It might not be the way the coach dreamt his side would play, but he must keep dancing with the devil to take his team to the final in Bilbao
"They didn't play football, they just defend, defend, defend. And as we say in my country, they brought the bus and they left the bus in front of the goal." That was how Jose Mourinho introduced the concept of 'parking the bus' into English football after his Chelsea side had drawn 0-0 against Tottenham during his debut season in the Premier League. He could easily, though, have been talking about Manchester United's ultra-defensive performance in Sunday's 1-1 draw with Arsenal.
Despite using the term to belittle his opponents, Mourinho has ended up being associated with the term more than any other coach. When he was in charge of Manchester United, Manchester City fans would sing "Park the bus, Man United" to ridicule their rivals' defensive style of play, which contrasted with City's attacking and courageous tactics under Pep Guardiola, the Portuguese's arch-nemesis. Mourinho, for his part, grew to see his pragmatism as a virtue, and some of his greatest wins as a manager came from parking the bus, most memorably during Chelsea's 2-0 win at Anfield in 2014 which wrecked Liverpool's Premier League title hopes.
Ruben Amorim, though, did not exactly revel in his side's use of negative tactics against Arsenal as he almost apologised for his side's strategy. "When you coach Manchester United, you cannot play too much like that," he told . "Sometimes we have to do things that are not popular, but if you want to win and imagine one way to win, we have to do it because, in the end, we need the points.
"We don't want to play like this, defending so much and giving the ball to the opponent. But with all the games, with all the problems and then the characteristics of the players, we tried to adapt and imagine the game that we could win, and we proved that today."
Amorim was hinting that he would only use such tactics again sparingly, but he needs to forget his hang-ups, embrace his inner Mourinho and park the bus all the way to winning the Europa League…
Getty Possession fallacy
When Amorim arrived at United in November, he made two declarations that were slightly contradictory. First he hailed the influence of Mourinho, whom he had shadowed for a week at Carrington when he working on his coaching diploma. He then he outlined that he was not going to compromise on his style of play. "As a coach you have to choose one way or another, I choose always 100 percent our way," he said. "I choose to risk a bit. I believe so much in our way of playing, they will believe too. There is no second way."
But the Arsenal game was the latest sign that Amorim ready to compromise. United had less than 32 percent possession against the Gunners, the lowest amount since they had last faced Arsenal in the FA Cup in January. United had just 29.6% of the ball that day, with the caveat that they played the final half-hour and all of extra-time with 10 men. That win on penalties was arguably the greatest result of Amorim's brief and chaotic time in charge of United thus far.
But it was not the best result he had enjoyed all season; that was when his Sporting CP side obliterated Manchester City 4-1 in the Champions League in November. That magical night at the Estadio Jose Alvalade was also the lowest amount of possession an Amorim side has had all season, as they saw only 27.3% of the ball. In other words, the idea that Amorim always wants to dominate the ball is a fallacy. While it is true that his Sporting side would monopolise the ball in most of their league games – in a division where they were one of the three biggest spenders – he was happy to cede possession to superior opponents.
AdvertisementGetty 3-4-3 becomes 5-5-0
Sunday's clash was the fifth occasion in United's last six games in which they had the lower amount of possession. The only time in that period when they had more of the ball was against Everton, when they did not play well at all before battling back to draw 2-2, though they were fortunate to avoid conceding a last-minute penalty at Goodison Park.
Indeed, some of United's worst performances under Amorim have been when they have had more of the ball. They had 60 percent possession when they were thrashed 3-0 at home by Bournemouth and had also had more of the ball against Newcastle in one of their worst displays of the season.
Against Arsenal, Amorim played fast and loose with the 3-4-3 formation that has been the hallmark of his coaching career, turning it into a 5-4-1 when out of possession. Joshua Zirkzee's deep positioning often made it seem like a 5-5-0 as the Dutchman rarely ventured into the opposition box and focused more on holding the ball up than getting forward. The defensive shape made United more cohesive than they have been on many occasions under Amorim.
Getty Countering suits these players
A good understanding was formed by wing-backs Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot, who combined for one of the best moves of the game as the Moroccan's volley was saved by David Raya. In the middle, Bruno Fernandes worked in tandem with Casemiro, who delivered one of his best displays in recent memory and sparked a move that could have seen United re-take the lead late on when he mugged Mikel Merino, only for Declan Rice to stop the ponderous Rasmus Hojlund in his tracks with a slide tackle.
Mazraoui, who has been hit and miss when deployed as a wing-back, looked much more effective with his team playing on the counter rather than when trying to build possession in the middle of the pitch. Zirkzee did not have a great game, but he did look better as a linking target man who controlled long balls rather than as a No. 10 trying to orchestrate play. Alejandro Garnacho has had a frustrating period under Amorim, but he had one of his best games in recent memory against Arsenal. He repeatedly got the better of Riccardo Calafiori, with Gary Neville on commentary for saying that the Argentine had gotten into the Italian's head.
And there's the nub of the situation Amorim has in front of him. He has inherited a squad of players that had never previously played in a 3-4-3 and are not suited to his vision of play. But these players did have success in Erik ten Hag's first season, as well as in last season's FA Cup run, playing in a more pragmatic way, keeping things tight at the back and hitting teams on the counter.
Getty Fans galvanised
Amorim said he could feel fans getting frustrated with United's approach against Arsenal at times, but on the whole Old Trafford was fired up and seemed to feed off the team's work-rate and attitude. While supporters obviously want to see attacking football and thrilling wing play, they also want to see crunching tackles and players giving their all. United did just that on Sunday and the crowd oved it. As the coach said: "The spirit, the following the plan that is a good thing, an example for the future."
The Old Trafford faithful were delighted by Matthijs de Ligt's aggression and enjoyed Casemiro breathing down the Gunners' necks. They were energised by the sweeping counter-attacks they saw, which compensated for sitting deep in a low block for much of the game. Lets not forget that Louis van Gaal's slow, meandering possession football bored supporters to death to the point that attendances dropped and club directors began to get concerned that people were not going to renew their season tickets.
And Sir Jim Ratcliffe enjoyed it too, despite the less than complimentary chants he was subjected to both before and during the game. "I thought it was a really impressive performance. They could not have worked harder. They couldn’t have been more committed," he said in his interview with the following day.