18 Jan 2026 14:14:25
Shappy has written an article entitled, Manchester United's Dominance Over City Offers Hope
18 Jan 2026 15:59:25
Good post Shappy.
18 Jan 2026 19:35:46
"I was sad to see Amorim go the way he did. I could genuinely see progress under him. That said, yesterday's game was by far the best performance we have seen from a United side in years. "
If you want to understand what an oxymoron is, look no further.
We were making progess umder RA apparently, but as soon as we lose him, we see the best performance for years ?♂️. The absurdity is staggering.
In one game, Carrick has shown what is possible. I should add that I am very relaxed via Senor Malbec, but it needs saying. RA was full of hot air but delivered very little. There was no new Manager bounce when he joined, there was the odd good result, the occasional whiff of progress before reverting to mediocriry, but generally it was awful.
In 3 days, Carrick has shown what is possible. I'm not suggesting he is the answer, but he has shown in 1 game thst RA was definitely not the answer.
18 Jan 2026 20:01:20
The thing I’ll say is that it didn’t look fun to play for Amorim. Where was the joy? The players didn’t understand his technical instructions, or simply didn’t want to follow them.
18 Jan 2026 20:09:04
That is ridiculous AJH. You are suggesting that somehow Amorim was impeding the squad and you have strongly suggested in other posts that he was flawed in multiple areas. So you then think that Carrick has undone in 3 days what RA was doing over 14 months. That's the absurdity. You ignore the stats pointing towards the strong improvement. You ignore the multiple really good performances this season. That is absurd.
If you instead spoke that yesterday showed Amorim was too stubborn in not giving Mainoo a chance and thereby releasing Bruno to a more advanced role then I'd agree.
If you spoke that the subtle difference in formation that meant that instead of a defensive shape with back 5 where one player bolts up, that instead Carrick left it to one of the wingers to perform that role, and that this tweak clearly gave Dorgu more confidence, then I'd agree. But you are making absurd points here. This black and white way of looking at things is silly.
18 Jan 2026 21:01:57
Don, you and I see different things mate.
There was no 'subtle' difference in formation, we moved to a pretty standard 442, something RA has refused to do since he joined.
Yesterday was joyful, and yes, Carrick seems to have undone in 3 days what Amorim did in12 months, but it was only 1 game.
RTFP, most people are seeing yesterday as our best performance for over 12 months, our best 90 minutes since before RA joined.
It was only 1 game, so who knows what will happen next, but yesterday was soooo different to anything I have seen under RA's reign.
18 Jan 2026 21:43:22
AJH, which term is it that you don't understand, oxymoron or progress?
Oxymoron means the combining of two contradictory terms.
Progress means a development towards an improved position.
Amorim making progress and Carrick building on that is not an oxymoron.
There was clear and obvious progress under Amorim.
The shifting out of players with poor attitudes and the dismantling of a poorly constructed squad.
The development of a clear and obvious style of play with repeatable patterns of play.
An improvement in the quality of the playing squad.
Clear improvement in performances (if not always results) .
The fact that he took a very poor side from last season and had us up competing in and around the UCL spots at the time of his dismissal is another clear sign of progress.
Don't let your obvious dislike of the man cloud your judgement, if you can't seriously see that the team was in a much better position when Amorim left to what it was when he took over then maybe football isn't for you.
Now was he ultimately going to be able to take us back to where we want to be? I think it would be fair to be skeptical of that. But ultimately we'll never know.
I think it is fair to say that of all the post Sir Alex Ferguson managers he's probably the only one who can leave knowing he left the club in a better position than he found it.
18 Jan 2026 21:53:41
I did rtfp. It was absurd.
19 Jan 2026 00:27:59
Shappy, no he didn't, he set us back over 12 months. Hopefully we can now kick on and actually get serious again. It's unfortunate that it took this long.
19 Jan 2026 00:30:46
Took over a team, 4 points from the top 4, finished the season on relegation form. His last run of results were horrendous, failing to beat 6 teams into the bottom 7 positions, 3 wins in 11, had a premier league win rate of 32%, but left us in a better position, Jesus wept lads. He was horrendous for the club and set us back.
It's a results business and his were worse than shocking.
19 Jan 2026 03:27:16
And yet amorims utd created the third most chances in the epl after city and arsenal, and we're in a European spot when he was fired.
I am happy to see 442 back. I am happy to see a change from Bruno in at number 6, but after 12 months the disaster that was amorim has been spun like crazy by the club. The same club that couldn't afford to back him.
19 Jan 2026 05:29:11
Totally disagree Shappy, he dismantled a squad and started to rebuild it with poorer players, the patterns of play were slow and predictable, hardly coaching at a high level, he made good players worse. In game management was atrocious, the calling out of players hardly the way to go.
When he took over United were what 5/6/7 in league he took us to 15th and this year back to hovering around 5th 6th 7th.
Hardly much better
He assembled a team of number 10s and did not address a poor defence or midfield in even playing to there strengths with what he had.
In my book we trod water for all the time he was here and the football was awful.
19 Jan 2026 07:48:22
The oxymoron is that you could see progress, but as soon as he goes we get the best performance for 2 years. I don't want to fall out with long standing respected posters, and I realise I feel more strongly about RA than most, so I'm going to take a break and have a reset, put myself on the naughty step for a couple of weeks.
19 Jan 2026 07:49:49
There is a reason why we went 26 years and now 13 years without a title, just read some of the lack of understanding above.
19 Jan 2026 08:40:43
AJH you're perfectly entitled to your opinion. TBF I am guilty of lumping in some of what you are saying with angel. Angel I think you deal with absolutes in a way that is incredibly unhealthy. Your way of looking at things to not see grey but only deal in binary outcomes is the same comfort path that led to Brexit, voting for Trump and all these self defeating things that people do because of not recognising trends and underlying causes and search for simple solutions that the rest of us see as being self defeating.
That you really think that Amorim could be completely dreadful and another coach comes in and in 3 days undo 12 months of damage, basically through a few people talks is extraordinary. Do you actually believe that?!