Manchester United’s Ruben Amorim said his team is “arguably the worst team in the club’s history”, shortly after Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion, his fourth defeat at home since taking over in November went.
The Red Devils managed just one shot on target during the match, which came via a penalty scored by Bruno Fernandes in the 23rd minute. They now sit thirteenth in the Premier League, closer to the relegation zone than the top four.
“In 10 games in the Premier League we have won two, I know that,” Amorim said of the form since his arrival after the match. according to The Athletic. “Imagine this for a Manchester United fan, imagine this for me. You get a new coach who loses more than the previous coach. Imagine that. We have to survive this moment. I know that. We are perhaps the worst.” team in the history of Manchester United, I know you want the headlines, but I say that because we need to recognize that and change that. So please, shut up.”
Amorim added that it was important to recognize how poor United’s form is, but that it was “difficult to explain” their current situation, having won just 11 points in 11 Premier League games since taking charge took over.
“It’s hard to explain, we have to recognize the moment and not sidestep the problem,” he said. “Everyone is underperforming here, regardless of the circumstances. It is unacceptable to lose so many games for any club in the Premier League, let alone Manchester United. It is a very difficult moment, but we must continue. The opponents are better than That we can’t be consistent. That I’m not helping my players at the moment. We have to recognize that we are in a very difficult situation, that we are really underperforming.”
United have set the wrong kinds of records
The Red Devils’ season has been defined by statistics showing how poorly they have performed, some of which Amorim himself has pointed out. That is just the beginning of this season’s misery, which was already clearly visible when his predecessor Erik ten Hag was still in charge.
They now have ten defeats in the league, the fastest they have achieved since the 1989-90 season under Sir Alex Ferguson when they had sixteen defeats. United also have just 26 points from 22 Premier Leagues and are on course to set a new record for the lowest points total since the 2021/22 season, when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick split management duties and collected just 58 points. They averaged 1.5 points per game that season and are currently at 1.2. They also have six home defeats in the league this season, the most since Ferguson’s 1993/94 season when they lost seven times.
The list of new lows is also varied. United have not been impressive in terms of set pieces for some time, conceding 17 goals in 2024, their most in a calendar year in the Premier League. In December alone they conceded 18 goals, the most in a single month since March 1964, when they also conceded 18. They also lost six games that month, the most since losing seven times in September 1930.
While Amorim, one of the game’s rising managerial stars, showed promise when he took over in the fall, things haven’t necessarily improved under his leadership. Some of this may be beyond his control; the squad put together in recent years does not reflect his playing style and may not be strong enough to challenge for places and titles in the top four. The fact that Amorim’s version of United continues to slump all season long lends credence to the manager’s claim that this version of the team is perhaps the worst in its history.
It can be difficult to compare the current United team to one from before the modern era of the game, where the game is dominated by the owners’ cash flow. However, this particular period of the sport is also defined by United’s success; Ferguson led them to unprecedented heights that are still the benchmark by which all his successors are judged. The resources provided by the Glazer family and United’s impressive commercial operations, combined with the expectations placed on them and this season’s uninspiring performances, mean that this version of the Red Devils may well be the worst in history of the club. But at the very least, they are the worst version of the team in recent memory.