Ruben Amorim is keen to limit his media dealings as Manchester United’s new head coach in an attempt to maximise the time he has to work with his players – and shift the focus away from him.

The Portuguese took charge of his first game in Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Ipswich Town at Portman Road and joked afterwards that he had spoken to the media more in a week as United manager than he did during four and a half years as Sporting coach.

Yet Amorim was making a more serious point when he said: “I just want to work with my players, nothing more.”

The 39-year-old’s first post-match interview with Sky Sports was rudely interrupted by Ipswich fan Ed Sheeran, for which the singer subsequently apologised to the United head coach. “Apologies if I offended Amorim yesterday, didn’t actually realise he was being interviewed at the time, was popping to say hi and bye to Jamie [Redknapp]. Obvz feel a bit of a b---end but life goes on,” Sheeran posted on Instagram.

But Amorim is hoping to moderate his media responsibilities in order to spend as much time as possible with his new squad as they adapt to his methods.

There is no suggestion Amorim will not honour all of his contractual commitments to media. Yet he wants as few distractions as possible as he schools his players in the inner workings of his 3-4-2-1 system in the small windows available to him in mid-season and is understood to have little interest in the spotlight himself.

With a congested schedule and little time between matches to work on his ideas in training, Amorim knows this process will not be easy and warned that United will “suffer for a long period”.

Here, Telegraph Sport takes a closer look at what the Portuguese has been trying to implement in his handful of training sessions and single match to date...

Tracking back

“We have to be better running back. I think that is clear for everybody,” Amorim said last week. That was immediately apparent to Amorim in footage he watched of United’s games before formally arriving at Old Trafford, but since getting to work with the players he is understood to feel that the fitness levels need raising to cope better with the intensity of the Premier League and stop the team falling away in matches.

Credit: Manchester United

Amorim has been simulating loss of possession and turnovers in training by blowing his whistle to cut attacks short and demand his players race back. Amorim could be seen ordering his players to recover positions quickly when they lost the ball against Ipswich. Diogo Dalot said Amorim’s messaging was clear on that front: “Sprint back and be really hard working.”

4-2-2-2- build-up

Amorim has been drilling his players in a 4-2-2-2 shape when playing out from the back. Against Ipswich, that involved the outside centre-backs Noussair Mazraoui and Jonny Evans pulling wide and middle centre-back Matthijs de Ligt stepping into midfield alongside Casemiro, triggering a domino effect further ahead. United had an additional player to bypass Ipswich’s press and there was an emphasis on shorter, sharper passes. “He’s really demanding,” Dalot said. “He’s exactly what we need for this type of club.”

Part of Sporting’s title success under Amorim last season was down to their resistance to the press and this is an area the Portuguese feels United need a huge amount of work as he bids to introduce a more progressive build-up and exert greater control. Or as Dalot puts it: “Give an option and don’t be afraid to have the ball. The message he gave to everybody was clear: he wants us to have more control of the games. And that’s what we want to do.”

Credit: Manchester United

Another feature was the outside centre-backs jumping in to man-mark Ipswich’s Omari Hutchinson and Sammie Szmodics. With Lisandro Martínez, who is not expected to be fit to face Bodo/Glimt on Thursday or Everton three days later, Leny Yoro, Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof all unavailable, Amorim’s options at centre-back were limited. But it was still a huge physical demand to place on the 36-year-old Evans, who struggled against the pace and movement of Hutchinson, 15 years his junior. Amorim’s tactic was clear, though, even if it backfired at times.

Switches of play

This has been one of the biggest features of Amorim’s training sessions to date and United’s intentions against Ipswich on that front were obvious, even if they struggled to execute those instructions as cleanly and frequently as they would have wanted. Indeed, it was a quick switch of play across the back line from which their goal originated after just 81 seconds.

In training, Amorim has been working on diagonal switches from the central midfielder to an onrushing wing-back, with the No 10s then offering a pass in behind by making under-lapping channel runs so they can then deliver crosses or cutbacks from the byline.

Credit: Manchester United

This is an area of the pitch in which Amorim is thought to be keen to utilise Mason Mount, once the England midfielder is fully fit again. Mount is familiar with those kind of third-man runs, having flourished in Thomas Tuchel’s 3-4-2-1 system at Chelsea en route to Champions League glory in 2021.

Control and being compact

United’s average position was much lower than that of Ipswich over the 90 minutes and, for all the flaws in the performance, it was notable how much more compact they were out of possession than under Erik ten Hag, whose United were especially vulnerable to opponents’ direct attacks.

Amorim identifies more readily with his compatriot Jose Mourinho than a Pep Guardiola in terms of philosophy and it showed. At times against Ipswich there were eight or nine men behind the ball and fewer wide-open spaces.

Amorim felt they surrendered control too often by needlessly turning over the ball, and Kieran McKenna’s side had some success exploiting the space behind the wing-backs. But the desire for greater defensive stability was obvious.