THE LAST TIME Ruben Amorim and Pep Guardiola faced off in early November, things were very different.
Amorim led his final home game in charge of his league-winning side Sporting Lisbon, while it seemed nothing more than a bump in the road for Guardiola's usually imperious Manchester City.
However, just over five weeks after that 4-1 win for Amorim, both face monumentally different circumstances in Sunday's Manchester derby.
Amorim has arrived at Manchester United and is attempting to implement his tactical ideas into the dramatically underperforming squad he inherited, with mixed results in his early tenure.
Meanwhile, Guardiola is going through by far the worst period of his career as a manager, with City having won just one game in ten.
The Red Devils are entering a new transition period that will make or break the future of the current team.
On the other hand, the Cityzens now understand that they need a massive roster rebuild to compete with the best again.
Despite their own struggles, there has probably never been a better time for Man Utd to confront their 'noisy neighbours'. Below we will look at three ways in which Amorim can gain the upper hand over Guardiola.
The importance of the 1910s
When people talk about Amorim's preferred tactical shape, it is often described as a 3-4-3, although that is not entirely true.
The two wide attacking midfielders play more inside than outside, although they have the freedom to do both, acting more as a traditional number 10 behind the main striker.
This means that Amorim likes his team to play with a box midfield in the attacking phase with the two deeper central midfielders next to two more advanced midfielders.
This positioning allows his team to create overloads against the opponent's defense as they play through the third.
We saw this effectively in the Sporting City match, where Pedro Goncalves and Francesco Trincao looked very comfortable with their more flexible positioning in and around the final third.
They both moved in and out of tight spaces consistently and allowed their team to gradually play towards the City half of the pitch through the third half.
There is no doubt that the loss of Ballon d'Or winner Rodri has left City vulnerable in midfield. And this creates an opportunity that United could take advantage of in this weekend's match.
So far at United we have seen Amorim use different players in these attacking midfield positions.
But it looks like Bruno Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho are likely to start in these roles.
Fernandes in particular is very well placed to play this role at a high level for Amorim.
The Portuguese international midfielder thrives when given the freedom to move in and out of tight spaces in the final third, and he tends to be aggressive when receiving the ball in these areas.
So far there have been teething problems with these positions under Amorim and at the moment United are a little too slow in moving the ball forward into these positions.
In the derby it will be important for United to move the ball quickly.
This allows them to get the ball into positions between the lines so they can play through City's initial pressure, which is still dangerous, and into positions where they can threaten City's defensive line.
United need to be more progressive at the back
It is completely normal that when a coach has been in office for a longer period of time, his teams become more comfortable with their specific tactical ideas.
We saw this clearly in terms of ball progression from deep when Sporting hosted City in the Champions League.
Zeno Debast, who played as RCB in that match, was very good at playing driven passes that allowed Sporting to play from the back.
Controlling possession in these positions is crucial when playing against a team like Man City, as even when they are in a bad spell they can dominate the ball and consistently push teams into deep defensive positions.
Under Amorim it can honestly be said that Sporting felt very comfortable and confident playing from the back.
We haven't seen United's defensive line comfortable on the ball under Amorim, except when Amorim used Noussair Mazraoui in his back three.
Lisandro Martinez, who played against LCB, and Matthijs de Ligt, who played as a central defender in the trio, are better in defensive moments when they want to compete.
But in possession they look far too passive, with not enough aggression in their intent to push forward and break the opposition's pressure.
This lack of aggression and intent to push forward and break boundaries is one of the biggest problems United have had under Amorim so far.
They need to start moving the ball faster to take advantage of their central overload before the opposition can get back into their defensive shape to really unlock the Amorim system.
Against City, and especially against City without Rodri, this could be the difference between winning and losing.
Apply pressure quickly
At Sporting, Amorim created a team that was compact and together when they played and attacked all the way to third place.
This meant that in situations where they lost the ball in advanced areas or in the middle third, they were quickly able to counter-press and put pressure on the ball to try and win it back quickly.
We saw this clearly in their match against City, when they routinely put their opponents under quick pressure.
This is where Amorim has a slight advantage thanks to the presence of Manuel Ugarte, who played with him at Sporting until the summer of 2023 when he was sold to Paris Saint-Germain.
Ugarte understands how the Portuguese coach wants his team to act and react when they are out of possession.
The midfielder is an enforcer type who will consistently work against the ball to lead the press and carry teammates along.
Last weekend we saw Ugarte playing alongside Kobbie Mainoo at the base of the United midfield.
Together they have the intelligence and physical attributes to be effective in influencing the press and they want to ensure that the units in United's team are together to create an effective press and counter-press.
It's fair to say that United will have much more success defending against the ball if they are willing to apply pressure and work as a team.
Staying compact and moving forward quickly as a unit will prevent City from dominating possession and put United to the fore in this match.
Conclusion
The recent success over Guardiola and City does not mean that a repeat of Sunday's Manchester derby result is certain.
There have been positive signs from United under Amorim so far, but the game has a very different complexity and it will take some time for his ideas to be implemented and the players to understand what is expected of them.
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