Ruben Amorim axes Ruud van Nistelrooy on first day as Manchester United head coach

Ruud van Nistelrooy has left Manchester United after Ruben Amorim wielded the axe on his first day as the club’s new head coach.

Amorim landed in England via private jet around 2pm on Monday with United confirming the news Van Nistelrooy had gone in an official statement only three hours later.

Van Nistelrooy, the former United striker, was placed in interim charge following Erik ten Hag’s sacking a fortnight ago and oversaw a four-match unbeaten run, including Sunday’s 3-0 victory over Leicester City in the Premier League. He had originally been brought back to the club in July as one of two new assistants to Ten Hag.

But Amorim has decided he does not want the Dutchman to be part of his backroom staff and would prefer to work predominantly with the coaches he has brought over from Sporting Lisbon.

In a statement, United said: “Ruud is, and always will be, a Manchester United legend. We are grateful for his contribution and the way in which he has approached the role throughout his time with the club. He will always be very welcome at Old Trafford.”

United also confirmed that Ten Hag’s other assistant Rene Hake had also left the club along with Jelle ten Rouwelaar and performance analyst Pieter Morel.

Darren Fletcher, the United first team coach under Ten Hag, could stay on, with the club saying they will confirm the full composition of Amorim’s staff in due course. There is also a decision to make on Andreas Georgson, who was another coach brought to United by Ten Hag in the summer, and fellow coach Craig Mawson.

Amorim was joined by five of his backroom staff from Sporting – Emanuel Ferro, Carlos Fernandes, Adelio Candido, Paulo Barreira and Jorge Vital – on an 11am flight from Beja in Portugal on Monday having overseen his final game as Sporting manager the night before with a 4-2 win over Braga.

Amorim and his staff were then whisked to United’s Carrington training ground in black Mercedes people carriers where they were met by the club’s chief executive Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox.

Wearing jeans, trademark black zip up hoodie and black Prada trainers, Amorim was all smiles as he greeted the Old Trafford executives backing him to bring back the glory days to the club. He was then given a tour of Carrington, which is currently undergoing a £50 million revamp.

The new United head coach – who will not be able to start coaching until his visa has been ratified – insisted he was not “naive” to the scale of the challenge facing him at Old Trafford.

“I feel ready for the new challenge,” he said. “I’m not naive, I know it’s going to be very different, very difficult. I’m at peace now. I can focus on my new job and I’m looking forward to starting tomorrow. I know it will be difficult to reproduce what I have here anywhere else but there are other places with different exposure and pressure.”

Amorim has also dropped the biggest hint yet that he plans to play the 3-4-2-1 system with which he has enjoyed such success at Sporting.

The new head coach said he wanted to start with a structure with which he was familiar as he assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the squad and the injury situation. He is due to take charge of his first United game away at Ipswich Town in the Premier League on Sunday week.

“I know how I am going to play in the beginning, because you have to start with a structure that you know,” he said. “Then you will adapt with the players that you have, some injuries, or no injuries, what kind of players have the abilities to defend, attack, I will discover that in the next few weeks. We don’t have a lot of time to train, so I have to show something that I know very well. You can take whatever you want from that.”

Matthijs de Ligt, who admitted it was not easy to see the manager who brought him to Old Trafford sacked a few months later, believes United are more than capable of adapting to Amorim’s system.

“I’ve played in a back three for the [Dutch] national team, but also Juventus and Bayern,” the defender said. “I think a back three or a back four, it’s in general the same, the only thing of importance is how the team is set up. You can play in a back three but if everything is not compact and everybody is doing their own job then it’s going to be really difficult, the same in a back four.

“That’s going to be the biggest challenge for the coaches – to get everyone on the same wavelength and same page to improve as a team and improve as players.

“I think the squad is capable of everything, back three, back four – the most important thing is how you play together, how you set up together.”

Team Amorim: The ‘good cop’ and ex-Liverpool sports scientist in his backroom staff

Carlos Fernandes (No 2)

Fernandes, just 29, has been by Amorim’s side since he began his career in coaching. He has been Amorim’s most trusted lieutenant since he was 23 at Casa Pia, where he was initially unsalaried. Amorim considers Fernandes to be a “much better coach” than him. “I often say if I become Bobby Robson, then he’ll be my José Mourinho,” Amorim once said.

Emanuel Ferro (Assistant)

Ferro, who has worked previously at Sporting with United midfielders Bruno Fernandes and Manuel Ugarte, began his coaching badges in 2001.

The 45-year-old from Lisbon had two spells coaching in the youth ranks at Benfica before joining Sporting’s academy in 2010 for a year. After three years away from football, he worked in Malaysia and Tunisia before returning to Portugal in 2015. Quickly became an ally of Amorim at Sporting.

Adelio Candido (Assistant)

Even younger than Fernandes at just 28, the Angola born coach has a sports degree and first became known to Amorim at Casa Pia, where he was already working as a youth coach. He often analyses play from the stands and will funnel messages through to Amorim and his staff. Considered to be one of the “good cops” on the staff. He assists with the set-piece work.

Jorge Vital (Goalkeeping coach)

At 63, Vital is by some distance the oldest member of Amorim’s staff. He had a successful playing career in the 1980s and 1990s and came on to Amorim’s radar at Braga, where they worked together before the future United head coach took him to Sporting.

Paulo Barreira (Sports scientist)

Formerly with Liverpool and Arsenal and the one man on Amorim’s new-look staff with experience of the Premier League. Born in Guimaraes, he finished his PhD at Liverpool John Moores University and is well regarded in sports medicine circles. His expertise is in rehabilitation, injury prevention and physical conditioning. Given the injuries United have suffered in recent years, Barreira has a key role to play.

Comment: Van Nistelrooy a distraction Amorim does not need

Ruud van Nistelrooy has made no secret of the fact that becoming the assistant manager of Manchester United was the only job for which he was willing to give up the role of a No 1.

The former United striker, who scored 150 goals in just 219 games for the club over five seasons, passed up the chance to resume his managerial career elsewhere this summer when he accepted the post of Erik ten Hag’s assistant.

Van Nistelrooy probably could not have expected that, only a few months later, he would replace Ten Hag on an interim basis following his fellow Dutchman’s sacking.

Having left the club under something of a cloud in 2006 after a falling out with Sir Alex Ferguson, it is unlikely he imagined he would be picking his old manager’s brains before taking his place in the dugout as manager himself 18 years later against Leicester City in the League Cup.

That was an experience he was able to savour on three further occasions at Old Trafford, during which time he was well received by the United fans.

A 5-2 win over a severely weakened Leicester in the Carabao Cup was followed by a draw with Chelsea and a 2-0 victory against PAOK Salonika in the Europa League, before he concluded his interim spell with Sunday’s 3-0 win over Leicester in the Premier League.

After the chaos and turbulence of Ten Hag’s final months in charge, Van Nistelrooy has helped to stabilise things over the past fortnight but now United need to move on.

If that sounds ruthless, it is because that is precisely what United need to be. This is not the time for sentiment or clouded judgment – goodness knows there has been enough of that at Old Trafford in recent times.

Amorim intends to bring three of his Sporting assistants – Carlos Fernandes, Adelio Candido and Emanuel Ferro – with him to United, plus goalkeeping coach Jorge Vital and sports scientist Paulo Barreira.

What Amorim does not need is an assistant with a rich United backstory who has already had a taste of the top job and is very clear about his own managerial desires hanging around in the background. It is a situation that would do neither men any favours – and that is assuming they shared similar ideals. United need clear-eyed thinking, not an overcrowded backroom staff.

Van Nistelrooy’s presence was complicated enough for Ten Hag – and he had apparently chosen the former United goalscorer to join his staff alongside Rene Hake, contrary to claims he was hoisted on the manager by the club’s hierarchy.

Risk of repeat of Ten Hag situation

Questions were immediately being asked about how Ten Hag might handle having two former managers as his assistants, particularly one who was still at the start of his managerial journey and had rejected No 1 jobs to return to Old Trafford.

Even before results started to go awry, Van Nistelrooy was being touted as an interim replacement – and look what unfolded.

What is to think the Van Nistelrooy situation would be much different for Amorim should his opening months in charge at Old Trafford prove rocky?

He is joining the biggest and most scrutinised club in the world’s most competitive domestic league in a country that is new to him and taking over a chronically underperforming squad that, on the surface at least, does not appear to be tailored to his preferred 3-4-2-1 system.

He will have enough on his plate without the spectre of Van Nistelrooy hanging over him.

It is a distraction Amorim would not need. Van Nistelrooy did a solid job as interim but United and their new head coach will still need to part company with him, even if that means yet another compensation bill.