Man Utd ‘years behind’ rivals Liverpool as Ruben Amorim instructed relegation battle fact

Manchester United in a relegation battle? They’re bad but is it not all getting a bit silly now?

Ruben Amorim’s side are likely to get thrashed at Anfield on Sunday by Liverpool which will only add fuel to the fire of all this going down talk. But the only way United are going to the Championship is if they breach PSR and are set for a hefty points deduction.

Because as bad as Amorim’s side are – and boy are they bad when you look at their recent results and performances – they’re sitting on 22 points. Now that is a pitiful points tally after 19 games for a club the size of United with the whopping wage bill they have and north of £600m worth of players.

But how many points will it take for them to stay up? Maybe 30? Possibly 35? At a push the old number of 40? It is only three weeks ago that United went to rivals Manchester City and beat the defending champions on their own patch.

Now we know that’s not a proper Pep Guardiola side at the moment but there were still gushing reviews for Amorim and his style of play after it. Now three weeks on and a few shocking results means the Portuguese manager is steering United to the Championship with his much-talked-about back three?

Come on now. Even matching their horror first half of the season in the back end of the campaign would leave them on 42 points. You’d expect they will get a bit better the longer Amorim is in charge, too. Once he gets more time on the training pitch and maybe a signing or two in January.

There’s clear problems at Old Trafford. The club has issues from the very top to the bottom and it will take years to get it right. Some of the players have clear attitude issues and Amorim could only dream of having a squad full of character and class like the Liverpool one they’ll face Sunday at Anfield.

The old saying is ‘too good to go down’, which was the title of the documentary about United’s relegation in 1974. Back then they had to hit rock bottom before they rebuilt. Yet it still took nearly two decades to return to the very top.

United are years behind the bitter rivals they face Sunday but they’re not bad enough to get relegated. Well, as long as they don’t get a points deduction anyway.