more day, I don’t know about Harry Maguire.”
But Amorim expects a stern test at the City Ground and reiterated United’s 4-0 win against Dyche’s Everton last season – his first league victory in charge of United – was misleading.
He said: “I watched the last game, it was one of the first ones here that we won,” we were so lucky in that game.
“I watched (Forest) against Porto, I watched against Bournemouth, the style of play is similar, with different characteristics.
“I watched one game that we had pre-season with Sporting, so to try to understand how he played in that game.
“It’s similar, he can change some characteristics of the players with the talent that they have, especially with (Morgan) Gibbs-White, (Elliot) Anderson, (Callum) Hudson-Odoi, very good players.
“So we need to be prepared for a different game to Brighton. We had space to play. We are not going to have that space.
“You need to understand that we are not being the same team away and at home.
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“So we need to improve the way we control the environment. Every tackle is a big moment for the opponent’s fans, so we need to play better away.
“We are prepared for a very tough match.”
