Alan Shearer makes drastic Man Utd U-turn as Ruben Amorim change takes form
Manchester United have been on an impressive run of form in recent weeks and Ruben Amorim’s players have been praised for their mentality and reaction to certain moments
Alan Shearer has been scathing about Manchester United in recent years, but he concedes the squad’s mentality over the past few weeks has left him impressed.
United, who endured a difficult start to the Premier League campaign with three early losses, have subsequently gained traction with victories against Sunderland, bitter rivals Liverpool and Brighton. Though they were forced to accept a draw at Nottingham Forest, they remain undefeated in four matches before next weekend’s journey to Tottenham.
Previously, the Newcastle United legend was unsparing in his critiques of players such as Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford. “For me, there are too many bad eggs in that Man Utd team. Too many bad attitudes,” he declared following United’s concerning 2-0 loss to Newcastle in December 2023.
“In [Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Diogo Dalot’s] defence, they got no help whatsoever from Garnacho and Rashford. Rashford didn’t look at it at all – didn’t look interested.
“It happened so many times It’s alright when things are going well for you, you can get your feet on the ball, play and pick your head up when things are nice and rosy.
“But, when it’s not going for you, when you’re a bit tired and you’ve got to roll your sleeves up, there’s not enough characters in that team.”
Circumstances have since improved for United, whilst Shearer has emphasised their attitude is now amongst their primary assets. “It’s too early to say they’re back, but they’re certainly playing with more freedom,” Shearer said when speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live.
“You can see that they’re enjoying things a lot more, which is easy to say when they’re winning games, I guess. But they’ve had to put themselves in the position, and they have done, and they’ve now got to keep it going, and keep the consistency. I think a bit of everything.
“I think they’ve worked hard to block out the noise – which must have been difficult – because you understand that they were getting hammered from every corner, and maybe rightly so at times.
“But their attitude more than anything [has impressed him]. I think it’s been a difficult period for them, but the way they’ve come through that.”
Amorim said on Saturday: “In the past, if we had this kind of bad five minutes and we suffered two goals, we don’t recover. Today is a different feeling.
“You can sense we could not win this game but we are not going to lose. And that is a feeling a big team sometimes has to have.”
