Ruben Amorim caught cold by weight of expectation following Leeds draw

Like many managerial ‘outbursts’ these days it came out of nowhere, but will make an impact everywhere in Manchester United’s troubled set-up. Ruben Amorim declared himself “the manager, not the coach” with a barely disguised challenge to his employers and recruitment staff.

Suddenly impassioned after routine chat about Benjamin Šeško’s struggle to score and United’s pattern of play in their 1-1 draw against Leeds United at Elland Road, Amorim let go in response to a question about whether the United board was still showing confidence in him.

“Guys, I stop with that, I notice that you receive selective information about everything,” he said, departing from a mostly positive script about his team’s draw in a typically febrile fixture.

“I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not to be the coach of Manchester United,” he said; “And that is clear. I know my name is not [Thomas] Tuchel, it’s not [Antonio] Conte, it’s not [José] Mourinho. But I’m the manager of Manchester United, and it’s going to be like this for 18 months, or until the board decides to change.

“That was my point. I want to finish with that. I’m not going to quit. I will do my job until the other guy is coming here to replace me.”

The translation? Amorim was venting the frustration of one denied the power he feels he should have in making changes to his squad. It was the cry of those who feel they’ve been carved out of decisions on ins and outs.

Justified or not, his view was clear. He also sounded adamant that he will be gone when his current contract expires a year and a half from now – assuming he stays that long.

“I just want to say I’m going to be the manager of this team, not the coach,” he said – again. “And that is going to finish in 18 months. And then everyone is going to move on. That was the deal. That is my job – not to be the coach,” he said.

“If people cannot handle the Gary Neville [comments] and the criticisms of everything, we need to…

“Every department, the scouting department, the sport director, needs to do their job, and I’ll do mine, for 18 months.”

There were echoes of Enzo Maresca complaining he was denied “support” at Chelsea and leaving the club days later. Maresca’s remark may have been intended to hasten his own departure. Amorim seems more intent on drawing attention to a power struggle he still thinks he can win. But he has a problem with his “manager” mantra. When he joined in 2024 he was announced as the team’s “head coach”.

It was a mercy meanwhile that Manchester United’s players couldn’t hear what Leeds United’s fans were saying about them in this uber-hostile stadium. Amorim’s team look delicate enough without the vituperation that comes with this rivalry.

Today’s Manchester United are a collection of the maligned, a recurring tale of consternation. Rarely is thought given to how it must feel to experience so much negativity – much of it based on the side’s own mediocrity across most of the 13 years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.

Now a self-titled “fan”, Ferguson was in the directors’ box of a ground he called the most bellicose of English venues. Like all United supporters, he waits for the ship of United’s prestige to steam back into view. It’s a long vigil, made no easier here by Leeds’s fine run of recent form and uncertainty over comings and goings in January – principally, Bruno Fernandes, the team’s best player and one of few a neutral would pay to watch.

Matheus Cunha is another, and is 18 matches into a United career that could still be called an upgrade on what went before. Joshua Zirkzee is at the opposite end of that spectrum. Cast by many as a classic example of what’s gone wrong with the recruitment system, Zirkzee helped change this game with his first kick after replacing Leny Yoro.

Zirkzee slipped a pass through to Cunha to score three minutes after Leeds’ most creative player, Brenden Aaronson, had scored for a home team now pulling away from the relegation zone.

Days after Gary Neville described his old club’s draw with Wolves as “the baddest of the bad,” a sparkling performance or statement win still eludes the 20-time English champions.

Part of United’s problem could be called sustained low morale; attritional confidence deficit. Šeško has scored two league goals in 16 appearances for United and looked a long way off scoring his third. A clue to his problems is that he lost more than half his basic physical duels with defenders. His running into space is fine, and he can drop off the front line to link play with enough assurance, but as a goal threat he was easily smothered.

United finished 12th in the 2025 calendar year of results. They were fifth when the final whistle blew at Elland Road so there was progress there at least. But after Amorim spoke nobody was talking about a forgettable game.

Friction between him and the club over transfers has been widely reported over Christmas. It escalated quickly here. His point made, he rose and left the room with a dash of drama. It was one of those exits that leave press officers deeply relieved that it’s over – and stressed about what comes next.

Photograph by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images