It is easy to oversimplify Ruben Amorim’s attacking tactics. On the surface, Manchester United look predictable because they just get the ball and attack, direct play. That impression has fed the perception that United lack a sophisticated plan.

That view misses what’s actually happening. United’s attack is not about pre-set patterns. It is built on relationships.

Bruno Fernandes is the focal point of their play. His quick forming connection with new signings Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo has turned their forward play into something this is genuinely beautiful to watch.

The formation they use is not the story, the story is the way in which each individual player interacts with each other.

The Underlying Complexity of United’s Attack

In Amorim’s system, United are not trying to dominate possession. Each attack is not choreographed in the way more positional teams like Manchester City or Arsenal would play. Instead, it resembles street football: flicks, tight one and two-touch passes, minimal touches, angled runs on the diagonal in crowded areas. It demands enormous trust and understanding.

Each attack can look different because of the way players combine in tight spaces, improvise runs, and react to one another. The players have to remain in similar zones on the pitch to ensure they can consistently connect to execute those shorter passing sequences.

They’re predictable only in their directness—you know they’ll attack immediately once they win the ball, whether via quick combinations or a ball over the top—but every attack is unique.

The alertness required to play this way is built in training. The coach creates the environment, then hands over creative control so players can improvise and create within shared zones.

When confidence is high and the shared understanding is sharp, their play becomes increasingly unpredictable. If those connections between the players are off, they can look stale; without those short combinations, the default option will be to kick the ball long to reset play.

There’s no single sequence that defines their attack. You can’t capture it by pointing to one clip. That’s precisely what makes it both direct and unpredictable.

The Chelsea match is the only outlier due to the pouring rain. It’s difficult to play the ball on the ground when there’s large puddles of water on the pitch. The first 15 minutes against Fulham are a great representation of the attacking dynamics I discussed here.

The Difference Between This Season and Last Season

The key difference this season is that Bruno Fernandes finally has partners to bounce off when he pushes forward—because of his connection with Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo.

Past forwards—Marcus Rashford, Antony, Alejandro Garnacho—are less suited to improvisational, decision-making in chaotic moments. They are A to B forwards who are not made for the smaller spaces. There was a disconnect, a pent-up frustration, as if Bruno and the front line were playing two different games.

Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, by contrast, thrive on combination play. They want to bounce passes, improvise, and adapt to chaotic moments. Both are Premier League-proven and in form: Mbeumo’s 20 goals and 7 assists for Brentford, Cunha’s 15 and 6 for Wolves—numbers produced in teams with far fewer attacking resources. When Bruno joins the attack through the center, he finally has partners on his wavelength—confident, experienced, and able to match him.

That blend of experience and confidence will rub off on the rest of the squad. It has already breathed life into the attack. Mason Mount, Amad Diallo, Joshua Zirkzee, Diogo Dalot, Patrick Dorgu, Casemiro, and Kobbie Mainoo have all shown signs of mirroring the fluidity forged by Bruno, Cunha, and Mbeumo. New striker Benjamin Sesko may contribute in time, but he remains unproven at this level.

The Bruno-Cunha-Mbeumo axis is central to their ceiling. They could survive losing either Cunha or Mbeumo for a spell to injury against lesser teams—but not both. They have numerous players who can play in several positions, which gives Amorim options, but they cannot afford to lose Bruno.

What It Means For The Future

Results so far only hint at their potential. Manchester United opened the season with a valiant display against Arsenal, limiting them to just three shots on target before conceding from a corner in a narrow 1-0 home defeat. At Fulham, fine margins cost them—Cunha struck the post and Fernandes missed a penalty—turning what could have been a 3-1 victory into a 1-1 draw. Against Burnley they created enough chances to score at least five goals, Amad’s miss from Mbeumo’s cross into an open net the clearest of them, yet had to settle for a 3-2 win. Manchester City away is the second hardest fixture on their calendar behind Arsenal away; a 3-0 loss with injuries to Cunha and Mount is disappointing but expected. The 2-2 draw with Grimsby Town, followed by a penalty shootout exit in the Carabao Cup, felt more like an embarrassing fluke—born of rotation and a dreadful showing from goalkeeper Andre Onana—than a reflection of their true level. The 2-1 win over Chelsea might jumpstart their season, though it came under unusual conditions — a red card and heavy rain that suited United’s direct play while disrupting Chelsea’s short passing.

Manchester United has the highest xG per game (1.94) in the Premier League this season. No other club has a higher total xG (9.7) or has taken more shots (79). They had the toughest start to the new Premier League season of any club, according to Opta Analyst.

The team Amorim inherited last November was disjointed and it wasn’t built for him. They are a mid-table team. They had a terrible record in the Premier League but he got them to a Europa League Final. They signed quality players in the summer and these new relationships between the players will take time to build. This is not the same United squad we saw last season. Coming away with seven points from Fulham, Burnley, and Chelsea is far from a crisis when you would expect them to lose to Arsenal and Manchester City.

With sharper execution, the conversation around Amorim might already be very different—less about a “simplistic approach,” more about an attempt to restore Manchester United to their old glory days: direct attacking football, emphasis on the wings, quick interchanging passes in advanced positions, and relentless transitions. The difference being that the teams of old had world-class defenders.

Barring major injuries, the problem won’t be their attacking setup or chance creation; it will be finishing, confidence, and—most of all—the defense.

Because United overload the wings and funnel play wide in possession, the center can be exposed when they turn the ball over. Defenders are encouraged to be aggressive and can over-commit, leaving space in behind. The quality of their defense doesn’t match the quality they have in attack. Luke Shaw is a below average emergency option at center-back, but he’s not a natural center-back in the way Leny Yoro is. If you replaced the back line of almost any side in the Premier League with United’s defenders and goalkeeper, their performance would immediately drop.

They should struggle to avoid conceding at least one goal per game. If you can’t outscore your opponent, you can’t win, but at the very least as a neutral they are one of the most fascinating attacking teams to watch.

If Amorim can shore up the defense without blunting the forwards too much, it could spark the turnaround United need—even if it requires some concessions in attack.