Ruben Amorim has responded to criticism from Paul Scholes with the former Man Utd midfielder claiming the Red Devils head coach is not “the right man”.
Man Utd beat Wolves last Monday 4-1 for their second win in six matches to push them up the table and if they beat Bournemouth tonight they can move level on points with fourth-placed Chelsea.
The Red Devils have been underwhelming this season with just seven wins from 15 getting them into eighth position in a congested Premier League table.
Man Utd legend Scholes is far from convinced by Amorim after the Portuguese coach’s first year in charge and doubts he’s “the right man”.
Scholes said on The Good, the Bad & The Football podcast: “I don’t think the manager gets the club, full stop. I just don’t think he’s the right man.
“Manchester United is about risk and entertainment, more than anything. Having fans on the edge of their seat f***ing ready to go.
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“Wingers who beat people. Shots on goal. Bits of skill. There’s nothing there.
“That’s from the club. We talk about this is a different club – they’ve got Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox who are probably brilliant at their job, brilliant at what they do.
“They’re not Man United. They don’t have a clue what it’s like to buy a Manchester United player, to bring a Manchester United manager in.”
Scholes later questioned Amorim’s philosophy and style of play before criticising his handling of Man Utd midfielder Kobbie Mainoo.
The former Man Utd midfielder added: “If you go to Sporting Lisbon and watch, they played three at the back. Right away, that’s a no.
“And I’m talking about even before Sir Alex Ferguson, it was always 4-4-1-1 or 4-4-2. Entertaining people. He hasn’t got that in him.
“He brought four defenders on against West Ham. If we go 1-0 up, the manager always said ‘two, three, four.’
“I remember once, I think we were playing Chelsea. We went 1-0 up and we sat back a little bit. Now, Chelsea were a good team.
“The manager went absolutely nuts after the game. That doesn’t happen here. When you score one, you score two. You go for the throat every single time.
“I just don’t think he gets it.”
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On Mainoo, Scholes continued: “You would have to advise him to go. If he rang me and said, ‘I think Chelsea are in for me what do you think?’, I’d say ‘all day long’.
“He is a 20-year-old kid, he is going to have to leave.
“What will happen now is he’ll bring him into a game and he won’t be great, because he needs five, six, seven, eight games.
“He’ll throw him into the team and say “I told you so”.
“No one [in the hierarchy] gets the club. You think of the treatment of Kobbie Mainoo.
“He’s not playing, fair enough, sometimes as a manager you don’t fancy a player.
“When they aren’t playing well and what he has done in the game already as a young kid, winning goal in the FA Cup final, he’s played nearly every game at the Euros.
“I bet he takes the p*** out of Casemiro every day in training.”
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Responding to Scholes’ comments, Amorim said: “I think it’s normal, I think it’s a fact that me as a manager of Manchester United, I think we are underachieving.
“We should have more points, especially this season, so I take that naturally.
“Sometimes they don’t have all the information and they see Manchester United with the standards that they lived here, always winning, so it’s hard for them to see their club in this situation.
“About Kobbie, I can speak about Kobbie every press conference. Sometimes it’s harder for me to speak after the game.
“It’s always the same situation. For me, all of them are the same. I know that for you guys there are some players that you believe in a lot and I believe a lot but sometimes I have to make choices.
“We play with two midfielders in these games, we could change in the future, but to Kobbie Mainoo is playing in the same position as Bruno Fernandes and sometimes it’s really hard to take Bruno Fernandes out of the team and that’s the only reason.”