Why Ruben Amorim’s Man Utd start ranks worst in Premier League history

24 points in 25 games 

©TM/IMAGO

While Manchester United could end the season with a major European trophy and Champions League qualification, Ruben Amorim has failed to make a positive impact in the Premier League. United remain the only undefeated club in the three European club competitions this season and winning the Europa League would provide a silver lining to a horrendous Premier League campaign. It would represent United’s third trophy in three seasons and provide a significant financial windfall, but would it wrongly cloud the perception of Amorim’s tenure at Old Trafford?

The 40-year-old arrived amid huge fanfare after transforming Sporting CP’s fortunes but his domestic record with United is abysmal. The 20 times English top-flight title winners will record their worst ever Premier League finish and they are currently languishing in 16th position. Moreover, United are winless in their last seven league games and have the worst record of any Premier League club with just two points collected. West Ham claimed a 2-0 win at Old Trafford in Amorim’s 25th Premier League game and the Portuguese manager’s points tally makes for grim reading.

Big Six’ Premier League managers: Worst records after 25 games

Amorim has remarkably only amassed 24 points from his first 25 Premier League games at 0.96 points per game. The Portuguese manager has only won six of those games, losing 13 and United haven’t beaten a non-relegated club since January. When comparing Amorim’s record to every other ‘big six’ manager in the history of the Premier League, it puts United’s worrying league form into context – Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United are viewed as the traditional big six. While United’s priority has clearly been on the knockout stages of the Europa League, their Premier League will have alarm bells ringing amongst the Old Trafford hierarchy.

As the graphic above illustrates, Amorim has the joint-second worst point record of any big six managers since the inauguration of the Premier League in 1992. Moreover, Man City weren’t a leading club in England until their takeover by the Abu Dhabi Group in 2008 and they were outside the top-flight for several seasons since 1992 and they were even in the third-tier of English football. Therefore, it could legitimately be argued that Amorim has endured the worst ever first 25 games at a big club in English football.

When you compare the records of some of the managers with the best records across their first 25 games, Amorim ranks 62nd of 64 managers that have reached that milestone. José Mourinho’s start at Chelsea after moving to England from Porto is the best in Premier League history with 64 points collected from 75 available. The 60 points that Arne Slot amassed in his first 25 games with Liverpool this season is the joint-second best in history, alongside Antonio Conte. Interestingly, Erik Ten Hag (49) had the best points record of Manchester managers post Sir Alex Ferguson and the Dutchman’s Premier League points per game record before being sacked of 1.22 was significantly higher than Amorim.