Since Ruben Amorim sat in front of the media at Old Trafford 9 months ago and warned Manchester United fans of an upcoming storm, it has been one of the few predictions he had made correctly in a season he called a "disaster".
Apart from the League Cup stumble against Grimsby Town, Amorim has had a more positive reaction to the team in the first weeks of the 2025-2026 season. However, he is still facing a turbulent future. If the storm happened on the pitch last season, the dark clouds are gathering outside this season.
Ruben Amorim's three captains, Erik ten Hag, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho, were all sacked for a week. If the Portuguese coach can overcome the next 3 months with positive performances, the pressure will ease and pave the way for the goal of reaching Europe in the new year. Conversely, if their form declines, the pressure will increase, which could force the Man United board to rush to find the 5th official coach in 9 years.
The summer transfer window ended with 4 major contracts and 9 players leaving. This is a major overhaul compared to the squad Ruben Amorim inherited from Ten Hag in November. Although the situation still has some areas that have been overcome, there are still some loopholes.
At the end of last season, the club's data department was tasked with determining the main reason for the team's poor performance. They concluded that their biggest weakness was lack of goals. This has led Ruben Amorim, CEO Omar Berrada and sporting director Jason Wilcox to focus on investing in the attack, thereby recruiting Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko for a very high fee. Cunha and Mbeumo were the top targets, while Sesko relied on the situation.
The goalkeeper is considered a secondary priority. However, the £21.5 million deal for Senne Lammens was completed on the last day of the transfer window. This is possible thanks to the sale of players such as Alejandro Garnacho to Chelsea, Antony to Real Betis and Rasmus Hojlund to Napoli, helping Man United earn nearly 65 million pounds, plus Aston Villa loaned Jadon Sancho to reduce the salary fund burden.
After Andre Onana left on loan to Trabzonspor, Senne Lammens will likely be promoted to the starting lineup. In the upcoming matches, Ruben Amorim is likely to rotate Lammens and Bayindir. The Manchester Derby is ahead, but who will start in this match is still a big question mark.
The decision to postpone the payment of a new midfielder until at least January 2026 has caused the squad to be somewhat unbalanced at this stage. Amorim has Cunha, Mbeumo, Mount, Bruno, Amad and Zirkzee - who could play the role of "number 10". However, in terms of the position of 2 midfielders behind in the formation, he only has Casemiro, Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo.
Man United have had an unstable start. In particular, being eliminated from the League Cup in the second round has made many people worry, have all the problems of last season been solved?
When looking deeper into the numbers, there is reason for Amorim to feel relatively secure. After 3 rounds of the Premier League, Man United is currently in 9th place with 4 points. However, they are top in expected goals (6.78), total shots (42), touches in the opponent's penalty area (99) and crossbar/versal (4) . M.U ranked 2nd in terms of winning streaks (173) and 3rd in terms of successful crosses from the ball (12).
Ruben Amorim stressed that the team only lacked a little luck in draws against Fulham or losses to Arsenal and the statistics showed that he had reason.
Amorim is leading a team in a "bad" period but is also under immediate pressure because his performance is not really impressive (18 wins, 9 draws, 19 losses in 46 matches). He also did not hide the view that Man United cannot solve all problems in just one transfer window and the addition of the midfield will have to wait.
Mourinho, Solskjaer and Ten Hag can all say they left before receiving new contracts to complete the project. For Amorim, the real risk is that he will be sacked before Baleba or anyone else joins the team in January 2026.
After the humiliating defeat to Grimsby Town, Man United's leadership affirmed that they had never considered Ruben Amorim's future and that he still had comprehensive support. The Portuguese coach hopes that next month he will not test the patience of the owners so that a second storm never occurs.
