🚨🚨 Here we go! The first two parts of my comprehensive analysis of Ruben Amorim's Sporting CP. 🟢 General tactical style / 3-4-3 system and broad issues that arise ⚪️ 4-2-2-2 build-up vs man-marking and hybrid presses 🟢 New triple pivot this season thirdmanruns.wordpress.com/2…

I assume the decision is because they don't have the money to fire/hire managers (again). But it's hilarious to brief this as the reason because did they choose to not notice that almost all the songs that day were telling Ratcliffe and Wilcox to, erm, leave, to put it politely?

What a story, what a career. An all-timer. Hope he gets a chance to break Shearer's record as the storyline surely demands.

What a story, what a career. An all-timer. Hope he gets a chance to break Shearer's record as the storyline surely demands.

Terrible that a club legend has to say goodbye to Old Trafford like this. The club has failed him. He's not capable of anything more than this as a coach but that's not his fault. Put the right recruitment, backroom staff etc around him and give him a chance. Gave him nothing.

Bruno in the subs rondo. Feels very odd.

Carrick's tenure ending with calamity in a 3-4-3. INEOS couldn't have hoped for a better circular storyline for their Amazon doc.

Some similarities between how Como play in possession and how I think Carrick envisages his ideal football. Short distances between players for central progression, wingers/#10 rotating to find gaps inside, quick short passes to combine. But the difference in execution is enormous. Ball speed. Understanding of shared intentions between players/units. And importantly conditioning. You see United pull off one of those possession sequences maybe twice a game. You can't constantly pull off the movements needed for this style if the whole team can't run.

When people criticise the Premier League for being boring, the most common response is that many 90s/00s PL matches were similarly drab. Probably true. But you'd think after all the billions spent and all the analysis conducted to 'optimise' the game, that people would work out how to make it better than this.

Fernandes' reaction to Mbeumo not being on the same wavelength for that 3-in-a-line move in the 94th minute tells you everything you need to know about the current state of United's attack. To Bruno, the pass and situation was a clear communication to create that dynamic to dummy and spin behind. Like the Cherki goal the other week. Mbeumo thinking of something else entirely, or not thinking at all.

Probably is a game-specific adjustment for Leeds only but I'm not sure how the football world would process it if Carrick's solution to get out of this predicament is through using these 3-4-3 dynamics.

Guy on the tram is saying Mainoo isn't good enough because he doesn't score or assist, and that we're missing Casemiro. This game has broken everyone.

I have a feeling that INEOS think we're still on track and that all problems will be fixed by signing 3/4 defenders next summer. They have tunnel vision for this 'Project 150' for the anniversary in 2028 and are naive enough to think a few defenders will complete the team.

Was thinking that Baleba coming on and running around like a madman was the perfect epitome of papering over the cracks for now, but it turns out that the cracks were too wide even for that. Everyone felt the same shift in game momentum as vs Everton in those final mins. This time vs 10 men.

I sometimes get this recurring dream where I'm trying to walk/run somewhere but it feels like my legs are made of lead and too heavy to move. And now I get to watch it come to life in front of my eyes every Saturday.

Games after international breaks are always tough to call. Second game in a row vs bottom of the table. Seems like a big potential banana skin. But I'm hoping Amad's return will give us a few more sustained attacks in the final third. And better balance in the front 4 with Mbeumo stretching centrally.

Poor performance aside - Fernandez's jump blatantly causes a change in Lammens' footwork, which means he's stumbling and falling over by the time Haaland shoots, preventing him from (potentially) making a save. It's a crazy decision.

Reminiscent to how we let Maresca's Chelsea back into the game after an early red card under Amorim last season. Terrible in and out of possession.

Sabah were compact enough in their 4-1-4-1 for a while but good to see our central progression take over again. Basic patterns without as many tempo shifts but they do the job vs this opposition (and can conserve energy). Tielemans adds a lot of control vs these sort of teams.

It didn't show up on the xG but I was really encouraged by our game in possession at 0-0. Patient but probing, clear ideas to progress through central diagonals to provoke and disrupt Everton's CMs and CBs. After 1-0, there's nothing new to say. Horrendous all round and yet we still should've got away with it. Such a hard result to take.

Painfully obvious INEOS are copying Liverpool's squad building under Edwards v1.0 (probably just after reading some reverse_ball tweets) and convinced themselves that they could get away with this one position a summer nonsense as long as they're building front-to-back. Except we won't be in a position to make the final VVD/Alisson type signing to 'finish' the project because: 1) The rest of the squad still isn't ready (deadwood / a couple missing profiles). 2) The defence is unworkable as it stands for a European season with such reliance on Maguire and Shaw. 3) So who knows if this season will blow up and derail the project (e.g. Spurs buying Poch good players one season too late). 4) No evidence INEOS are capable (logistically etc) of buying and selling numbers to the extent that's needed next summer. 5) We're reliant on getting the Van Dijk type signing perfect, which I somewhat doubt.