One year of Ruben Amorim: Man Utd were right to give their manager time - now he must start paying Sir Jim Ratcliffe back

Five out of the 16 players that appeared in Amorim's first game at Ipswich one year ago are no longer at the club. While Amorim had little say in Jonny Evans retiring or Christian Eriksen leaving when his contract expired, he had a big say in the departures of Rasmus Hojlund, Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Andre Onana.

Rashford has the paradoxical status of scoring the first goal of the Amorim era and then being the first to be hounded out of the club by the manager. The forward was cast aside from the squad on the day of the derby at Manchester City just three weeks after the coach's debut match at Portman Road, never playing for the club again. 

The player's wavering commitment to the team both during matches and off the pitch had been bubbling under the surface for a long time and Ten Hag did not know how to handle the situation properly, giving him lenient punishments for stepping out of line before. Amorim, by contrast, took a ruthless approach to one of United's highest-paid, and their most famous homegrown player of the last decade.

Amorim cut Garnacho a little more slack after also dropping him for the derby but the tempestuous winger repeatedly defied the manager's authority and was ordered to find a new club after his petulant response to not starting the Europa League final. Amorim also took a no-nonsense approach with Jadon Sancho, Antony and Tyrell Malacia (the Dutch defender is now back in the squad) by placing them in the so-called 'bomb squad', forbidding them from training with the first team. 

It may have reduced the players' market value but it also sent out a clear message about who was in charge. Leny Yoro recently praised the manager's approach to the players who tested his authority, declaring: "We cannot build something with bad energy or bad atmosphere or bad characters." 

The revelation from The Athletic that Amorim singled out Manuel Ugarte for criticism on the same day he told Garnacho he had to leave also demonstrated that he held everyone to the same standard given he had worked with the midfielder at Sporting CP. The Athletic also revealed that Amorim has made the players give more of their time to signing autographs and posing for photos for fans before and after matches at Old Trafford. Indeed, Amorim has led by example in this respect: he regularly attends to autograph and selfie hunters at the training ground.

That might seem like an insignificant detail but it is another reminder of how committed Amorim is to changing the culture of the dressing room and it seems to have worked, with the team looking more cohesive. The job, however, is far from complete. The way the team froze against Grimsby, when Amorim said "the players spoke really loud", was a reminder that they struggle to get up for every single game.

Hojlund and Onana did not show the coach a lack of respect or lack of commitment to Amorim in the same way as Garnacho and Rashford, although he was similarly merciless with the duo, essentially determining that neither player was quite good enough to play for his team. The jury is still out on whether that was the right decision with regards to Hojlund, who has impressed on loan at Napoli while his replacement Benjamin Sesko has struggled to settle into the team and is now injured for at least a month. 

The decision to let Onana join Trabzonspor on loan and sign Senne Lammens, however, looks like a masterstroke, with the Belgian giving United some much-needed peace of mind in goal. Onana's reported eagerness to sign an improved contract after the whole squad saw their salaries cut by missing out on Champions League football, which apparently did not go down well with the coach, further feeds into the sense that Amorim is improving the culture within the team.

A sign that this change in culture is benefitting the team on the pitch can be seen in the amount of late goals United have been scoring this season. They have struck in the 80th minute or later in their last four games, with each goal proving crucial to the final result. Harry Maguire's 84th-minute header against Liverpool saw United snatch a first win at Anfield in 10 seasons and showed their resilience as they could quite easily have caved in when Cody Gakpo had levelled a few minutes earlier. 

The following week Bryan Mbeumo scored in the sixth minute of added time to kill off Brighton's comeback from three goals down, ensuring United won 4-2 rather than swallowing a damaging 3-3 draw. Amad Diallo's wonder-volley in the 80th minute grabbed a draw at Nottingham Forest, as did Matthijs de Ligt's 95th-minute header at Tottenham in the last game. Towards the start of the season, Bruno Fernandes' penalty in the 96th minute gave United victory over Burnley after they had twice surrendered the lead in the second half. 

In total, the late goals have been worth an extra six points from 11 games so far this season, or eight if you count Mbeumo's strike against Brighton as preventing the Seagulls from completing their fightback. In Amorim's 27 league games last term his side scored after the 80th minute in five games, salvaging a total of nine points. "We fight in every adversity," said Amorim after the draw at Tottenham.

It is fitting that Amorim will be marking his first year in charge of United against Everton boss David Moyes, the first manager to step into the Old Trafford dugout after Ferguson stepped down following 27 years at the helm of the club. After his final home match in charge against Swansea, Ferguson told the Old Trafford crowd: "Your job is to stand by our new manager". 

In the stands, a banner with Moyes' picture on it could be seen above the words 'The Chosen One'. Needless to say, Moyes' spell at United did not exactly go to plan and his nine months in charge remains the shortest tenure of any permanent coach in the post-Ferguson era. In fact, it is the shortest tenure of any United coach since Walter Crickmer in 1932. 

History has been kind to Moyes, however. Although his reputation was burned badly by what happened to him at United and he failed in his next jobs at Real Sociedad and Sunderland, he has bounced back in style, giving West Ham United European football on a regular basis and delivering the UEFA Conference League. He has also had a stunning second era at Everton. 

While Moyes certainly looked out of his depth at a club on United's scale, many managers with bigger reputations and with far bigger budgets have also failed to have sustained success with the Red Devils. It is tempting to wonder what Moyes might have achieved with a second throw of the dice and being given more signings than just Marouane Fellaini in his first transfer window.

Amorim is enjoying greater patience and financial backing than Moyes was afforded despite having the lowest win percentage of any United manager in his first 54 games (Moyes managed only 48) in the Premier League era, with 38.9%. It is worth pointing out, however, that Ferguson is next lowest on the list, winning 46.3% of his 54 matches in all competitions. Ten Hag is top, with 66.7%. The list serves as a reminder that good starts do not always lead to good managerial reigns, and the same applies to bad ones.

United's hierarchy are still on board with Amorim. And one of the reasons Ratcliffe seems to like him so much is that he is a risky proposition. According to The Guardian, he was thoroughly disappointed with then-sporting director Dan Ashworth's shortlist of candidates to replace Ten Hag, which included Eddie Howe and Graham Potter. He felt they were too safe. 

Amorim, with his uncompromising attitude to his formation, his habit of smashing televisions in rage and his willingness to go to war with treasured academy players, be it Rashford, Garnacho or Kobbie Mainoo, is anything but safe. United knew this was the case and it was why they insisted he came in the middle of last season rather than at the start of this campaign, as the coach himself wanted. 

The thinking of Ratcliffe and chief executive Omar Berrada was that there if there were going to be teething problems, it was worth getting them out of the way at the start. This first full campaign is where they believe he should be judged. Indeed, Ratcliffe has said the coach deserves at least three years. 

Amorim has overseen an improvement in results but there can be no let up from now on, no repeat of the dreaded run of defeats which occurred last December, when United lost five league games out of six. They have a kind set of fixtures coming up, facing no 'Big Six' teams until the derby with City at Old Trafford in mid-January. 

Their next 10 games include playing bottom-placed Wolves twice as well as visits to other relegation-threatened sides in Leeds, Burnley plus West Ham at home. Newcastle and Bournemouth will likely be their toughest home games in that period, with Crystal Palace and Aston Villa their hardest away fixtures. 

With no European or Carabao Cup games to distract them, there is no excuse for them not going on a proper run. Now is the time for Amorim to show his gratitude to Ratcliffe for showing faith in him when others were urging him to get the boot, paying him back with an imposing run of form.