Football Manager: Can Ruben Amorim’s Tactics Really Work For Manchester United?

Football Manager: Can Ruben Amorim’s Tactics Really Work For Manchester United?

Can Ruben Amorim’s tactics really work for Manchester United? I decided to try and find out in Football Manager. In this blog post, I’ll explore my attempts to recreate Amorim’s tactics in the game, and discuss what I learned along the way.

Part 1: Figuring out how Amorim plays

The first challenge was to figure out exactly how Amorim’s 3-4-3 works in practice. I dove into various resources to understand his tactical approach, including the Manchester United podcast “Devils In The Details,” and articles from The Athletic.

Everyone has a slightly different idea of how Amorim’s teams tend to play. Some describe his “build-up phase” as a kind of 4-2-2-2, while others describe a 3-4-2-1. Out of possession, most describe an intense high-press.

Part 2: The Setup

To start, I set up a save in FM24 using a community mod that brings the database as close as possible to the real world. I decided to jump into the save with pre-season partially underway.

Tactically, I started with a basis of the Vertical Tiki-Taka preset, which feels like the most “Amorim” option, emphasizing fairly short but forward-thinking passing through the center of the pitch. I tweaked things along the way to try and capture Amorim’s adaptability. The personnel was more difficult, as there were a lot of question marks. I went with a combination of players that felt like a good fit for Amorim’s style.

Part 3: The experiment begins with a wobble

We began with a pre-season that was inconsistent at best. We beat Bayern Munich, but then lost to Wolfsburg. Then,