Football
Exclusive: Two-Time Premier League Champion Paul Parker Urges Caution as Man Utd's Ruben Amorim Era Begins
Manchester United legend Paul Parker advises caution for Ruben Amorim's new era at Old Trafford, warning against mimicking Pep Guardiola's style. Parker discusses Amorim’s tactics and United's readiness for the Premier League challenge. Premier League betting fans are considering whether to back the Red Devils for a top four finish following the Portuguese' appointment.
Image Credits: Tom Shaw/Getty Images
Manchester United great Paul Parker hopes new Portuguese boss Ruben Amorim doesn’t try and copy Pep Guardiola’s style of player.
Two-time Premier League winner Parker enjoyed plenty of success under legendary boss Sir Alex Ferguson, winning five pieces of silverware during his time at Old Trafford.
But since Fergie retired in 2013 the 13-time Premier League winners have failed to win the league title and also been dumped out of the Champions League.
Parker Warns Against Guardiola Comparisons
“I think the last thing anyone wants is the backing of Pep, you get worried that you’re going to play that intricate football and bore the pants off everyone,” Parker told SportsBoom.com.
“That guarantee doesn’t work for anyone in my eyes, a lot of football fans are bored of it.”
“But I think his style is going to change rapidly. The one thing the Premier League has got is Portuguese players already, that league must have earnt more from Premier League clubs than any other country in the world.”
“So many clubs go there to get their players and now they’re spending £10million [compensation] to get their managers.”
It is a different league, though, so it will be really interesting to see how the new manager adapts to the Premier League. It’s just so different.
Paul Parker
United struggled badly to play out from the back with a passing brand of football which Guardiola is credited with creating.
Former United boss Erik ten Hag tried to implement this style, and even though he signed three of his former Ajax back-line, United more often than not invited pressure on themselves playing out from their own box.
Amorim’s Impressive Record at Sporting
Amorim, who is facing up to his first week at his new club this week, favours a 3-4-3 or 3-4-2-1 formation, a set-up which brought him incredible success at his former club Sporting.
Of his 231 league games in charge, Amorim guided sporting to 164 victories and 34 draws.
That means he lost just 33 games in his tenure from March 2020 up until his last game at the weekend.
This season Sporting have not lost a game all season, having won 16 of their 18 fixtures in all competitions, and a thumping 4-1 victory over Manchester City just last week understandably gave United supporters plenty of cause for optimism.
Can Amorim's Tactics Succeed at United?
“We have to remember that Chelsea won the league [in the 2016-17 season] playing that 3-4-3 system, [Antonio] Conte played that system when he was in charge,” offered Parker.
“That was the first and last time it’s been done, his team did it throughout that season, which turned out to be really successful.”
“They had two decent wing-backs in [Marcus] Alonso and [Victor] Moses, so it’s definitely possible to go out and do it. He [Amorim] might just come in and stick with what he knows.”
“There’s two ways he can go with it, he can either stick with it or not. The question with sticking with it is, have United got the personnel to do it?”
“That’s the biggest worry and his system relies very much on ball retention, so can you do that with a [Bruno] Fernandes in the team, especially with the way his discipline is if the game isn’t going the right way. That’s the problem.”
Neil has been a journalist for longer than he'd care to remember, having written for national newspapers and respected publications for over 25 years. For the last three years he has worked freelance for BBC Sport, working on the production desk as a sub-editor and also as a writer, covering a whole range of sports.