Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has shaken up the roles across the club’s backroom staff, with Carlos Fernandes now spearheading set-piece defending strategies. The Red Devils, after appointing former Lillestrom specialist Andreas Georgson for the role in the summer, have undergone a noticeable shift.
Despite Georgson’s presence, he no longer commands the technical area during dead-ball situations; that responsibility falls squarely on Fernandes’ shoulders.
In an effort to fortify their defence, United have incorporated specific drills into their pre-match routines, but the change wasn’t enough to prevent Arsenal from netting twice off corners in Amorim’s first loss at the helm.
Detailing the change after the 2-0 defeat, Amorim said: “The thinking is Carlos is responsible for set pieces, different stuff. Andreas is also there to help. That’s it. That’s the reason.”
He added: “I think if you follow the Premier League for a long time you can see that they [Arsenal] are also big players for that.
“And you can see it in every occasion that Saka and Martinelli have one against one, a lot of times they go outside and cross.
“They already know if the cross is going well, they can score. If it’s a corner, they can score.
“So we have to be better in that situation but like in every area of our game, we need time to improve also.
“But you can see in all Arsenal games every team has a problem with that.”
Amorim, aware of the potential pitfalls, gave a forewarning of what he described as a “storm” that would test United’s mettle.
He expressed at his pre-game press conference that matches may expose the team’s weaknesses, and this seemed to be prophetic after they exhibited recurring issues defending set-pieces in their game against Arsenal.
Reflecting on his choice of words, Amorim lamented at the Monday press briefing: “I have to be careful what I say!”
He expounded on football dynamics by saying: “If you follow football you understand this moment, what can happen in this moment.
“And then when I came from Sporting, I live the same situation. It’s a big club and you know everything is okay when you lose one game. Everything is not okay. I’m expecting that.
“Sometimes I’m too strong with words! Sometimes you have bad moments when you are changing so many things in order to improve.”
