Ruben Amorim's failure to fire up side proved he is wrong for Man United

Times

24-05-2025

There are 50 ways to leave your lover but perhaps just the two to ensure you win a cup final: make sure everyone connected to your club understands that the trophy matters and acknowledge what changes you need to make to outwit your opponent.
The preamble to the Europa League final was dominated by jibes aimed at both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur that it was ludicrous one of them should end up competing in the Champions League given how dreadful their form in the Premier League has been all season. But for the lack of bite of the promoted clubs, both Ruben Amorim and Ange Postecoglou would have been worried all last week about the possibility of being relegated, rather than dreaming of trips to the stadiums of the crème de la crème.
However, of the two coaches battling it out in Bilbao on Wednesday evening, only one of them swatted away the insults and made sure their team operated in a bubble of romantic endeavour. Postecoglou showed his players videos in which loved ones shared messages of love and inspiration. The Australian pulled the plug on the naysayers and enveloped the team and the fans with positivity. Heck, he even held the winning of the trophy in such high regard that he completely ditched a football philosophy built upon entertainment and a high line to deliver the dourest performance maybe ever given by a Spurs team.
The end justifies the means. The cup meant everything and so we saw men behind the ball, a contorted goalline clearance, an inspired save — acts of derring-do that emerge when you are fired up and believe in the cause.
United, by contrast, played mostly the way people behave when on a dull first date, glancing at wrist watches, nodding but not listening, wondering if they booked a nice enough hotel for their next holiday. Amorim had not risen to the bait at all. He agreed with those who said one cup would not make up for such a weak league campaign and so, like a reluctant teenager being dragged around a National Trust garden, turned up in Bilbao a day after the Tottenham contingent.
Weirdly, Amorim was not the manager under threat of the axe before kick–off but he behaved as if he had found a note under his pillow, signed by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, telling him that he was off the hook, he could leave halfway through the game if he wanted to and need never again navigate his way around the Arndale Centre. It was a limp display unworthy of United's glorious history and it showcased why he was the wrong man to have been tasked with rebuilding the team and improving results.
ANDREW MILLIGAN/PA
Tottenham had defeated United three times this season before Wednesday night and Amorim seemed to interpret that as a fait accompli. But surely the best managers use defeats to gather intelligence and insight. As coaches like to tell us, you'll learn much more from a loss than a victory.
Take Oliver Glasner. His Crystal Palace team lost 5-2 to Manchester City in the league not long before facing them again in the FA Cup final. He whispered in Pep Guardiola's ear that if they were to meet again he would solve the tactical flaws City had exposed. Sure enough, Glaser was much more conservative at Wembley, denying City the pockets of space they adore and banking on the brilliance of his players to make brief possession in transition count. City, like United, had been told in the build-up that a domestic cup would not make up for a relatively disappointing season and were unable to shift up a gear to respond to Glasner's cunning plan.
And there United were in northern Spain, looking bereft before a ball was kicked when, really, their players should have been fired up to exploit Tottenham's collective desperation to end the tag of 'Spursiness'. We should have seen a hunger to start the revitalisation there and then. Instead we saw a club collectively shrugging that it would be just fine to defer all that effort until August. Spurs had a planned parade to look forward to, United had a backyard barbecue.
Just imagine if the Portuguese had stuck with the energy Alejandro Garnacho had displayed throughout the competition rather than demoting him to the bench. Just imagine if Amorim had recognised that Casemiro was not quite sprightly enough to be effective in midfield. Just imagine if he had stunned Postecoglou by going four at the back instead of sticking with his beloved 3-4-2-1 system.
It is a system that works well enough in Europe, replicating the success Amorim had with it at Sporting Lisbon. But this year's Europa League final was not actually a Continental contest at all. It was yet another game against a team that needed to be startled. Instead Spurs, the club most likely to bottle it on the big stage, were allowed to reshape their history by a team incapable of finding the jugular, let alone going for it.