Ruben Amorim is wary of a Sir Alex Ferguson tag ahead of his move to Manchester United if Sporting beat Manchester City on Tuesday.
Amorim has two games left in charge of Sporting, including the clash against United’s rivals in the Champions League, before he moves to Old Trafford to become Erik ten Hag’s permanent successor.
“If the result is very negative, expectations will drop and I don’t think that’s a bad starting point, when you begin at Manchester United,” he said.
“If we win they’ll think the new Alex Ferguson has arrived, which is very difficult to maintain.
“I’m fully aware that I’m going to be judged as a manager on this game, and only on this game, and I realise what [people] can take from this depending on the result.”
Ferguson won a whopping 38 trophies in 26 years as Manchester United manager before retiring in 2013 and bringing about a downfall that Amorim hopes to reverse.
Both Sporting and City have seven points from their first three Champions League games this season and Amorim also reflected on the last time they came up against each other, when in 2022 City beat the Portuguese side 5-0 on aggregate in the last 16.
“I feel like I’m a better coach [now],” said Amorim. “Unfortunately what I feel is that Pep Guardiola has also become an even better coach, so the gap remains.
“[City have] the best team in the world and the best coach in the world.”
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United legend Gary Neville gave his advice to Amorim ahead of him taking over at Old Trafford, starting with the backline playing further up the pitch as the current mentality makes Man Utd “play like the underdog in games”.
“If you want to push your defence up the pitch, which is what I think every team looks to do nowadays, Amorim has got to start with that because Manchester United quite often have to travel 70, 80 yards to score a goal because they’re so deep and they play like the underdog in games,” Neville said on his podcast.
“The other metric was possession one in the final third.
“So possession won high up the pitch: first was Manchester City, second was Tottenham, third was Arsenal and fourth was Liverpool. Manchester United are ninth.
“The final one I asked for was the highest turnovers.
“City, Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal made up the top four while Manchester United were ninth. These three things are critical to performance levels.
“Man Utd played like a team that is sat behind the ball. ‘Let’s try and get them on the counter or score from a set piece’. That’s got to change.
“You’ve got to be a team of dominance. And I mean dominance. I mean dominating the ball in the final third, dominating your forwards and staying high up the pitch.”