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After leading Manchester United to its worst Premier League start, Erik ten Hag was fired on Oct. 28. Although the club appointed former United striker and PSV manager Ruud van Nistelrooy as interim coach, the front office was already working on bringing a new permanent boss to the team.
Just four days later, United announced the signing of Sporting’s Rúben Amorim as United’s new manager. The Portuguese coach is set to take charge Nov. 11 during the November international break.
Beyond a new coach, though, plenty of changes are needed to get United back on track in the Premier League and the Europa League. Many of the players taking up space in the dressing room and on the pitch are not up to the club or Amorim’s standards.
Here’s the five players who could see their roles on United diminish in just a few weeks.
Although the ex-Real Madrid man has put in decent performances to close out October, he is still on the chopping block once Amorim arrives. In some ways, it feels like he sealed his fate Sept. 1 with his disastrous performance against Liverpool.
With Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte and even Christian Eriksen as Amorim’s other options for a double pivot, Casemiro’s place on United is rather redundant. He might not be pushed out of the club like a few other of ten Hag’s signings, but he will likely see his already shrinking role diminish even more.
If Amorim deploys a back three at United, Matthijs de Ligt is in trouble. He lacked confidence in Bayern Munich’s back three under Julian Nagelsmann and was dropped from Louis van Gaal’s lineup after one start in the 2022 World Cup.
Formations aside, the defender has not had a dream start at United by any means. Instead of providing more defensive stability to the team, de Ligt has looked out of his depth playing against Premier League competition every week.
He also is known to lose …
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