Coach Amorim ‘excited’ about United’s future
Despite his team entering 2025 in 14th place in the Premier League, Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim is “very excited” about the year ahead.
United’s 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle on Monday saw them suffer five league losses in the same calendar month for the first time since September 1962, and a fourth straight reverse in all competitions means the Red Devils have lost six of their last eight.
But in a message posted on his club’s official X account on New Year’s Eve, Amorim wrote: “I know it will take a lot of hard work from everyone to get there, but I am very excited about where we can go together in 2025.”
Amorim is yet to halt the alarming slide which led to Erik ten Hag’s dismissal in October, and his team is seven points above the drop zone with increasing talk of a relegation fight, including by Amorim himself who has called it “a possibility.”
But the Portuguese says he’s determined to press on with the 3-4-3 system despite the difficulties United’s squad has had in adapting.
“Of course I didn’t choose the players specifically for these positions but that I already knew,” he said. “But I understand they have a lot of difficulties because they spend two years playing one way and then they are playing another.”
Amorim did not have the benefit of a pre-season to implement such a major change to United’s tactical model, and admitted that is having a significant impact.
“I think the players are losing everything, the small things that we try to work on in training,” Amorim said. “After one goal they lose everything because we don’t have the base, we don’t have time to build the base to cope with the difficult moments so it’s hard in this moment.”
United have the toughest of starts to 2025 when they travel to play league leaders Liverpool on Sunday in what is widely considered English football’s fiercest rivalry.
Barcelona blocked from registering Olmo
Barcelona: The Spanish league said that Barcelona have failed to meet Financial Fair Play rules in the latest blow to the club’s hopes of keeping playmaker Dani Olmo. The league said Barcelona “did not present any alternative” on adhering to the regulations, which was required for the club to “register any player beginning on January 2.”
Barcelona needed to have another financial lever approved by the league in order to register Olmo after a judge ruled against the club on Monday in the second consecutive court setback ahead of the end-of-year deadline.
Without the court’s backing or the league’s approval, Olmo’s contract can’t be registered beyond the end of 2024. Barcelona had reportedly reached a deal to sell VIP seats at the renovated Camp Nou stadium for ^100 million. That would reportedly be enough for the club to add Olmo and forward Pau Victor to the squad.
