What next for Man Utd and Amorim after humiliation at Grimsby?

The image of Ruben Amorim cowering in the dugout at Grimsby will take some forgetting.

It came while his players were taking their penalties in a thrilling shootout, eventually slumping to a humiliating Carabao Cup second-round defeat.

Manchester United are not a club built to lose to fourth-tier opposition, but here we are.

They are not supposed to finish 15th, not in this Premier League era where finances are skewed so extraordinarily in favour of the biggest and most popular clubs.

Yet that is where United trailed home last season. Has anything changed for the better since? There is little to suggest so.

And the big question is this: what do they do about it?

It is not Amorim who must find the answer. Minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, chief executive Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox are the ones who must decide United’s future direction.

They were the ones who felt Dan Ashworth’s suggestions of Thomas Frank, Marco Silva and Graham Potter were not right as they moved to replace Erik ten Hag when the Dutchman was sacked in October.

They were the ones who pushed for Amorim. Berrada was the man who flew to Portugal and told the coach it was now or never when Amorim pleaded to be allowed to finish the season with Sporting.

Seventeen victories in 45 games have followed, with seven of those wins coming in last season’s run to the Europa League final.

Clearly this is not the return United’s senior management were expecting, not when Amorim was backed to the tune of £200m for three attacking players this summer despite delivering the lowest league finish since the year they spent in the second tier in 1974-75 after relegation.

Amorim spoke about being willing to walk away last season and was talked round.

There was a sense of foreboding about his comments after Wednesday evening’s debacle.

“I felt my players spoke really loud today what they want,” he said.

Amorim spoke in the summer about how emotional he gets on occasion. He vowed to be less forthright during his media commitments.

Some sympathy also has to be offered for the fact he was having to speak on the pitch with the backdrop of still gleeful Grimsby fans telling him he was going to be “sacked in the morning”.

Yet Amorim’s words do not smack of a renewed determination to deliver success to Old Trafford, just as his actions during the shootout did not give the impression of someone leading from the front.

And that is a problem.

For United’s restructure has been built around his famed system.

While it is fair to say Jadon Sancho and Antony did not have many supporters among the United fanbase and patience with Marcus Rashford was also wearing thin, those players’ values has reduced as the club have looked to move them on because Amorim does not play with conventional wide-men.

Amorim had been praised by some for his hardline stance with Alejandro Garnacho, and the Argentina international’s behaviour since he was exiled has not done him many favours.

But it is not that long ago that Garnacho, now in talks with Chelsea, was viewed as the future of United.

The same is also true of England international Kobbie Mainoo, who feels marginalised to such an extent that if a decent offer came in for him from a club he liked, he would be willing to leave, despite being a local boy and a childhood United fan.

Given a start at Grimsby after not playing for a single minute in the opening two Premier League games, Mainoo was left on for the full 90 minutes.

He didn’t produce a display that demanded repeated selection. But neither was he the worst player on the pitch.

To many, if the system is the reason why 20-year-old Mainoo may leave, the system needs changing. Amorim has said Mainoo is in contention with skipper Bruno Fernandes for a starting spot in the league.

The United boss felt his method of playing at Sporting, with three central defenders, two wing-backs, two central midfielders, two number 10s and a central striker, was the reason for his success.

This may be true. He was also at a club famed for developing highly talented young players in a league far less physically demanding than he has encountered in England, and where the competition, other than a couple of notable exceptions in Benfica and Porto, is typically limited.

On Sunday at Fulham, Silva explained clearly the tweak to his side’s formation that allowed Fulham to take control of the midfield area and turn a game that had threatened to get away from them in the early stages.

The game didn’t race away from Fulham because United failed to take their chances, a problem that Amorim repeatedly complained about last season.

This is why he spent £200m on attacking players this summer.

Matheus Cunha has looked a decent buy. If the Brazilian had converted his spot-kick in the shootout at Grimsby, United’s blushes would have been spared.

Yet his shot was saved, Bryan Mbeumo missed the decisive penalty, and it was surprising to many that Benjamin Sesko – the third of the expensive attacking additions – was the last outfield player to step forward for United.

There would still have been big questions to answer if Amorim’s side had managed to sneak through to round three.

At clubs like United, performances like this do not get brushed under the carpet. The noise around them is too loud for that to happen.

Amorim will speak to the media on Friday on the eve of his team’s home game against Burnley. Victory against the Clarets will be expected but it certainly is not guaranteed.