Ruben Amorim is no soft touch but not repeating mistakes of hawk-like Erik ten Hag is paying off... now the Man United boss must stop the roof caving in again, writes CHRIS WHEELER

Daily Mail​

a day ago

When Manchester United went on tour to Bangkok and Australia three years ago, Erik ten Hag laid down the law to his players with a strict set of rules. Keep to the dress code, wear the right footwear and under no circumstances be late for team meetings or meals.
Trouble was, the lifts at the Athenee Hotel in the Thai capital were running a little slow, so rather than risk breaking one of the new manager's commandments and incurring a punishment, players would routinely abandon them and race up 40 flights of stairs, emerging in front of the hawk-like Ten Hag out of breath, sweating and lucky not to have pulled a muscle.
Discipline is all well and good, but sometimes it can have a detrimental effect.
Ten Hag's successor Ruben Amorim is certainly no soft touch. That much has been clear from the way he has stuck to his football principles since being appointed in November, even though a 'my way or the highway' approach contributed to United's worst-ever Premier League finish.
Ask Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Jadon Sancho, Antony and Tyrell Malacia – the 'bomb squad' who were made to train away from the first-team group when they reported for pre-season at Carrington – if the head coach is a pushover.
But Amorim is less of a stickler than Ten Hag. Maybe it's an age thing (15 years separates the two men). Maybe there is a difference between the Dutch and Portuguese mentalities.
He has adopted a more relaxed approach on United's current tour of the US, happy to treat the players as adults and recognise right from wrong. There is code of discipline, of course, but not to the same extent.
At the Waldorf Astoria in Chicago, breakfast begins from 7.30am but there is no specific time for the players to be there. Amorim himself seldom appears before 8am because he goes to the gym for an hour first.
The only stipulation is that the players have to be on the team coach by 9.15am before it leaves for training at the Endeavor Health Performance Center three miles away that United are sharing with Chicago Fire. After a gym session, they are usually out on the grass for about 10.30am.
There are none of the double sessions favoured by Ten Hag in pre-season, so the squad is free to do as they please from around 1pm onwards. Few have made much use of the recreation room at the team hotel, preferring to go shopping or eat out in the upmarket Magnificent Mile district of Chicago.
Out on the grass, Amorim has gone to painstaking efforts to programme his ideas into the squad. With cameras (even club media) banned for the tactical sessions, he is literally walking the players through exactly where he wants them to be on the pitch at each moment.
He tries not to overload them with information, sticking to key points. As a player himself until only a few years ago, he knows that would make no sense.
The day before games, the pace picks up and observers in the US have been impressed at how the pictures Amorim is painting in his players' heads have been reproduced on the pitch in the impressive wins over West Ham and Bournemouth.
'Once we get used to that, I think we will reach a point, hopefully, where we can almost play with our eyes closed,' says defender Diogo Dalot. 'We already know where everybody is going to be on the pitch.
'We always do the walk-throughs and some tactical work, of course. He's very keen on that so we can be prepared. But at the same time, the message is really clear. There's not too much information, so everybody knows two or three things they need to do during the game. We go to every game already knowing what's going to happen, more or less, with the opposition.'
United have looked fitter and sharper in pre-season too. Slicker in their passing, more intense in their pressing, quicker to the tackle. Sir Alex Ferguson's teams knew they had to earn the right to play by matching the effort of opponents who always raised their game, and you couldn't say that about many United teams since he retired.
Amorim is determined to hit the ground running ahead of the opening game against Arsenal at Old Trafford on August 17.
The players were sent specific fitness programmes to follow on their holidays, and it was clear from the data recorded by United's sports science staff on their return that they had done as they were told. A lot of the hard running in pre-season has been made to be more fun, for instance sprinting between two shooting drill stations.
It has contributed to a genuinely more upbeat mood in camp after the disappointment of finishing 15th in the Premier League last season and losing the Europa League final to Tottenham.
'Everyone is positive,' says Patrick Dorgu. 'I feel like everyone left last season to last season and is just looking forward to the new season.
'I think we will hopefully see a United team that is attacking more, that's on the front foot, that's trying to dominate games, every game. We can just take the rest of the pre-season to get even better.'
Another reason for the more positive mood is Amorim's decision to offload the players he either doesn't want or doesn't feel are committed to the cause – hence the 'bomb squad' being left at home while United are on tour. It has prevented the cloud that hung over Carrington following United to the US.
Luke Shaw spoke earlier this week about how Amorim has improved an environment that was 'toxic' at times in recent years has improved, even it meant given his players an ultimatum.
'He's very clear in his messages that you want to be a part of the team or you cannot be here,' says Dalot. 'If you want to be in Manchester United, you need to match some standards. If you're not able to match it, it's not a place for you.
'I think we are creating now a group that fights for each other. I think you can see straightaway some signs of the team fighting a bit more and having more intensity.
'Obviously, there's still a long way to go. I'm not going to say perfect because that's difficult, but that's where we want to go, towards perfection.'
It's also hard to over-estimate the importance of Bruno Fernandes turning down a hugely lucrative move to Saudi Arabia with Al-Hilal this summer. The United captain is a key figure on and off the pitch, and his decision to stay at Old Trafford has been warmly welcomed by the rest of the squad.
'I think it's a clear message that he still believes that this club can go to the places that it should be,' adds Dalot. 'I don't think there's a better way of starting a season than your captain staying and believing that this can go in the right direction.
'It's a clear message for the other teammates, for everybody, that we have to believe. We have to work really hard to put Manchester back in the place that it deserves.'
Of course, we have been here before to the point that it has almost become a running joke. New season, new hope. Smiles on faces and cultural resets, only for the season to start and the roof to cave in.
In 2022, Ten Hag beat Liverpool 4-0 in the first game in Bangkok and went unbeaten for the rest of the tour, only to have his pants pulled down by Brighton and Brentford when it really mattered.
We will see, but perhaps this time Amorim really is onto something. After the win over Bournemouth, he said United look 'like a different team'. Cherries boss Andoni Iraola called them 'a hell of a team'.
Next stop is Atlanta for Saturday's final tour game against Everton and another opportunity for Amorim's side to show they are heading in the right direction.