Ruben Amorim warned 'alarming' tactics 'will be his downfall' at Man Utd as Alan Shearer claims under-fire Portuguese was 'out-schooled' by Brentford boss Keith Andrews

Manchester United's form has been wildly inconsistent under Amorim, who succeeded Erik ten Hag in the Old Trafford hot seat in November last year. Despite significant investment in new players during the summer transfer window, United are 14th in the Premier League table after just six games of the new season, with their latest setback coming in the form of the 3-1 defeat to Brentford. The criticism of Amorim is mounting and questions are being asked about his ability to turn things around.

Amorim's refusal to budge from his preferred 3-4-3 system and defensive substitutions have raised the most eyebrows, with Shearer among those who believe the Portuguese is trying to fit too many square pegs into round holes. The former Newcastle and Blackburn striker said when reacting to United's latest defeat on The Rest Is Football Podcast: "Brentford without doubt had their plan. He [Amorim] was out-schooled by Keith Andrews, and what Brentford did. It really will be his downfall, unfortunately for him, because he’s not going to budge. He’s right, everyone else is wrong, I guess.

"It was alarming what he was doing, moving so many different players around. the subs he brings on, moving right-centre-back into centre-back, middle of centre-back into left-centre-back. Then [Bryan] Mbeumo was right-wing-back. And then Mason Mount came on as a 10 for four minutes. Then he brought [Joshua] Zirkzee on, and then moved Mount to left-wing-back. It’s like, goodness me, what on earth is happening here? It’s incredible."

Shearer went on to suggest that United's part owners INEOS, led by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, are only delaying Amorim's sacking to save face. "I genuinely believe that the owners, or the people are running the club at the minute, have made that many errors in the last two years or 18 months since they’ve been there, it would look terrible to admit another error," he added. 

"And secondly, whether you look at the ticket increase, whether you look at people losing their jobs, whether you look at the new stadium, whether you look at paying for Dan Ashworth and then sacking him, and then his contract being paid up, then for them to go and say, ‘Actually, we went hell bent on getting this manager and paying a fee for him and demanding he comes now, rather than when he wanted to come’ for them to now say you’re firing him, and then pay out another huge chunk of wedge to for someone to lose their contract. I genuinely believe that’s probably one of the reasons why he’s still there, because they’re not any better, they’re not getting any better. They look miles off it."

Amorim has only taken 34 points from his 33 Premier League games in charge of United to date, and has yet to oversee back-to-back wins. The former Sporting CP boss faces intense pressure to improve the Red Devils' performances and results immediately. Upcoming fixtures will be crucial in determining his future at the club, starting with next Saturday's home fixture against newly promoted Sunderland.