Glory to Gloom: The Struggles of Man United
Ruben Amorim and Manchester United Players are frustrated after a loss.
From the glory days of Cristiano and Rooney to struggling to even finish in a Champions League spot. Manchester United have been on a huge downfall over the recent years. Manchester United used to be the Best club in the Premier League and currently holds the record for the most Premier League titles but recently they have been struggling. In 2023 Man united finished 8th in the Premier League; which is a huge fall from what they used to be. However the next year (2024) they finished 15th in the Premier League which shocked many fans as how could a three time European Champion be sitting so close to getting relegated in the Premier League. In this story we will discuss what, why, and how Manchester United fell off from their glory days.
Back in 2023 Manchester United finished 8th place which is the lowest they have ever finished in the Premier League era (after the ownership of the premier League changed). The manager at the time was Erik Ten Hag. He previously managed Ajax and took them far into the UEFA Champions League during his time there. But, during 2023 he struggled with Manchester United. Going from one of the best managers in the Netherlands to one of the worst in England is very strange.
One of the first reasons behind United's struggles were players not performing, and this goes all the way back to 2014. Starting with the famously known player: Angel Di Maria. Di Maria was a huge star at Real Madrid in 2013, leading the team to a champions League trophy and even scoring in the final. In 2014 he signed for Manchester United and even though he was great for Real Madrid, Angel struggled at United scoring 4 goals and assisting twice which was a huge decrease from his time at Real Madrid. One season later Di Maria left Manchester United and joined PSG. Once he joined PSG it was like he was flying. After his struggles at United Di Maria found his form again and even brought PSG to the Champions League final.
Another player who is closer to the present time is Antony. Antony is a player who was signed from Ajax in 2023. Antony at the time was considered to be on the best upcoming players, but when he got his dream move to Manchester United everything went downhill for him scoring only 12 goals in nearly 100 appearances for the club. Antony was on and off the bench all the time and he was also just struggling to get past defenders. In 2024, Antony was loaned out to Real Betis in Spain and his form just took off from there. Antony was scoring week in and week out for Betis and he even was able to bring them to the Conference League final. The problem that Manchester United had was that they just tried to sign the best players at the time and didn't really give much thought to players that actually fit the clubs play style and the club needs.
While players struggling in the team was a problem for Manchester United; player attitude and the values at the club were very low and bad. The management at Manchester United was weak, but not in a tactical sense. Ruben Amorim has even come out and said that players like Marcus Rashford and Aljandro Garnacho don't give enough in training and as a result they were sold by the club only after being left out of the squad for weeks, but lack of effort is not the only problem at United. Before games, you could see players messing around in pre game warmups and just not being serious. This ability to not take stuff seriously and to not actually care about winning is a huge problem. These players are paid hundreds of thousands weekly and when management doesn't have the guts to tell you to focus up, there is a huge problem.
The big question is though… Will the current manager, Ruben Amorim be able to fix the club? Amorim has been managing Manchester United for just over a year now after a disaster class 2024-25 season finishing 16th in the Premier league table Ruben Amorim's Manchester United sits 7th which is a huge improvement for last season. Ruben Amorim had successfully kicked out the players with bad attitudes and has signed players that fit the clubs playstyle and are what the club actually need. Even though Manchester United have improved significantly from last season they still are far off from what they used to be.