Ruben Amorim
Ruben Amorim’s average points tally of a point per league game since arriving at Manchester United in early November puts him just above Malky Mackay’s record at Cardiff and Paul Jewell’s Premier League record with Bradford, Wigan and Derby. While Sporting won the Primeira Liga title without Amorim, United have fallen down the table to 15th since the Portuguese took the reins from the interim coach, Ruud van Nistelrooy. Much of the ire towards United has been directed at the owners but on the pitch Amorim has failed to adapt his squad of expensive, experienced internationals into anything approaching a cohesive unit. The Europa League final defeat by Tottenham showed how much work is left to do.
Those defending Amorim will point out he has not got the personnel to fit his preferred 3-4-3 (although the £25m January signing Patrick Dorgu has largely been underwhelming), that he has not had a pre-season to train his players properly and that United’s run to the Europa League final mitigates their league performances. After more than six months of underachievement, none of this really stacks up.
Federico Chiesa
To be this bad in a team this good has been an impressive feat for Federico Chiesa. That the 27-year-old was given his first Premier League start only this month against Brighton, when Liverpool had wrapped up the title, shows what little faith Arne Slot has had in the Italian. “He did even more than I can expect from him,” said Slot, somewhat awkwardly, after that visit to the Amex, when Chiesa spluttered as a false 9, lacking the physicality to play centrally, miscontrolling simple passes out for throw-ins and miskicking the only shot he attempted. Injury and fitness issues plagued the first part of Chiesa’s season but he has not done enough to deserve more minutes. The Italian’s ACL injury in 2022 has taken a physical and mental toll. Juventus obviously knew something the rest of us didn’t when they sold him for £10m last summer.
This is the second successive season when the three promoted sides have been relegated. There is a wider systemic issue about the growing gulf between the top two tiers but Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton are not without blame. Southampton, having gained promotion in the playoff final, narrowly avoided registering the lowest Premier League points total; the club’s failure to realise that Russell Martin’s expansive tactics were not compatible with the lack of Premier League quality and nous in the squad was fatal and their appointment of Ivan Juric a disaster.
Similarly at Leicester, managerial changes disrupted their season: they were disappointed to see Enzo Maresca join Chelsea after winning the Championship but were outside the relegation zone when Steve Cooper was sacked in November. The board must shoulder most of the responsibility alongside whoever greenlit the £20m move for Oliver Skipp (no significant injuries but seven league starts before Leicester’s relegation was confirmed; no goals, no assists). That Ipswich spent more than £120m on signings and finished above only Saints is not a great look, with only Liam Delap looking likely to return any sort of profit on those investments. The pressure will be on Ipswich to bounce straight back but they will be buoyed that most of the squad and Kieran McKenna look likely to stay.
Chelsea left-wingers
No, this isn’t a critique of a sudden outbreak of champagne socialism in west London but an appraisal of Chelsea’s remarkable ability to collect a litany of expensive and woefully ineffective superstars on their left flank. There are few with more raw talent than João Félix or Jadon Sancho but they have been ineffective at best and dire at their worst. Both are 25 and supposedly in their prime but Félix registered one goal and one assist in 12 Premier League games before being bumped off on loan to Milan in February – less than six months after signing on a seven-year contract for about £45m. Although Sancho has lasted the entirety of his season’s loan, his return of three goals and four assists in 31 league matches isn’t much better. Chelsea will have to pay Manchester United £5m this summer if they opt not to sign Sancho permanently for about £25m, which is quite the decision. It could have been even worse for Chelsea had they not managed to convince Arsenal to take Raheem Sterling on loan. Sterling and Félix will return in the summer and they, along with Christopher Nkunku, leave Chelsea in a bind again over how to deal with their expensive errors of the recent past.
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Phil Foden
Up to the beginning of January, last season’s Professional Footballers’ Association and Football Writers’ Association player of the year scored one goal and provided one assist in 14 league appearances for Manchester City. Since the end of January, Foden has started six league matches: goalless draws at Southampton and Manchester United, three defeats against Nottingham Forest, Arsenal and Liverpool and a win over Newcastle. He has clearly not been himself and spoke after the FA Cup final about playing with ankle pain for the past couple of months and dealing with things off the pitch, saying: “It’s been a frustrating season. I’ve had a lot of things going on off the pitch mentally. Sometimes there’s things in life bigger than football. This season I’ve struggled a little bit.” We wish him a speedy recovery and a return to his best form. With Kevin De Bruyne departing, will City find a replacement in Morgan Gibbs-White or Eberechi Eze or trust Foden again? Next season could be the biggest of Foden’s career.
