Harry Maguire has pushed back against the idea that Ruben Amorim\u2019s 3-4-2-1 is the cause of Manchester United\u2019s early-season difficulties, arguing that the responsibility lies with the players rather than the formation.<\/p>\n
The three-at-the-back approach is not new to the Premier League; Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace have adopted similar systems and Antonio Conte won the 2016\u201317 title with Chelsea in a 3-4-3. Maguire suggested the shape has become an easy target because results have not followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the formation is an easy one to go at, because we\u2019re playing something a little bit different to everybody else,\u201d he told Sky Sports . \u201cFor me, it just became an easy one to go at when the results don\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe formation has been fine. Like I said, box to box we been pretty comfortable in every game. Tactically we\u2019ve been comfortable in every game, it\u2019s got to be down to the players. The players have got to take their moments, they\u2019ve got to make the difference in those moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this season, the first four games, we just haven\u2019t done them \u2018moments\u2019 well enough. And like I said, we haven\u2019t defended in our box well enough in the big moments. Every time the opposing team comes near the box, it ends up in the back of the net, which is something we need to work on.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think the formation is just an easy one to dig out because we\u2019ve not been winning football matches. The formation is not a set formation, everyone says \u20183\u2019 or \u20185\u2019 but in a lot of phases of the game, we play a back four.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been happy since the manager has come in. It\u2019s an easy one to dig out, but it\u2019s down to the players to execute. And if you\u2019re a good player, you can play in any formation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amorim, meanwhile, has been unequivocal that he will not abandon his tactical approach and said he will only make changes as part of a process rather than in reaction to pressure ahead of Chelsea’s trip to Old Trafford.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one, not even the Pope will change [me],\u201d Amorim stressed. \u201cThis is my job, this is my responsibility, this is my life. So, I will not change that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be an evolution, but we need to make all the good steps. If I\u2019m a player and I have a coach that, with a lot of pressure and all around the world they are saying, \u2018You need to change the system\u2019\u2014if I change in this moment, the players will look at me in a different way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you think about the impact that any decision is going to have on the team, everything is important. So, I will say the same thing: this will have to be an evolution. I\u2019m doing things my way. Some guys do it in a different way, but it [results] will change. I hope to have the time to change, but they will change. I\u2019m just trying to win games, trying to see what is the best option to win the next game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to get the best connections to play better and, in the end, to win points. It\u2019s about belief, confidence, aggression, it\u2019s everything. And sometimes, what we call luck means we will play the game with more belief. Sometimes, with us, I feel the opposite. We are playing well, but something is going to go wrong in some moments. We need to change that, but it\u2019s just with wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can do whatever, but if you look at the goals against [Manchester] City and Fulham, all these moments can be stopped. In all these moments, I think we can do better. It\u2019s our fault. So we work on that during the week to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maguire defends Amorim’s 3-4-2-1; Amorim refuses to change his system before Chelsea visit Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,969],"tags":[1021,1041,1019],"class_list":["post-2930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-amorim","tag-amorim-concerns","tag-creative-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}