Ruben Amorim has endured a tough time since his appointment at Manchester United in November.
Defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday leaves the Red Devils 15th in the table, following their worst-ever Premier League campaign to date. Amorim’s arrival has failed to galvanise a struggling side, who are closer to the relegation places than the top four.
United have endured a dramatic decline since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, but how does Amorim compare to the club’s previous Premier League managers?
We’ve ranked the league win percentage of every Manchester United manager in the Premier League era.
7. Ruben Amorim – 29% (14 games)
Ruben Amorim inherited a mess at Manchester United but even he will have been shocked by the scale of the task. Amorim has won just four of his 14 league games in charge, a win percentage of just 29%. In that time, the Red Devils have dropped from 13th to 15th in the table with hopes of European qualification through their league finish all but over.
Amorim has insisted he will persist with his 3-4-3 system and principles, admitting his team might need to ‘suffer’ before improvement is seen.
“Just focus on the next game.”
Ruben Amorim tempered expectations when speaking after Man Utd’s loss to Spurs pic.twitter.com/VwjWMpAUGS
— Premier League (@premierleague) February 17, 2025
6. David Moyes – 50% (34 games)
David Moyes arrived at Old Trafford as ‘The Chosen One’, having been handpicked by Sir Alex Ferguson as his replacement. Over a decade of service at Everton had convinced Ferguson that his compatriot was the right replacement, though his tenure lasted less than a full season.
Having taken over a team that ended the previous campaign as Premier League champions, Moyes won just 50% of his games in charge. Sacked four games before the end of the 2013/14 season, United limped to a seventh-placed finish – their lowest of the Premier League era at that time.
=4. Louis van Gaal – 51% (76 games)
United sought a big-name replacement for Moyes and settled on Louis van Gaal. The Dutchman won the Champions League at Ajax and boasted spells in charge of Barcelona and Bayern Munich, a pedigree that persuaded the Red Devils to bring him in.
Van Gaal was backed in the transfer market, including the British record arrival of Angel Di Maria, and led the side back into the Champions League at the first attempt. However, unhappiness with his pragmatic football and the failure to secure a top-four finish saw him sacked at the end of his second season. Despite FA Cup success, he was fired two days later.
=4. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – 51% (109 games)
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was brought back to steady the ship in December 2018, with the fans’ favourite appointed on an interim basis. A remarkable initial bounce saw Solskjaer handed the job permanently with his three-and-a-half-year spell the longest of any coach in the post-Ferguson era.
He led the side to a runners-up finish in the Premier League in 2020/21 but was unable to bring silverware to Old Trafford.
3. Erik ten Hag – 52% (85 games)
Having led an exciting Ajax side to consecutive Eredivisie titles and the Champions League semi-finals, Erik ten Hag emerged as one of Europe’s most coveted coaches. Manchester United agreed a deal to bring the Dutchman in in 2021.
Ten Hag won silverware in each of his first two campaigns, leading the Red Devils to League Cup (2023) and FA Cup (2024) success. But a failure to bring tangible improvement to the club’s Premier League form saw his contract terminated in October 2024, following the club’s worst-ever start to a Premier League campaign.
2. Jose Mourinho – 54% (93 games)
The most successful Manchester United manager in the post-Ferguson era, in terms of league win percentage. Mourinho arrived in 2016 as a replacement for Louis van Gaal, having won three Premier League titles across two spells at Chelsea.
He broke the world transfer record to sign Paul Pogba in his first summer and his debut campaign ended with silverware. United won a League Cup and Europa League double, though it proved to be a false dawn in terms of competing for the big prizes.
Despite finishing second, albeit a distant second, in the 2017/18 Premier League title race, Mourinho was unable to turn the Red Devils into a competitive force. He was sacked in December 2018, with United 19 points behind the league leaders.
1. Sir Alex Ferguson – 65% (810 games)
To no surprise, Ferguson boasts comfortably the best win percentage of any Manchester United manager in the Premier League era. The Scot won 65% of his league games across an incredible spell with the club, that delivered 13 Premier League titles.
He took charge of Manchester United in 21 different Premier League campaigns and never finished lower than third in the table.
Read – Amorim adamant he will ‘stick with beliefs’ at Man United
See more – Amorim not worried about Man United future despite Spurs setback
Follow The Football Faithful on Social Media:
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | TikTok
