Ad\u00e9lio C\u00e2ndido, the assistant to Ruben Amorim during a 14-month spell at Old Trafford, has offered a clear account of what he sees as the key shortcoming of that tenure: the coach\u2019s methods were not fully applied.<\/p>\n
The period began with a draw and two wins in Amorim\u2019s first three matches, including a 4\u20130 victory over Everton that hinted at early promise. Amorim warned that \u201cthe storm is coming.\u201d That warning was borne out as inconsistent results followed and, in January, Amorim and his backroom staff were dismissed.<\/p>\n
The Angola-born coach told A BOLA: \u201cExperience is always experience, whether the outcome is good or bad, we always come away with learning.\u201d He added: \u201cIn Manchester, I really liked the city and the way the fans experience football, more focused on the project than on the immediate result. What I liked least was, without a doubt, feeling that our ideas weren\u2019t fully implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n
C\u00e2ndido rejected suggestions that pressure derailed daily routines. \u201cWith the existing pressure, it\u2019s normal for people to get more upset than usual on a coaching staff, and that wasn\u2019t the case for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
C\u00e2ndido declined to comment on the club\u2019s resurgence under Michael Carrick, who now has the same players and is getting better results. Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko admitted that the squad have cranked up their work ethic under Carrick, and Lisandro Mart\u00ednez praised Carrick\u2019s soft touch. Luke Shaw said the \u201cbiggest\u201d difference between Amorim and his successor is that Carrick \u201cknows the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matheus Cunha offered an inside explanation for the struggles, blaming the intense scrutiny of Amorim\u2019s 3-4-2-1: \u201cThe pressure for that tactic to work was so great that we forgot how simple the overall context was and focused too much on the negative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amorim persisted with a back three for his first 60 games and defended his approach when forced into makeshift selections for a Boxing Day trip to Newcastle United. He argued, \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of players, and we need to adapt, so they understand why we are changing,\u201d and added: “It is not because of the pressure of you guys [media], or the fans. When you [media] talk about changing the system all the time, I cannot change because the players will understand I\u2019m changing because of you and I think that is the end for the manager. When we are playing well in our system, that is the moment to change.” <\/p>\n
In the end, a clash with director of football Jason Wilcox precipitated Amorim\u2019s exit. The tenure included heavy spending of around $330 million across two full transfer windows and controversial decisions over Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho, as well as January 2025 signings such as Patrick Dorgu and acquisitions including Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo that aligned with Amorim\u2019s preferred system. As the January 2026 window approached, Amorim grew increasingly frustrated at the perceived lack of backing in midfield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ad\u00e9lio C\u00e2ndido says United failed to implement Amorim’s ideas fully during a turbulent 14 months…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,1348,969],"tags":[1021,1041],"class_list":["post-7285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-manchester-united-news","category-premier-league","tag-amorim","tag-amorim-concerns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7285","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=7285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}