Manchester United have now won three consecutive Premier League games following a difficult start to the season
Will Jenkins and Matty Hewitt
14:28, 26 Oct 2025
Ruben Amorim has taken Manchester United above Liverpool in the Premier League table(Image: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
A Manchester United legend has praised Ruben Amorim for his tactical fluidity in the Red’s 4-2 victory over Brighton on Saturday.
United picked up their third straight Premier League win yesterday as Amorim’s side showed their goal-scoring prowess by putting four past the Seagulls, a team in which they failed to beat last season.
Despite questions being asked regarding Amorim’s job security earlier in the season, United now sit one-point above current Premier League champions Liverpool.
The Portuguese manager’s tactics have also come under scrutiny, with his stubborn three-at-the-back formation seeming predictable and breakable. However, after yesterday’s victory at Old Trafford, Michael Carrick had plenty of praise for Amorim.
He told Match of the Day: “Let’s get straight to the tactical side. A lot has been said about the midfield two, the pairing and the spaces that they’ve got to cover over the last year or so.
“For me, as an ex-midfielder, it’s something I’m really interested in, how they get support and help. You can’t expect two midfielders, against a good team, to deal with three and four players, so how do you find the solution?
Mbeumo struck twice at Old Trafford yesterday
“They found the solution with the forwards dropping in to support this middle zone to support Bruno [Fernandes] and Casemiro. They found support with Luke Shaw jumping [into midfield] with Rutter and staying in there to almost make a three in midfield. Which then, in the end, it’s a numbers game.
“It’s a space game and you’ve got to fill the right spaces. Bruno, Luke Shaw and Casemiro filling the middle of the pitch kept them solid. There’s no way, against a Brighton team, that you can ask Bruno and Casemiro to do that.
“The formation was quite fluid and Luke Shaw was almost a right-midfielder. That leaves Cunha to drop in and be responsible and be really disciplined. Because of the spaces and he’s tucked in, or around it, even when they got broken on at times, they were willing to backtrack and fill in fluid.
“You see Cunha in a left-back position here, it summed it up. It was such a big shift from Mbeumo, Cunha, Bruno, Casemiro and Luke Shaw to fill the middle of the pitch.
“Sesko presses the goalkeeper and you expect Brighton to make a pass or two to break the press. Bruno releases, Casemiro is in and around, Luke Shaw is aggressive with the confidence to win it back. Casemiro gets it and a little bit of luck with the finish but I think that they earned that because of the spaces that they closed down and stopped Brighton, as the game went on, playing through.
“With the ball, there’s something building. Casemiro holds the middle of the pitch, Cunha drifts a little bit. When Cunha drifts low, Casemiro holds the middle. Bruno has got license to drift a little bit higher, Mbeumo drifting off the back of Sesko. There’s that fluidity and it’s almost between the three of them when they get it, they look to pass between to each other until the final moment.
“It’s a great move and Sesko on the end of it would have been nice to see him finish such a good move. You can see there’s something building and the connection between the three. They suit playing different positions around the front line and there’s a fluidity. They did both sides of the game fantastically well today.”
Talking on the team’s spirit, Carrick added: “I’ve got a smile on my face because when you get a smile on your face and when you get a connection with somebody, it’s a wavelength and you almost play off instinct. You almost play with a smile inside because you enjoy playing with each other and it looks like they’ve found that connection.
“Two of them have just arrived in the summer, Bruno has been there for a period of time and it’s not just those three, but it feels like there’s something really fun about how they want to play. There was a lot on the game today, to go three wins after beating Liverpool and everybody going ‘it’s happened before.’ A big game to go again, they’ve lost against Brighton in the past and I thought they played ever so well.”
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