It was sad to see Manchester United sack manager Ruben Amorim recently. The occasional recent resurgence was another false dawn – in a string of many over the past ~15 years.
A year ago, Ruben’s signing was seen as a big step forward. United signed a young coach full of potential with a clear philosophy.
He showed the clear philosophy alright. But the results struggled to follow. And even with an uptick relative to the disastrous last campaign, the consistency wasn’t there. Most importantly, and sadly, Ruben seemed more intent on proving his philosophy right than actually winning.
It all culminated in a show of public frustration against his bosses. There was only one way this story would end.
United went back and hired Michael Carrick – a former player – as interim manager. We’ve seen this movie before. It was no surprise to see a collection of former players and pundits lambasting the decision. The consensus was that the team would be ripped apart by Manchester City and Arsenal – the table toppers.
The opposite happened – United won both games. A few interesting notes –
(1) The changes Michael Carrick made didn’t require crazy tactical thinking. It felt rather straightforward. He just put round pegs in round holes.
Simple is hard sometimes. Or maybe more often than not.
(2) While I hope he’ll see continued success, it does drive home something I’ve seen time and time again.
You can spend a lot of time listening to the critics and the pundits and the news.
Or you can just go ahead and get results.
A good lesson in football, and in life.
A Learning a Day 