{"id":361468,"date":"2025-12-21T07:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T07:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/361468\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T07:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T07:48:10","slug":"amorim-hints-at-changing-tactics-to-compensate-afcon-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/361468\/","title":{"rendered":"Amorim hints at changing tactics to compensate AFCON losses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ruben Amorim has suggested he could abandon his 3-4-3 system and play with a four-man defence to compensate for the loss of key players to the Africa Cup of Nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amorim has previously said not even the Pope could convince him to move away from the back three which proved so successful at Sporting CP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But after losing Amad Diallo<\/a>, Bryan Mbeumo<\/a> and Noussair Mazraoui<\/a> to AFCON, the Portuguese coach has hinted that he might be forced into a change of style.<\/p>\n

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United have been using training sessions to try out different systems after more than a year of Amorim sticking rigidly to his tried and tested 3-4-3.<\/p>\n

“It will depend on the way we play that particular week,” Amorim said, when asked about how he will cope with the loss of Amad, Mbeumo and Mazraoui for up to a month.<\/p>\n

“But if we have to change to a four back four, we change four back four.<\/p>\n

Amad Diallo, Bryan Mbeumo and Noussair Mazraoui are all to miss Man United games due to AFCON.\u00a0Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

“I’m just focused on the next game. Let’s go step by step.<\/p>\n

“We have a big match [against Aston Villa<\/a>]. We need to win. We need to try to find different ways of playing, especially without Amad and Bryan. We lost some characteristics that are hard to find.”<\/p>\n

As well as missing Amad, Mbeumo and Mazraoui against Villa, Amorim will also be without Casemiro<\/a> after he picked up his fifth yellow card of the season in the 4-4 draw with Bournemouth.<\/p>\n

It could present an opportunity for Kobbie Mainoo<\/a> to make his first Premier League<\/a> start since May.<\/p>\n

On Monday at Old Trafford, Mainoo’s half-brother, Jordan Mainoo-Hames, was pictured wearing a “Free Kobbie Mainoo” T-shirt — a reference to the midfielder’s lack of game-time this season.<\/p>\n

In response, Amorim said he wants to “avoid nonsense and noise,” but opened the door for Mainoo to play a part at Villa Park on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“He’s responsible for his acts and his act was to play well in the last game, I’m just focused on that,” Amorim said.<\/p>\n

“I had the situation in Sporting that my brother wrote something on the internet, and I have to answer for that. My explanation is that he has his life, he has his opinion, and it’s nothing to do with me. So I will do the same with Kobbie.<\/p>\n

“Kobbie needs to fight for his job. I think that it is not a bad thing to be on the bench of Manchester United<\/a> when you are 20-years-old.<\/p>\n

“I remember [Cristiano] Ronaldo was on the bench, [Wayne] Rooney was on the bench sometimes. [Juan] Veron was not playing. I remember all the history of Manchester United and this [the club] didn’t fall.<\/p>\n

“Maybe the next game, Sunday, he is going to start.<\/p>\n

“So let’s continue trying to avoid the nonsense and the noise. I just want to help the team to win and help Kobbie to be a better player.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ruben Amorim has suggested he could abandon his 3-4-3 system and play with a four-man defence to compensate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-361468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}