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The clock should be ticking on Ruben Amorim.

And Manchester United fans have every right to be worried about whether their manager can turn things around at Old Trafford. Confession time: I thought United would have a brilliant season, upset the odds and maybe even get back into the Champions League places.

The club have done brilliant business in signing Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha and they have backed their manager to the hilt. Of course they are still lacking in midfield and messing around signing back-up keepers when they needed a proper No.1 is beyond a joke.

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While Manchester City spent £27m on Gianluigi Donnarumma, United bought Senne Lammens for £18m and stuck with Altay Bayindir for the derby. Bayindir is nowhere near good enough for United.

But that is part of the problem for Amorim. He has become stubborn and his blind loyalty and faith towards his keepers and his ridiculous formation is tactics is the reason why the alarm bells should be ringing.

Amorim looks out of his depth right now. He looks like a young coach, drowning in expectation in a club he is struggling to turn around.

His record is not good enough. The Manchester derby showed how far United are behind City… and Pep Guardiola’s men were not even at their best.

That stubbornness is what will get Amorim the sack if he is not careful. The system is not suited to the players that he has. It is not working.

The back three with wing backs and a lopsided midfield which is not getting the best out of their best player Bruno Fernandes.

And yet if you pick a United team in a 4-2-3-1 system - let’s gloss over the keeper but Dalot, De Ligt, Yoro, Shaw; Ugarte, Mainoo; Mbeumo, Fernandes, Cunha; Sesko - suddenly you have a team.

That is better than the utter shambles of 3-4-2-1 which is not working.

It is not a quality in a manager to be strong and insist he will not change his system. Why on earth not? It’s not working.

It’s actually a sign of weakness. A coach is showing his own flaws by not being able to change or adapt.

There is still time for Amorim. But he must change soon. Or that system and his own stubbornness - together with some bad recruitment - will cost him his job and his career.