Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee may not fit into Ruben Amorim's basic game plan at Manchester United, according to Micah Richards.
After Erik ten Hag was shown the door and Ruud van Nistelrooy's short spell as interim boss, Amorim will kick off his tenure in Ipswich this weekend. As the Portuguese coach takes over at Carrington, Richards has shed light on his tactics, which have won rave reviews across Europe.
Richards, who watched Amorim's Sporting beat Manchester City 4-1 in the Champions League, found the strategy simple but effective. Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast with Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer, the former City centre-back said: “It was good to see Sporting Lisbon and how Amorim wants to set it up because there was a lot of grumbling about 'he's playing three players '.” at the back, then he goes to a five, then he goes to a four, then the midfield does this'.
“It's actually very basic. Against a team that has the ball, like Manchester City, he goes to five at the back, he has two midfielders who are willing to press very high.
“Then he puts pressure with his front three. If you play through the lines of the front three, they just get back into position. I don't want to say it's nothing special, but the basic tactic is when they're inside.” a low block.
“When they try to press they get very high and they are adventurous. Manchester City showed all those aspects of what they were trying to do in the first half but they couldn't put the ball in the back.” from the net.”
There is hope at United that Amorim Hojlund and Zirkzee can improve, just as he did with Viktor Gyokeres, who scored a hat-trick against City. However, Richards does not believe the pair possess the same assets as the former Coventry City striker and urged United to launch another attack on Sporting.
“If I were Man United, I would buy him [Gyokeres] tomorrow,” he said. “They have Hojlund, they have Zirkzee, and they get on their feet a lot.
“When they try to turn, they don't have that blistering pace or that running power. I don't want to say he's as fast as Mbappe, but the first thing Gyokeres wants to do is run at the back.
“He's constantly making runs, not just centrally, but also to the left and to the right. He kept stretching Man City's defense and they didn't know how to deal with it. And when he's in front of goal, he's calm.”
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