After Sporting’s big win over Man City, Manchester United now know one thing about Ruben Amorim: it was easy to see

The game that was wrongly called Ruben Amorim’s test put Manchester United fans to sleep as Sporting thrashed Manchester City 4-1 in a lesson on how to finish.

Ruben Amorim should not have been judged on this game, and the story about how important the result would be for Man Utd, a team that wasn’t even in the same tournament, was not true at all.

Even though Sporting’s team doesn’t play again until November 7, fans will still be singing Amorim’s praise after seeing how his team tore City apart on transitions and ended with ruthlessness.

Even so, there was one clear thing that Manchester United fans learned from the game about their new boss that will follow them to Old Trafford.

Fans of Manchester United learn about Ruben Amorim

There wasn’t much of a surprise when the team sheet came out because the XI was the same and the three-at-the-back scheme wasn’t changed.

He was never going to give up the method that has helped him do so well, and Old Trafford will be no different. That wasn’t a new lesson.

Still, it doesn’t matter what shape you use on the field. What counts is what each player does, and United fans learned something from this.

Sporting is a heavyweight in Portugal’s league. They usually have the ball and beat their opponents with their ability and skill.

That wouldn’t happen against Man City, so all eyes were on Amorim to see how he sets up his team for a game where things will be different from how they usually are.

It turned out to be not very different at all, and Sporting was caught trying to play from the back several times during this game.

They had no answer for City’s press, and they lost the ball many times in dangerous spots close to their own box, but Amorim’s team kept doing it.

In the end, they scored with a straight ball over City’s defense, showing that they can also mix things up sometimes.

Once Amorim’s team saw that weakness, they played directly and very vertically, depending on the speed of their forwards to confuse a jumbled City defense. They scored three goals in the second half to beat City badly.

It showed that Amorim could change things quickly and make changes during the game, which was something Ten Hag was often criticized for.

Man United will finally have a style of play and a name.

A lot of people thought Erik ten Hag would bring this about, but in his second season, he changed everything he did.

Most of the fans turned against him when he said that his Manchester United team would not play like Ajax. That’s what they thought he was hired to do, after all.

It’s great that Amorim is so dedicated to a style of play, even though it’s going through some growing pains. The club and its fans have been begging for an identity for ten years.

There have been times when it went badly because of random coaching jobs, bad hiring decisions, and a lack of help from the top.

All of those have been fixed, and it looks like Amorim will be able to put his own stylistic stamp on the team, even though the way he sets them up is new to the club.

Ten Hag famously changed the way he played after the first two games, which led to Liverpool’s amazing win and a great run after that.

Long-term, though, he could never go back to that game, and his time there ended with a mix of different ideas that never settled on one and gave the team a name.

If Amorim can get Sporting to play like that against Man City, then at least the identity question will be solved soon at Old Trafford too.