£70m Manchester United star won’t play under Ruben Amorim — Michael Owen

Michael Owen has made predictions about the squad Ruben Amorim would choose after taking over at Manchester United, who are currently having trouble.

Amorim was appointed Erik ten Hag’s replacement at Old Trafford, and on November 11 he will take over as manager of the fallen Premier League heavyweights.

When Amorim joins from Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United will be in the bottom half of the standings regardless of their Sunday matchup versus Leicester City.

Amorim has favoured a 3-4-3 system for most of his managerial career and ex-England striker Owen expects him to implement that formation as soon as begins the job.

Owen envisages a back-three of Matthijs de Ligt, Lisandro Martinez and Leny Yoro, who was signed for £52m over the summer but is yet to feature for the Red Devils due to a pre-season injury.

‘I think that’s an important position for Ruben Amorim,’ Owen said of the central defender as he predicted the team Manchester United’s new boss would pick on Premier League Productions.

‘Amorim has a reputation of having that central defender come into the midfield a little bit so that player has got to be decent on the ball.

‘De Ligt and Martinez either side are aggressive defenders, they like being up against strikers, so that middle player has got to be good on the ball and Yoro fits the bill.

‘I think if everyone is fit that’s the back-three he would pick.’

Moving to the midfield, Owen suggested Amorim would pick his former Sporting star Manuel Ugarte ahead of Manchester United’s £70m signing Casemiro.

Amorim’s wing-backs could be Diogo Dalot and Luke Shaw, though the England full-back is yet to get any minutes this season after enduring more injury problems.

‘He can only pick 11 players and we did debate Ugarte or Casemiro, it was a bit of a toss of a coin between the two,’ Owen said.

‘But we just felt he would go with Ugarte because he’s played under him before, that might just tip it in Ugarte’s favour.’

Ex-Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey then added: ‘They won the league together at Sporting, Ugarte clearly understands the manager and will know what he expects from him in that position and in the formation he likes to play.

‘Casemiro has had a great career and is still a quality player, I’m sure there’s more to come from him, but I think Ugarte just pips him given the experience he’s had with him previously.’

Amorim often opts to play two No. 10s behind his striker and if that trend continues at Old Trafford, Owen expects Red Devils captain Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford to get the nod.

‘It’s important to mention that these two players play almost inside in a lot of his formations,’ Owen added.

‘They are not necessarily wide players so they come in and play more like number 10s and that plays into Bruno’s favour.

‘With those players coming inside, you could ask, can Rashford play inside? I think he can. I think he’s got decent vision.

‘He’s not going to play otherwise unless he ends up playing him up front instead of Hojlund. I think Rashford will start but it will be in that more inside position.’

Ramsey also believes Rashford can thrive as a forward under Amorim and could even ‘get a new lease of life’ following his recent struggles.

‘Rashford has loads of quality,’ the Wales hero said. ‘Hopefully he gets a new lease of life under the new manager and he can reach the levels he has in the past and be a bit more consistency.

‘He’s an unbelievable player on his day. In this system, I feel he can be suited in the little pockets and holes.’

The majority of Amorim’s squad will be away on international duty when he takes over meaning he will have little time to work with his players before his first Premier League game against Ipswich Town on November 24.

From then on, United play two games a week for the best past of two months, with key games in the Premier League, Europa League and Carabao Cup.

‘He will want to implement his new system straightaway,’ Ramsey added.

‘The difficult thing is he will only have a few training sessions to prepare for his first game and to get the players up to speed.

‘I’m sure they’ll have a lot of meetings in the initial few weeks because there’s just not enough time on the grass.’

Owen continued: ‘What’s the alternative? Playing the current formation? It’s not working at the moment, they’re in the bottom-half of the Premier League.

‘Can he implement it straightaway? It’s so radical and so different, it’s so different to playing a back-four, it completely changes the dynamic.

‘But they’ve got to start somewhere. They might as well start it straight away because this thing has been broken for some time.

‘They might get beaten by Ipswich but so what? At least they’re not on a road to something more positive.’

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