Ruben Amorim will have to come up with a different plan to repeat Man City trick with Manchester United

"United cannot play the way we play." So said Ruben Amorim after guiding Sporting to a thrilling 4-1 win against Manchester City at the start of November. He wasn't kidding, was he?

The 39-year-old, seeing out his tenure in Lisbon before taking up the post of head coach at Old Trafford, meant it in the sense that United couldn't be so defensive, sitting back and then breaking with electrifying speed, but in hindsight, it's a comment that could be interpreted in a number of different ways.

Rasmus Hojlund's 88th-minute winner in Plzen on Thursday night has kept Amorim's start reasonably positive, with three wins, one draw, and two defeats. However, his 3-4-3 system has looked a very different beast when United's players fill those roles rather than Sporting's.

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Part of that is understandable. That Sporting side had been drilled for years on how to perfect patterns of play in a system Amorim never deviated from. United's squad is still learning the ropes, and they are doing so when time on the training ground is severely limited. As Hojlund said on Thursday, they are developing this system by playing games.

But it's not only tactically where there is a shortfall, it's also physical. Amorim has made it public that the squad he inherited doesn't have the fitness capacity to run the distances he expects in a system that puts a premium on running. That was much noticeable when Sporting beat City.

That night, Pep Guardiola's side went 1-0 up, and Sporting had to survive an early onslaught, but when they got a foothold in the game, they kept their foot on the gas. It was the third