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Manchester United has appointed Rúben Amorim, the current Sporting Lisbon manager, as its next manager after Erik ten Hag was sacked recently. The 39-year-old Amorim will thus become the third Portuguese to be associated with Manchester United’s coaching staff after Carlos Queiroz and Jose Mourinho.

Moreover, Amorim, who has won two Primeira Liga titles with Sporting, will also become the youngest manager at the helm of the Red Devils since 1960s. However, his job is not likely to be an easy one, as United has been going through a rough patch for quite some time now.

Manchester United is in the bottom half of the Premier League table at the moment:

Manchester United is in the 14^th place in the league table at the moment. Both Manchester City and Liverpool have opened up a lead of double digits over United already and that gap is likely to widen in the coming days.

In such a scenario, Amorim will find his task cut out from the very beginning. In all fairness, the players in United’s squad are not quite at par with those of Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal or even Chelsea. Hence, he will have to try to bridge the gap as much as possible.

The results are not likely to come immediately, but Amorim must know that he will not be given an extended period of time to turn things around at Old Trafford. He should at least be able to bring United back into the top half of the league table pretty soon.

More importantly, there should be an emphasis on making the club play an attractive brand of football, which was sorely missing during ten Hag’s tenure. Manchester United has recently been dominated often even by lowly oppositions and has hardly looked like a big team. Amorim must also know that his name in itself is not big enough for a huge club like United and hence, he has to make his mark and earn the respect of players through his playing style.

Amorim’s job will be to instill the belief in his team and take the attack to the opposition. The creativity of a player like Bruno Fernandes should not only be restricted to playing crosses into the box and there should be an emphasis to involve the wingers and the striker more often.

United’s attacks have often been too reliant on its left flank, with both Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho preferring to play there. Amad Diallo has been impressive in patches on the right, but the club needs more consistency from him.

Then, there is the double-pivot of Casemiro and Kobbie Mainoo, which combines experience and youth pretty well in the midfield. It will be up to Amorim to extract good performances from his defenders to complement his midfield and ensure that United does not concede goals every match. For the record, United has conceded 11 goals in nine league matches so far and scored only eight.

United has some easy matches coming up:

United will face Chelsea next, which is a difficult match, but will then take on PAOK Athens in Europa League and will face Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Everton in their next three Premier League matches. The club could not hope for an easier run of matches before taking on Arsenal in December.

Therefore, United’s decision to appoint the Portuguese without wasting much time seems to be a judicious one, as it will give him an opportunity to get on with his work with a string of easier matches.