Brian McClair: Ruben Amorim's Biggest Task At Man Utd Is To Win Games

Former Manchester United striker Brian McClair has revealed what he thinks will be the biggest challenges facing new manager Ruben Amorim who takes charge of his first Red Devils game on Sunday.

United went into the last international break in relatively good form as interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy ended his brief spell in charge with an unbeaten record and signed off with a 3-0 win over Leicester. 

But the the Amorim era is about to get under way at Old Trafford as he takes his side to face Ipswich Town who are managed by former United coach Kieran McKenna.

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"His biggest challenge is winning games, that's what he’s meant to do,” McClair exclusively told Gambling.com.

“Manchester United haven't been very good at winning games. They haven't been very good at scoring goals either. 

"Another thing he needs to do is get performances out of players.

“In the last few games Bruno Fernandes has looked more like the player he was when he first came to Manchester United. 

“He has a greater influence on the pitch and he looks a little bit happier. If players are happy, they will perform better. 

“I suppose Ruben Amorim has got to sort out some kind of forward-line in his idea of how they should be playing.”

The Portuguese, who replaces Erik ten Hag and is United’s sixth permanent manager since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, signed a contract until June 2027.

The club sit 13th in the Premier League and to say this season has been a frustrating one for United fans would be something of an understatement following the optimism of last season's FA Cup final victory over Manchester City at Wembley.

But McClair, who was Ferguson’s first signing after arriving at Old Trafford in 1987 and scored 127 goals in 471 games for the club, believes Amorim has plenty of talent at his disposal.

"There’s a lot of real potential there, but we keep talking about potential with all those players,” he said. 

“They need to start scoring a lot more goals, need to get themselves into positions where they're going to win and have a consistent way of playing. 

"They have to be able to pick a team that's going to work hard and I think that's something that everyone would suggest hasn't happened at Manchester United for a long time.

“If players are happy, they will perform better. I suppose Amorim has got to sort out some kind of forward-line in his idea of how they should be playing. 

"Alejandro Garnacho has recently been unhappy and upset by some things. You've got Antony who has been nowhere to be seen on the pitch, and a lot of people still question Marcus Rashford. 

“Does he deserve to play? Does he do enough? Is he working hard enough?”

It's been more than a decade since United sat at the summit of English football and plenty of managers have tried, and failed,  to restore former glories in the years since.

Amorim was greeted on arrival in England by members of United's new hierarchy - including Omar Berrada, Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox – who were installed by new owners INEOS to put the focus back on the club returning to the top through better process.

His is the first appointment of the new era and he enjoys the off-field backing that his predecessors never really benefited from, but McClair feels this job will be unlike anything he's experienced before.

"Off the pitch, as much as he's been a manager at one of the biggest clubs in Portugal, Manchester United is huge,” he said.

“Just in terms of how newsworthy things are every single day, and not just newsworthy in Manchester, but newsworthy throughout the world. That takes a bit of getting used to.

"There’s also an understanding that historically Manchester United’s teams have been attacking. 

“There's a great desire to get tickets to go to Old Trafford and watch good, attacking football played with a certain confidence - not arrogance. 

“We’ve not seen a lot of that for a while, it’s been dull football.

"In interviews, he must be inspiring and more coherent. I found some of the things that Erik ten Hag said quite difficult to understand. 

“Whether that was him trying to get something across and not quite being able to do it with the accent, or maybe his choice of words. 

"Players just like simple messages. Maybe that was one of the things that had been a problem in the past. Don't make things too complicated."