Ruben Amorim will soon manage his first match for Manchester United, with a mandate to help the club get back into the upper echelon of the Premier League.
Amorim joined the English club this week after a successful time in charge of Portuguese side Sporting CP, and now all eyes will be on the 39-year-old as he looks to lead the Red Devils into the top half of the table and beyond.
Former Manchester City defender Richard Dunne believes the road to success will be a long one for Amorim as United have been surpassed by several teams over the last decade.
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"It's going to be really difficult for Amorim to bridge the gap on Man City," Dunne told Gambling Zone. "They're so far behind at the moment. I think to catch City, to catch Arsenal, to catch Liverpool, it is going to be difficult for them over the next 18 months. They have some very good players, and they have obviously a huge backing where they can invest in more players."
While Dunne believes United have an arduous task ahead of them in terms of trying to rejoin the elite tier of clubs, he does think his old rivals could improve their play style almost immediately under Amorim, which would at least make the Red Devils more competitive than they've been up to this point.
"They've been missing a style of football for the last two-and-a-half years," Dunne explained. "They've not had any sort of plan when they go into games. You don't know what you're going to see from day to day when you're United. If you can fix that, you can fix a lot of the problems very quickly.
"It has looked like some players don't really understand what their role is, or what their responsibilities are under [former manager] Erik Ten Hag, and they all seem to be playing individually rather than together. That sort of issue can be fixed in a couple of weeks if the players buy into it."