‘Overpaid’ and ‘underperforming’ Manchester United left with only one way to save their season | OneFootball

The overpaid, overrated and over the hill have been overrun, overcome and overwhelmed too many times this year. One more defeat and their season will be over.

Manchester United have to confound their critics, a category that also seems to include their co-owner. Sir Jim Ratcliffe had made some disparaging comments about some of the squad. Andre Onana, Casemiro and Rasmus Hojlund, three who were named in a complaint – albeit that United will have to use their funds in the summer paying for players who were bought in 2022 and 2023 – could have a significance if they are to beat Real Sociedad. “It is also important to give us more energy to continue the season,” said Ruben Amorim. They are not the normal comments of a United head coach in the first half of March.

But then these are not normal times, and not merely because United have announced plans to build a £2bn, 100,000-capacity stadium while languishing 14th in the Premier League. Ratcliffe’s unflattering appraisal has not prompted any of the players to go to Amorim to voice their concerns. The head coach, however, was exempted from the Ratcliffe’s disapproval, instead being described as doing a “remarkably good” job. A return of just 19 points from 17 Premier League games suggests otherwise. The Portuguese at least included himself in the list of the underachievers.

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Amorim opened up on his relationship with Ratcliffe after the co-owner’s comments (Getty Images)

“If we are being honest in this moment, everybody, me, all the players, we are underperforming this season,” he said. “So we can always change that and I include myself in that part of the underperforming. You are talking about players like Casemiro, for example, that won everything and we know these kind of players can play so much better. That is the focus. He was honest on that, the focus is to change his mind and change all the people’s minds.”

Whether proving their co-owner wrong can galvanise United remains to be seen. Certainly Amorim believes they can change perceptions on the pitch. “I think it’s the right way to do it,” he added. “If you are a top player playing in this club, even me, a lot of people say I am not good enough for the club, my feeling is that you can change that with results. In training, I feel that they want this really bad.”

The alternative perspective may be that some of United’s squad are scarcely spurred on by the knowledge by Ratcliffe wishes they were not bought before his arrival or given the contracts they possess and the implication he would prefer it if they were not there at all. Hojlund, 20 games without a goal, may have their Europa League destiny in his hands and appeared to get a vote of no confidence from Ratcliffe.

The billionaire pointed out that four of United’s eight top earners are unavailable to Amorim: it was a way of highlighting how injury prone Luke Shaw and Mason Mount are, though he neglected to mention that Marcus Rashford is at Aston Villa in part because the Portuguese exiled him. Another of those eight, obviously, is Casemiro.

One of Ratcliffe’s less helpful arguments was that, without their injuries, United’s wage bill was around £130m, comparable to Nottingham Forest’s. An obvious response is that Forest are third, where United may have imagined themselves to be. Another flaw in the argument is that other clubs have injuries, too, and that some of their salaries are paid to injured players.

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Mason Mount has returned to training in a boost to United (Getty Images)

But it may serve as some of the mitigation for Amorim. Ratcliffe had offered an insight into their relationship, saying Amorim can tell him to, in his words, “f*** off”. Amorim suggested they were kindred spirits. “I think we are really blunt and honest with each other, he’s a little bit of a character, we are quite similar [in] that,” he added. Their bond, he added, has been “really good since day one”. The public message of support helped but did not surprise.

“I already knew that,” Amorim added. “All these conversations I already had in the past with them. After matches, they went to the dressing room to talk to me and explain this but to say it publicly is really good for the coach. But I continue to say the same thing. We need results and we need to improve the team.”

It is why he was wise to shrug off chief executive Omar Berrada’s remark that United would like Amorim to be their manager at New Trafford; it would mean he is still in charge in 2030 and that, in turn, requires results.

Starting against Sociedad on Thursday. There has become a financial imperative: with Champions League football the ultimate prize, with the revenue from it a rare way of boosting what could be a slender transfer budget this summer. Whatever its size, Ratcliffe will aim not to overpay for transfer fees or wages. He is all too aware United, still paying for the mistakes of the past, are weighed down by old deals.