What a group of Man United stars REALLY think about Ruben Amorim's tactics

Ruben Amorim paced up and down the technical area stuck in what must feel like a recurring nightmare. In front of him, an eighth defeat in the last 12 Premier League games was unfolding before his eyes as a patched-up Manchester United team went down to Tottenham on Sunday.

Behind him on this occasion, sat a bench full of teenagers he felt were too young and inexperienced to make a difference.

As the dust settled on the latest setback of his troubled spell as head coach, Amorim emerged from United's 1-0 loss at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium beaten but still unbowed. 'What you guys see and discuss every week, I also see,' he declared. 'I have a lot of problems. My job is so, so hard here — but I stick with my beliefs. I understand my situation, but I am confident in my work.'

The message from Amorim remained clear: he will not compromise on his football principles, even faced with United's worst record after 25 games of a league season since the club were relegated in 1974.

While he refuses to flinch, however, some players are beginning to lose faith in Amorim's system as results and performances continue to suffer. The 40-year-old may still have their support, but confidence in his methods is inevitably starting to ebb.

It is understood the disaffected group believe that even when United win, it is largely down to individual moments of quality or good fortune rather than a tactical triumph.

'The feeling is, "We got away with one but we might not be so lucky next time",' one dressing-room source tells Mail Sport.

That was especially true after the FA Cup tie against Leicester City earlier this month, when Harry Maguire's offside winner against his old club in stoppage time sent United through.

It came on the back of late goals in five more of Amorim's nine wins as United boss against Viktoria Plzen, Manchester City, Southampton, Rangers and Fulham. Even he couldn't bring himself to celebrate after the Leicester game.

To be fair to Amorim, he has never claimed to have cracked it since succeeding Erik ten Hag. Quite the opposite, in fact. He approaches what is left of a wretched season using words like 'survival' and 'suffering'.

At Spurs on Sunday, he talked about 'finishing the season and starting over'.

Let's not forget, this is a coach who would have preferred to wait until the summer to join United from Sporting Lisbon — and there must have been occasions when he wished he could have done precisely that.

In the meantime, the debate will go on about whether Amorim could be more flexible in his system, to help the players. The feeling among some of them is that it simply doesn't suit the current squad, and compromise is the only answer.

It was a point made by Micah Richards as he analysed Amorim's devotion to a back-three on Match of the Day 2.

'It's very hard to adapt when you've been playing in a four to go into a three, but as a manager you have to be able to adapt too,' said the former England defender. 'Sometimes you've got your way of playing, but can you tweak little things to make players more comfortable?

'He's got to stick by his principles and his tactics and take that into next season, but it's United and we expect results now.'

Richards also highlighted the disconnect in midfield that left huge gaps between Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro and so disgusted Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville about Amorim's tactics. 'It breaks all rules of football, it's absolute madness,' fumed former United captain Neville. 'The structure of the team is awful, you wouldn't see this in Under 9s football.'

There is no suggestion at all that United are wavering in their support of Amorim, but the big test will come at the end of the season when they need to back him in the transfer market.

Having handed Ten Hag another £200million last summer, the club then sacked him and sporting director Dan Ashworth. The transfer spend and compensation payouts put a strain on United's limited budget that is still having a knock-on effect in terms of cost-cutting and further staff redundancies.

It meant that Amorim was restricted to signing Patrick Dorgu in the January window, but there will be a little more leeway in the summer despite his admission that he will have to sell before he can buy.

United have sliced a significant amount off the wage bill by sending Marcus Rashford and Antony on loan, and will hope to continue that trend with the likes of £375,000-a-week highest earner Casemiro — even though the 32-year-old said in an interview in Spain yesterday that he is in no hurry to leave Old Trafford. 'I have a year-and-a-half left on my contract and I'd like to fulfil it here in Manchester,' he said. 'I'm comfortable here and so is my family.

'I'm very grateful to the Old Trafford fans and to the club. I'm happy. I'm young and I still have a lot of life left.

'I have to keep doing what I'm doing. I'd like to play more, of course. I don't know any player who doesn't want to play and help. I'd like to help the club at this time.'

Assuming United keep faith in Amorim, do they trust him with their transfer kitty to start rebuilding the squad and sign players who better suit his specific system when there is always a risk they might have to change direction again in future?

'They are miles off it,' Jamie Redknapp told Sky Sports. 'They need seven or eight players to change.'

Until then, United will continue down the same path of survival and suffering in the hope that better times are around the corner. Amorim is not for turning.