Browsing: quality

With Chelsea visiting Old Trafford on Saturday, a trip to Brentford – where United have conceded four times on each of their last two visits – and encounters with Sunderland and then Liverpool at Anfield follow, making the chances of a significant upturn in fortunes in the short-term unlikely.

Scholes is not alone in believing United have no chance of reversing their fortunes unless Amorim changes his style, with all-time leading scorer Wayne Rooney believing his old side have “got worse” under the Portuguese, who replaced the sacked Erik ten Hag last November.

“He cannot carry on playing this way, he just can’t,” said Scholes, who won 11 Premier League titles and the Champions League twice in a 20-year career with the club.

“At some point there has to be a moment where he thinks, ‘I have to change something because what I am doing now is not working and I am not getting results’. The proof is there.

“I like Amorim, with everything he says, he seems to be a likeable man. But unfortunately results paint a picture.

“At this moment in time it isn’t good enough. At this moment in time if results don’t improve, performances don’t really matter that much. He has to win some games or the pressure is going to come on him massively.”

Following last season’s struggles, where United finished 15th in the league and lost the Europa League final to Tottenham, Amorim worked hard in the summer trying to create a harmonious dressing room culture.

While there are some within the United dressing room who are thought to be uneasy about the 40-year-old’s refusal to change his tactics, there is no sign of widespread discontent as yet.

The optimism around Amorim is not confined to the Old Trafford boardroom.

João Noronha Lopes, favourite to win the Benfica presidential election on 25 October, is thought to be keen on bringing him back to the club where he made his name as a player, making 154 appearances across six seasons.

Lopes was at Etihad Stadium for Sunday’s derby, where he was accompanied by Pedro Ferreira and Nuno Gomes, the former Portugal and Benfica forward, who is one of Amorim’s closest friends.

Speaking to Portuguese media before the group left for Manchester, Gomes spoke about the prospect of hiring him.

“I can’t answer that question,” he said. “Ruben Amorim is the coach of Manchester United.

“But one thing I do know, Ruben Amorim will be the coach of Benfica one day.”

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Wicketkeeper Ben Calitz has been called up to the senior Ireland squad for the first time for the three matches with England.

“From our point of view, we look at people who are playing in domestic competition and are eligible to play for Ireland, have they got the attributes and performances, can they impact the game in how we want to go about our game from a T20 perspective,” explained Ireland coach Malan.

“It’s a nice opportunity for Ben to showcase some of the attributes that we’ve seen from him in the domestic game as a left-hander.

“With us potentially facing a lot of spin, he has got a nice power game and hopefully he can contribute from a strike rate perspective and be in a position to build on the platform that the top-order batsmen put in place for us.”

Ireland are without bowling trio Mark Adair, Fionn Hand and Josh Little, but Malan believes this offers up a chance for others in the squad to impress.

“It’s never ideal when you’re missing some of your quality players, but it certainly opens up an opportunity to build a bit of squad depth and ensure that the players who come in get a feel for the experience of international cricket.

“If things don’t work out hopefully they pick up a couple of areas that they can go back and work on and if things do work out, we’ve got some nice competitiveness within our squad.

“Healthy competition for places is one of the key areas we have been working on. We see it as a benefit, not necessarily as a challenge.”

Ireland opener Ross Adair is set to face England for the first time and the hosts will hope he can deliver again after contributing a quickfire century against South Africa in T20 format and 48 against the West Indies earlier this summer.

“He plays that aggressive role for us at the top and tries to get us off to some really fast starts. He’s definitely got that licence from us to go out there and express himself,” Malan added.

“He’s managed to do that in those two innings against quality sides and hopefully that’s the foundation he can build on as his career goes on.”

Malan says the Irish squad is looking forward to playing at the County Dublin venue.

“We haven’t played at Malahide for a little period but when we played India there, when we played New Zealand there in the last couple of years, it’s always buzzing, there’s always a nice atmosphere,” he said.

“Hopefully the weather plays ball and we can have three good games of cricket.”

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