Ruben Amorim claims it will take time to make Man Utd great again

Ruben Amorin was a toddler two months short of his second birthday when Sir Alex Ferguson took charge of his first game as Manchester United manager at Oxford United 38 years ago this month.

Like Amorim, Ferguson had been parachuted into Old Trafford in November and handed the task of reviving the fallen giants of English football — something he succeeded in doing quite spectacularly after surviving those difficult early years.

Ipswich Town aren't Oxford United and Portman Road isn't the Manor Ground, where 13,545 fans saw Ferguson suffer an opening 2-0 defeat in 1986, but there are at least some comparisons to be drawn between the two scenarios as Amorim prepares for his first game as United's head coach in Suffolk on Sunday afternoon.

The 39-year-old is a smart guy and a student of the game; that much was clear from his unveiling at Carrington on Friday. He has watched a succession of managers fail to emerge from Ferguson's shadow over the last 11 years.

So having wisely deflected comparisons with his Portuguese compatriot Jose Mourinho, he was equally reluctant to draw any parallels with Ferguson either.

'It's hard to copy someone so I have to be me,' said Amorim, confirming he has yet to meet the Scot. 'It's a different time and I have to have a different approach. I cannot be the same guy that Sir Alex Ferguson was. I can also be demanding with a different approach. That is my focus.

'You have to be very demanding. This is a club that needs to win, has to win, so we have to show that to our players.'

The former Sporting Lisbon boss believes he can be just as ruthless when it comes to shaking things up at United.

For Ferguson, it was eradicating the booze culture that he inherited. In Amorim's case, it will be squeezing the extra effort out of an under-achieving squad to play the way he wants in a 3-4-3 formation, starting on Sunday at Ipswich who will be buoyed by their first Premier League win at Tottenham last time out.

'In the dressing room there is some places to have fun, (there are) some places to work hard,' he warned.

'I can be ruthless when I have to be. If you think I will be the nicest guy you have seen, if there is someone just thinking about himself I will be a different person.

'I am not that kind of guy that wants to show he's the boss. They will feel it in the small details that I can be the smiling one, but when I have a job to do I will be a different person. They understand that.'

Much of the focus in the short time Amorim has had to work with his players for a week during the international break after securing a visa has been on keeping hold of the ball and working like dogs to retrieve it when they lose possession. It is central to his philosophy.

'It's so much harder to come into a team in the middle of the season,' added Amorim. 'You have to (get to) know the players during the games.

'If you are winning, it's a lot of fun having a lot of games and trying to make some practical changes. But if you are losing, you don't have the time in training to work out everything you want to.

'Where you can improve a team is in training, this is the most important aspect. You can ask the players to recover (the ball) and react really fast, but if you don't make any exercises with that it's really hard to do it on video. We will find ways to cope with that.

'We're taking things game by game and the current objective is a win against Ipswich.'

It took Ferguson three-and-a-half years to win his first trophy at United after that opening game at the Manor Ground and Amorim knows he is unlikely to be afforded the same breathing space.

'The only way I have to try and survive this will be to focus intensely on my work, and there's a lot to do here at our club,' he concluded.

'I know the expectations. High expectations can be a problem because we need to know how to manage these expectations.

'We know it will take time and it won't be easy.'