The Red Devils' boss is mimicking the Gunners' head coach by being a clear communicator and backing up his words with strong actions
Manchester United fans had more than 24 hours to digest their encouraging 2-2 draw at Liverpool when the club's X account signed off for the evening with a short message that encapsulated the mood around Ruben Amorim: 'Trust the process.' The three words were accompanied by a picture of a soaking wet Amorim at Anfield looking into the distance. Perhaps at a brighter future, when fans and pundits will be toasting the progress he has made and looking back at the dynamic display on Merseyside as a real turning point.
It did not take long, however, for users to recall that United's social media team had produced an identical message in support of Amorim's predecessor Erik ten Hag back in February 2023, after another 2-2 draw with a local rival in Leeds. Back then United were in the ascendancy and it was a little easier to trust in the process than it is now, with the Red Devils 13th in the Premier League table, 12 points off the top five and having won four out of 12 matches under their new coach.
But a look at United's next opponents and their manager offers hope that they are following the right path under Amorim. Mikel Arteta is the manager most associated with 'Trust the process', a phrase he never actually used but came closest to saying when speaking after an FA Cup quarter-final win at Sheffield United in 2020. The Spaniard said back then: "We still have a massive gap to fill in, we have to improve a lot in many departments. We have to respect the process, it's been really difficult, stop-start, stop-start but we'll get it right, I'm convinced of that, we need a little bit of time as well."
The phrase has been used as a stick with which to beat Arteta by Arsenal fans and rival supporters whenever things have taken a turn for the worse but, for all the mocking he has received for being associated with that particular slogan, the Spaniard has been proved right. In five years he has completely reshaped Arsenal and turned them from a club with no direction into one of the leading forces in English and European football. United fans would surely sign up to their team following a similar path under Amorim in a few years, challenging for the Premier League title and going deep in the Champions League.
Amorim has not yet been United manager for two months but there are already plenty of similarities between his style of management and Arteta's which should give the Red Devils reason to keep the faith and trust the process…
GettyBig performances in big games
Both Arteta and Amorim faced the daunting task of inheriting a mess at a huge club in the middle of the season, with barely any time to get their ideas across to their players on the training ground due to the unrelenting schedule. Arteta's first season in charge with Arsenal was full of frustrating results and he did not make immediate progress when he succeeded Emery in December 2019, winning just one of his opening eight league games, including failing to beat Burnley, Sheffield United and Crystal Palace.
But the one game he did win in that spell was against United and it was one of the best performances of his first season in charge of the Gunners. It was not the only big result of his first term, as his side knocked Manchester City out of the FA Cup semi-finals and then beat Chelsea, who had finished four places and 10 points above them in the league, in the FA Cup final.
Amorim's start to life at Old Trafford has also witnessed some terrible results, including home defeats by Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Newcastle and an infuriating surrender at Wolves. But he has also pulled off a stunning late win at Manchester City and saw his side come agonisingly close to snatching victory at Anfield. The United manager admitted to feeling annoyed after the game at Liverpool because it begged the question why his side could not have played with the same passion in their other games. But as Arteta's record shows, being able to produce in the games that matter the most is a good sign.
AdvertisementGettyCommunicating well
Arteta and Amorim have two things in common when it comes to their communication style. They both are skilled orators and they have the good fortune to have succeeded coaches who struggled to get their message across. Arteta's predecessor Unai Emery had a patchy level of English when he took the Arsenal job in 2018 and he was cruelly mocked on social media for beginning every interview by saying "Good Ebening". He also made easy, albeit funny, linguistic mistakes, such as calling Petr Cech "a very big person" when he meant to say "a very good person".
Arteta hails from the same province in the Basque country as Emery but whereas the latter had never previously lived in England when he stepped into the Arsenal dugout, the former had lived in England or Scotland since 2002 and had an excellent grasp of the language. And it showed in his first press conference as Gunners boss before facing Everton.
Arteta made the obvious statement of saying he felt "back at home" in his unveiling but he also addressed the problems that had beset Arsenal in the last few years of the Arsene Wenger era and under Emery. He said the team needed to "change the energy", he talked of "engaging everybody" and he warned: "If you don't have the right culture, in the difficult moments, the tree is going to shake."
Amorim also impressed the media in his first press conference as United boss and talked in similar terms to Arteta when he said: "As a coach you have to choose one way or another, I choose always 100 percent our way. There is no second way." The Portuguese continued to preach the same message as his reign continued, talking of the importance of "the way you train, the way you dress" after leaving Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho out of the squad for the Manchester derby.
Getty Taking a hard line
And both managers have been true to their word, having no qualms about moving on some of their best players when it became clear they did not fit with the culture they were trying to build. Arteta took on Mesut Ozil, at the time the club's best-paid player, early on in his tenure after the German refused to agree to a pay cut during the coronavirus pandemic. He sidelined the playmaker from that moment on and he never played for Arsenal again, terminating his contract six months early in January 2021.
Just two months later Arteta made the surprising call of dropping Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang against Tottenham due to the striker's apparent lack of punctuality and the following December he stripped him of the captaincy for returning late from a trip to France. Weeks later Arteta urged the club to cut their losses and pay up the player's contract so he could join Barcelona on a free transfer.
It was a remarkably bold move against a player who had signed a bumper new deal the previous season and who had been the talisman of their FA Cup win. But the move sent out a message that no player could defy the manager.
GettyCultural reset
The similarities between those cases and Amorim's treatment of Marcus Rashford are striking. Rashford became one of United's highest earners when he signed a new contract in the summer of 2023 and had an even bigger standing within the club than Aubameyang or Ozil due to being a homegrown player. But Amorim does not like the player's attitude towards training, namely the fact he went on a night out shortly before the game against Everton, and is not willing to play him until he sees an improvement.
Rashford scored twice in that game against Everton, as well as the first goal of the Amorim era, but the coach cannot hope to rebuild United if certain players are flouting their usual responsibilities and not preparing for matches as they should.
Arsenal have made real progress since sending Ozil and Aubameyang on their way and history has proven Arteta right, with the midfielder retiring at the age of 34 in 2023 and the striker now playing his football in Saudi Arabia. Removing the brilliant yet tempestuous personalities from the club was crucial to the cultural reset he talked about on day one.
Only time will tell if Rashford can turn his flagging career around, but Amorim is absolutely right to sanction his departure in January, even if it means making a big loss.