Ruben Amorim's last Old Trafford appearance highlights Man United issue he must fix

As is the way with the stresses and strains of modern football, managers and players' careers have started to stretch into each other's traditional age ranges.

Many players are now featuring into their late 30s while some managers have already racked up a ton of experience in the dugouts before their 40th birthdays. Neither career path should be looked down upon and so long as you are good enough, you are old, or indeed young enough, as the familiar adage goes.

However, should Ruben Amorim be appointed the next Manchester United manager, he will realise that there are some caveats to having older players in your squad, especially at a club that is hoping to challenge at the top of the Premier League. On his last appearance at Old Trafford as a player, Amorim lined up for Braga in a 3-2 defeat in the Champions League.

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This was in October 2012 and the man who equalised for United that night remains in the squad to this day. Jonny Evans scored for the Reds as they beat Amorim's team thanks also to a brace by Javier Hernandez.

Now 36, Evans is back at United having originally signed for the club as a backup/coaching option. Despite this, the centre-back has remarkably made four appearances in the Premier League this season, two of which were starts when the supposed first choice partnership of Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt were rotated.

When things were going wrong in Porto, Erik ten Hag called upon Evans and Harry Maguire to sure up the defence. There is never any doubting Evans' work rate nor his desire, he was even the best player on the pitch against Aston Villa this season, but for him to be so important to United's options having signed with his career winding down, is damning.

One of the first things Amorim must address is how United find themselves in this position. Recruiting Evans at the beginning of 2023/24 was not inherently a bad call but an injury crisis has often necessitated that the Northern Irishman is thrust into the team.

Somehow, Amorim will need to address these issues in the treatment room to end this over-reliance on the likes of Evans. With all due respect, a 36-year-old Evans starting at centre-back is not going to take the Reds back into the top-four and should not be one of the starting options - injuries or not.

While injuries need to be cut down, building a deeper squad of players to deal with the demands of the 21st century football schedule should also be high on Amorim's to-do list. There simply must be better players on the market that United can sign to strengthen their team.

United are currently so far off where they need to be and whoever takes over from Ten Hag needs to be afforded the time to build a team ready to challenge again. This will likely mean that Evans is left in the past.