Ruben Amorim told being a 'good-looking man' has saved him from Man Utd sack amid 'horrendous' run of results as Jamie Carragher claims 'there are a lot of better Premier League managers'

Portuguese tactician Amorim inherited managerial reins at Old Trafford in November 2024. He endured a baptism of fire with the Red Devils, as he struggled to deliver a reversal in fortune, and has overseen just 17 wins from 46 games at the helm.

United have suffered 17 defeats under Amorim - including those in the Europa League final and a humbling Carabao Cup reversal against Grimsby - leading to plenty of uncomfortable questions being asked of those in the dugout.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS co-ownership group are yet to wield the axe, but Amorim is considered to be fortunate to still have a role with Premier League giants. Ex-Liverpool star Carragher - speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet - said: “There is now a big clamour to get Jose Mourinho back in English football and the reason is because he’s box office, he comes out with stuff, but he was a winner. We always remember Brian Clough - when I was a kid and he was speaking you’d listen because he was a winner.

“The problem with Ruben Amorim is that he’s great in the press conferences but because he’s not winning, people are thinking, ‘Oh, shut up. Stop speaking.’ But if he was winning, we’d all be thinking he’s a great character and personality.

“If he wasn’t so charismatic in the press conference, and wasn’t such a good-looking man, he might have lost his job a lot earlier. When you look at the results, they are horrendous.”

Carragher went on to say of Amorim not forming part of the coaching elite in Premier League circles: “He said something in the press conference - ‘I will nail this system down so the players can play it with their eyes closed’, I think he said – I don’t think he’ll get the time to do that if he doesn’t start getting results.

“He’s still a very young manager – what he did at Sporting Lisbon, we shouldn’t write off because that was a brilliant achievement when you think of Benfica and Porto in that league. To win the [Portuguese] league a couple of times with Sporting is a huge achievement.

“Take Unai Emery and Eddie Howe. They’re not managers that are going for the league, but they are good managers. To think this guy [Amorim] has got all the answers to get Manchester United back to the top when there are managers that aren’t even going for the league and are more experienced, there are a lot of better managers in the Premier League, and I think it’s going to be tough for him to turn it around.”

United stumbled their way to a 15th place finish last season and, with just four points to their name, currently sit ninth in the English top-flight table. Things are not about to get any easier as the Red Devils will return to action after the international break with a derby date at Manchester City and a home clash with Chelsea.