Owen Hargreaves has warned Ruben Amorim that his midfield tactics with Manchester United will be exposed by Arsenal and Manchester City.
Amorim secured his first win as United manager in his debut game at Old Trafford on Thursday evening as his side sealed a 3-2 victory over Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League.
Alejandro Garnarcho opened the scoring inside the opening minute but United were behind by the 23rd minute before Rasmus Hojlund equalised shortly before half time. The Denmark international then scored United’s winner from close range in the 50th minute.
Amorim opted for a central-midfield pairing of Manuel Ugarte and Bruno Fernandes with Mason Mount and Garnacho playing behind Hojlund.
But Hargreaves feels United will need to play a three-man midfield when they come up against Arsenal in the Premier League next Wednesday.
‘I think they’ve got a lot of good players. Do they have the players capable of winning the Premier League or Champions League? Probably not. That’s going to take time to sort the recruitment out,’ Hargreaves told TNT Sports.
‘The most important thing is that they get results. Obviously Everton at the weekend is a tough game but at home you’d expect them [United] to win that game.
‘Tough fixtures, especially the Arsenal one coming up after that, but they need to find a way to get results. Today they didn’t play brilliantly but they found a way to win the game which is the most important thing.
‘I don’t think he has the personnel that he had at Sporting.
‘I think if you’re going to play two in there [midfield], they need to be two super-athletes and cover the distances.
‘I’m not sure they have that as such. I think they’ve got some really good players, different players but he might have to tweak it that maybe one of the No.10s drops in and one of the wing-backs gets a little bit higher for the width.
‘But I think playing two in there against an Arsenal or a [Manchester] City, I think that’s going to be really, really difficult.
‘I think it’s a work in progress, we need to be patient but we’re getting there.’
Hargreaves also believes Kobbie Mainoo, who is yet to feature in either of Amorim’s games as manager, will play a key role in United’s midfield going forward.
‘It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Kobbie Mainoo, such a special young player, you’d think he’d kind of almost walk into that midfield,’ Hargreaves said.
‘Ugarte I thought played really well today, there are a lot of people who are going to get opportunities.
‘It was nice to see Hojlund step up and score some goals. He’s a super talented young man, I think there’s so much potential in him and that’s the good thing about Ruben Amorim, he’s brilliant with young players, we saw what he did with Viktor Gyokeres, I’m sure he could do that with Rasmus Hojlund as well.
‘There are so many different options to come. It’ll just be exciting to get [Leny] Yoro back fit, [Luke] Shaw back fit, [Noussair] Mazraoui plays amazing every time he plays, there’s a lot of potential here.’