(Football news) Manchester United have been victorious in each of their last nine league games at promoted sides, with only Chelsea managing to triumph in 10+ straight away matches in succession against such opponents.
Chelsea incredibly posted 21 wins in a row away from home against promoted sides between October 2002 and November 2008, but Manchester United will be bidding to become just the second side in history to reach 10.
The 20-time English champions have been victorious in 17 of their last 19 Premier League matches against newly promoted teams, remaining unbeaten since a 4-1 defeat to Watford in November 2021.
Sunday’s match at Portman Road will represent Ruben Amorim’s first game as Manchester United head coach, with the Portuguese tasked with leading the Red Devils to their fifth league victory of the campaign.
Amorim will lead Manchester United for the first time against Ipswich
Manchester United are widely expected to operate in a 3-4-3 formation under Amorim, but the Portuguese has insisted that “the principles are the same”.
“As a coach, you have to choose one way or another. I always chose 100%, our way. I prefer to risk a little bit but to push from the first moment. If they feel since the first day that I believe so much in our way of playing, they will believe too,” Amorim told reporters during his press conference on Friday.
“So there is no second doubts, no second way. It is one way we are going to do it and we will adapt some players because we do not have the right profiles, this team was built for a different system, but like I told you guys already, it is the same thing playing with five or four, the principles are the same.
“The positioning is a little bit different. On Sunday, you will see the list of players, the starting XI and you don’t feel a lot of change, but you feel it in the game during the positioning and in the way they receive the ball or cover the ball. You will see some changes.”
Amorim is determined to make Manchester United players believe again
Amorim was also asked on Friday whether he felt that the players had lost belief due to their struggles last season and in the opening months of the 2024-25 campaign.
“For sure but this is normal in every team, if you do not win games, you start to have suspicions on the way you are playing. [Such as] I cannot control the ball with pressure, so these small things you start to feel it within the players, you can understand it, almost when they walk to the game or to the warm-up,” he added.
“You can feel it if they are confident or not, that is a normal thing and I think I have to help them to feel like it will take time, but they are ready to cope with the demands of the game in the Premier League.
“They proved that and you can even see, last year, they have a bad first half, and then in the second half, without any tactical change, they will turn up and change things, so they have to find that mindset to play this way throughout all of the game.”
Manchester United’s first two Premier League matches under Amorim’s management will come against Ipswich and Everton, while his first taste of European action at Old Trafford will come against Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League on November 28.
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