Why Ruben Amorim would be a Successful Chelsea manager

And addressing some of the concerns

Ruben Amorim is a name which has been strongly linked with the Chelsea for a couple of years now, even back when Graham Potter took over as head coach, his name was around the Chelsea job. However now, with the potential departure of Mauricio Pochettino in the next few months, his name has been linked strongly with Chelsea again, this time as the potential number one managerial target for Chelsea.

I've been following the Portuguese tactician for quite a while and he's become one of my favourite young managers, someone I believe is well suited to the Chelsea job. So today I'm going to argue why I think he's a good fit and also respond to some people's concerns about his candidacy.

The first thing to say is there is almost no “perfect” candidate for the Chelsea job. All the people linked with us have flaws of some kind.

Amorim’s Strengths

Before we examine the questions and concerns about Amorim, lets go through his qualities, experience track record and tactical set up and what to me are his key strengths as a manager.

His track record:

Amorim has an incredible track record as a head coach. His win percentage as a manager overall is 70%, which even for the Portuguese league, is pretty phenomenal.

He began his managerial career at Braga, where he won the Taca De Liga (the league cup), winning 10 of his 12 games in charge before moving to Sporting CP in 2020. There, he won the league title in his first season, 20/21, as well as another league cup, following this up with another league cup in the 21/22 season. So without doubt, he is a proven winner, with the ability to get results relatively quickly.

This season, Sporting CP are top of the Portuguese league after 23 games, and only lost 2 league games all season. Twice this season they have achieved club record victories of 8-0.

Sporting’s club record transfer is 20m euros (Viktor Gyokeres, you might have heard of him), and they regularly lose their star players to bigger clubs. Despite this, Amorim has scored notable victories in European competition. Last season, he defeated Eintracht Frankfurt, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal (on penalties), out performing all of them despite being underdogs, in particular against the two Premier League sides.

His Tactical Set Up

Amorim generally sets his teams up in a 3-4-3 formation. He plays a possession based game but is generally pragmatic, he can adapt his tactics to suit the players he has available. Amorim tends to coach his players to do interchanging movements to distract opposing defenders and create space for the attackers to run into.

Amorim wants his three centre-backs to break the first line through the centre of the pitch as often as possible. The middle centre back sometimes pushes up into midfield to create overloads there for the opponent. Width is provided usually by the wing backs - something which would be very useful at Chelsea given our strength in that area. He could make the absolute most of Reece James, Malo Gusto and Ben Chilwell (or a new LB).

Sometimes this 3-4-3 becomes a 3-4-3 diamond, with one midfielder (for us, maybe Caicedo or even Ezno, who can play well from deep) dropping back deeper and other midfielders feeding the attackers, usually with a powerful centre forward up top.

Amorim uses a high pressing style, something our players are already used to, attempting to win the ball back in the final third. Out of possession, his Sporting team are very intense. When pressing high, the front three narrow to prioritise protecting the central spaces. So for us, you’d have Nkunku, Palmer and our striker all going narrow to protect the midfield and counters, and win the ball back. Wing backs then provide the width.

He also is able to coach his teams to defend in low blocks where necessary, keeping a solid shape which prevents shots outside the box. Amorim generally attacks with five players, and keeps five players deeper to counter transitions, so keeping balance.

To me this is a style of play very suited to Chelsea and able to maximise a lot of our talent. All players are given solid tactical instructions about their positioning and roles on the pitch, not left to simply do as they like and make it up as they go along, as they are under Pochettino. Yet Amorim is also flexible enough to be winning to change his tactics if needed. Perfect for Chelsea.

Giving Youth a Chance

Ruben Amorim is courageous. In his time at Sporting, he’s never been afraid to go to the academy and give players debuts, sometimes as substitutes. We’ve seen Pochettino afraid to bring on Cobham players in PL games.

My view is Amorim would be bold enough to give them a chance if the opportunity came. He wouldn’t say he has no midfielders when he has a few academy midfielders available. He’d use them.

He’s also worked with a lot of young talent in his squad, and shown an ability to develop and manage young players whilst still getting results, something very important with this Chelsea squad.

Shithousery and Mentality

Ruben Amorim interned with Jose Mourinho in 2018, and is on record as saying this:

“My reference as a manager is Jose Mourinho”

Not a bad reference for a potential Chelsea manager, eh?

Amorim is known for his charisma on the touchline and in press conferences, and there’s been videos circulated of his shithousery and fighting spirit on the touchline. Amorim is a fighter, something Chelsea fans like in their head coaches. In my view, he’s also a winner, he’ll do what it takes to win, and gets his teams fighting for him and the shirt.

We’ve missed that at Chelsea, I think he’d connect with Chelsea fans very quickly and become a fan favourite.

Ability to manage up

Amorim has been at Sporting for 4 seasons now. Its a big club with big pressures and expectations, yet he’s been able to navigate those and keep his job. He’s not fallen out with his superiors and has maintained the trust and support of the fanbase.

This shouldn’t be underestimated as a positive quality, especially given how our club can operate at times. The ability to manage upward and connect with fans and keep their support can be invaluable.

So what of the concerns?

So lets’ look at the main concerns people have expressed about Amorim.

The 3 ATB formation

Many Chelsea fans are still traumatised by Antonio Conte’s second season in charge where his 3 ATB formation was dire and awful to watch, and as such are totally averse to an 3 ATB coach.

My view on this, is that the 3 ATB formation has evolved since the days of Antonio Conte at Chelsea. It’s a formation that’s evolved and adapted - partially inspired by Thomas Tuchel’s work at Chelsea, ironically. Its’ a system which can now be quite aggressive and proactive.

Many of the top managers like Thomas Tuchel, Xabi Alonso, Julian Nagelssman, all use 3 ATB systems but the last two especially play dynamic, attacking football.

Pep Guardiola has even used a variant of 3 ATB, especially in Man City’s treble season last year. 3 ATB formations are becoming more popular within modern coaching, so we should have no fear of this. We’re not heading for Conte Mk 2. Indeed it would be far closer to Tuchel Mk 2.

Flexibility

One issue fans always worry about - rightly - with new managers is do they have a plan B, can they adapt to different types of tactics and teams. Can they break down low blocks?

In terms of Amorim’s flexibility, as I said before, he’s lost a lot of talent whilst Sporting manager, but he’s always found a way to adapt to the squad he has available.

This would negate any concerns about misusing our midfield, because if he found himself with a talent like Enzo Fernandez, he’d adapt his system to build around him and maximise his potential, because he knows doing that helps the team win.

Right now at Sporting CP, doesn’t have the luxury of keeping his best players, so is always having to find ways to adapt to keep the team winning. His goal is to win and he finds ways to make the most of the talent he has to win. Again, something needed to manage Chelsea successfully (and win over fans).

His age / inexperience

“I mean haven’t we been here before with young coaches with only a few years experience? Also he’s only managed in the Portuguese league.”

I take this point, and acknowledge this is a valid question. However, I sense from his personality and character, that Amorim would have no problem dealing with the pressure of Chelsea. Being manager of Sporting CP has big pressures - you’re expected to win every season, and there’s big pressure internally and from fans to be successful. Even in bad periods at Sporting CP he’s never cracked or wilted, in fact he’s normally come back stronger.

In terms of his age, our squad is so young, he’ll be a lot older than pretty much all of them anyway. He’s also worked with young squads before and been successful, so that’s not a concern to me at all.

“He’s just like Poch because his teams press”

With respect, this is one of the most ridiculous arguments I’ve read and I’m going to spend barely any time on it. Amorim is a modern coach who players a modern, technical style of football, and is tactically completely different to Mauricio Pochettino.

Many teams, who play very different tactical set ups, play with a high press now, this isn’t exclusive to Pochettino, and having watched a fair amount of Amorim’s Sporting, I can tell you his tactics are completely different to Pochettino.

In Conclusion:

My view is and remains that Ruben Amorim is an excellent fit to be Chelsea manager.

His tactics, ability to improve players and work with young players, winning mentality, personality and to adapt himself tactically to win are all things which are required in any successful Chelsea manager. His set up would suit a lot of our players and give them a clear tactical framework. There’s a reason the likes of Liverpool are taking him seriously as a managerial candidate.

Although some of the concerns are valid, I’m confident he’d adapt very quickly and be able to deal with the pressure. I think he would build a strong, competitive Chelsea team and improve the players we have, making the most our of the elite talents in our squad to achieve success.

Alongside Nagelsmann, he’s my top choice candidate to replace Mauricio Pochettino at Chelsea.

The Score