Football writer Alex Keble looks at how Manchester United have fared in their first pre-season under Ruben Amorim and why the signs are positive.
Manchester United’s successful Summer Series is worth talking about – despite the caveats.
The danger of overstating the significance of pre-season results is well-documented. Good performances are often red herrings. The cut-and-thrust of competitive football simply cannot be replicated.
But that doesn’t mean there is nothing to learn from strong summer performances by Man Utd, whose supporters are quietly beginning to wonder if Ruben Amorim was right when he took to the Old Trafford pitch at the end of last season and declared: “the good days are coming.”
Detailed tactical coaching could make all the difference
A report by The Athletic has revealed insights from Man Utd’s work on the training ground while on tour in the US, and although there is nothing particularly ground-breaking in it, the attention to detail is a reminder of why Amorim was reportedly initially reluctant to join the club mid-season.
Amorim has been working with his players on the microscopic detail of his 3-4-3, going at a walking pace when necessary to explain different scenarios.
Every time a player is a few inches out of place, he pauses the play and moves them into position.
The idea is to commit the intricacies to muscle memory, eliminating errors that are all-too-easy to make in such a finely-tuned system. One wrong move and the pressing structure collapses like a deck of cards.
There was simply no time to do this during the 2024/25 season with Man Utd playing twice a week.
The club’s tactical identity could be utterly transformed by the summer’s work.
Everything should tick along a little better now. Actions should become instinctive, and with fewer conscious decisions to take those that do need making ought to be quicker and less cluttered by noise.
There are a few tentative signs this is already happening.
Mbeumo, Cunha and Fernandes have shown signs of a fluid system
One 45 minutes of non-competitive football against Everton isn’t a good sample size, so we have to take it with a large pinch of salt, but the way Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha dropped off the front around Bruno Fernandes was impressive.
There was fluency to their movements off the ball, and elegance to their one-touch interchanges on it, that at least gave Man Utd fans a glimpse of how Amorim wants his team to play.
It’s hard to recall a single moment in 2024/25 when that was the case.
Cunha came short and received the ball on the half-turn ready to drive up the pitch, Mbeumo moved into the channels intelligently, and Fernandes stitched things together.
It was forward-thinking and urgent; it was quick, sharp, and cohesive.
It gave reason for optimism, nothing more. The heat of competition, mentally and physically, might show their Summer Series win to be a false dawn.
But the signs are positive nevertheless.
From Shaw to Mount, the right kind of player now defines Amorim’s team
And there’s more to this new-look team than the front line.
Mason Mount has been impressive as one of the No 10s, combining especially well with Fernandes against AFC Bournemouth; Leny Yoro is looking assured as the central defender in the back three; and Luke Shaw looks the part as the left-sided centre-back.
That mix of experience and potential, of smarts and hard work, is giving Man Utd more of a flavour of an Amorim side.
We can also add to that Amad's return at right wing-back, a position he looked set to make his own in the early weeks under Amorim. Along with Patrick Dorgu on the other side Amorim now has the wing-backs he needs.
Amorim has a first XI, and a few subs too, with the skillset to make this thing work.
There are still plenty of questions to answer
Well, most of a first XI, because although Rasmus Hojlund has performed well on tour and Cunha has filled in up front, Man Utd are reportedly still searching for a No 9.
That’s the biggest issue they face on the eve of the new season, but it isn’t the only one.
It remains to be seen whether Amorim’s use of a two-man midfield can work at Premier League level, even if Cunha and Fernandes are drilled to drop back and help defensively.
Then there’s the need to sell players who are surplus to requirements, which hasn’t gone to plan so far.
Finally, and perhaps most significantly, there’s the sheer scale of the task at hand. Even if Man Utd improve substantially this season they could struggle to out-perform Newcastle United and Aston Villa – both more advanced on their journeys – while Tottenham Hotspur are also due a revival.
The margin for error is vanishingly small, making the demands on the players very high indeed.
“We didn't want to finish in this way,” Fernandes told reporters after the 2-2 draw with Everton.
“Our performance wasn't the best and we were a little bit lazy today.
“Every small thing matters. At this football club you cannot do anything wrong on or off the pitch because it is too big worldwide and you get punished by that.”
Fernandes speaks from experience. The Man Utd shirt has weighed heavy for a very long time. One happy summer won’t change that.
But hope is an important commodity in football and, at last, United fans have something to cling on to.