When you consider how hard Erik ten Hag pushed to bring one of his signings to Manchester United, the manner in which the Dutchman has utilised the 27-year-old at Old Trafford feels all the more confusing.
For a player who’s biggest weakness is arguably his mobility – or a lack thereof – Ten Hag’s baffling determination to have Manchester United‘s players run a marathon in every match was never likely to get the best out of Sofyan Amrabat.
In fact, like with the ageing and increasingly error-prone Casemiro, there is a feeling that Ten Hag’s tactics are actively making Amrabat worse.
During Morocco’s stirring run to the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup, the Fiorentina loanee thrived in a deep-block midfield. In contrast, he’s all-but drowned sea in the wide open oceans of space in the Man United engine room.
It is no coincidence that Amrabat’s best performances have come in games where the Red Devils have dominated possession – such as against Crystal Palace in the EFL Cup – while his worst have come in matches where both teams are bombing from end to end in a manner more reminiscent of NBA than top-level football.
“I don’t know why they’re playing a man-to-man system,” a bemused Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports in December with Amrabat looking very much like a battered old Skoda going up against a fleet of Porsches during the highly-fortunate 0-0 draw with Liverpool. He can’t run.“
Sofyan Amrabat is destined for Manchester United exit
Amrabat, perhaps through little fault of his own, seems to have no chance to securing a £21 million permanent move to Man United this summer. The former Utrecht and Feyenoord man looks destined to be on his way out of Fiorentina too, with his next steps at club level very much uncertain.
Fulham were linked again last week, The Cottagers reportedly still keen on a man they targeted before his arrival at Old Trafford on deadline day last year. According to Fabrizio Romano, Barcelona showed an interest in January too, albeit seemingly viewing the 27-year-old as a short-term solution following Gavi’s injury.
Tuttosport are now reporting that Amrabat’s agency – the same SEG group that represents Ten Hag, by the way – are offering their client to Italian giants AC Milan and Juventus. In what may be a boost for Amrabat, Juve director Cristiano Giuntoli is a big fan, and tried to sign him for Napoli when the midfielder was at Hellas Verona.
Similar issues for Casemiro
Whatever the future holds for Amrabat, however, his memories of that 2023/24 season under Ten Hag are likely to lead to plenty of internal debate.
On one hand, you could argue that Amrabat would not have been a Man United player in the first place without Ten Hag. The Dutchman worked with him at Utrecht, after all, and was the one who championed his arrival despite apparent reservations from the club’s scouting staff.
On the other, you’d have thought that Ten Hag would know enough about Amrabat’s strengths and weaknesses not to minimise the former and expose the latter.
You could argue that Amrabat simply isn’t suited to the hustle and bustle of Premier League football. But it’s certainly not hard to imagine him performing a whole lot better in the system Ten Hag utilised last season, when Man United tended to be far more compact out of possession.
Casemiro, lest we forget, was largely outstanding throughout much of 2022/23. While his rapid demise may be a classic case of Father Time catching up to a footballer with so many miles on the clock, Ten Hag certainly hasn’t helped to slow down the decline.
‘Seeing players at their worst’
“That type of football leads to seeing players at their worst at times,” Rio Ferdinand told Vibe with Five a few weeks back, comments which appear all the more prescient following Sunday’s latest capitulation, this time against second-tier Coventry City in the FA Cup semi-finals.
“Casemiro, for all that he’s won and the great player that he’s been, he will look a worse player when the tactics are the way they are. When it’s open, transition football, when there’s big spaces around him. In that midfield, at times, another midfielder is 20 yards away, 30 yards away.
“That never happened at Real Madrid, so you don’t see his worst traits, which is his mobility.”
You could take that entire paragraph, replace ‘Casemiro’ with ‘Amrabat’ and ‘Real Madrid’ with ‘Fiorentina’, and the same salient points would still apply.
Ten Hag can be forgiven for attempting to put his stamp on the Man United squad, and get the team playing in the way he sees the game. But the Dutchman’s remarkable aversion to adapting his tactics to suit the players at his disposal looks destined to be his – and Sofyan Amrabat’s – undoing.