Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been advised to stick with Ruben Amorim despite Manchester United's struggles - unless the Premier League giants get sucked into a relegation battle. The Portuguese coach suffered his fifth home league defeat in United's 2-0 loss to Crystal Palace on Sunday. Amorim, 40, became the fastest manager to rack up that number at Old Trafford in the Premier League, setting the dreadful record in just seven games.

United, who currently sit 13th, have won a meagre eight league games this season and despite their lack of progress since their boss' arrival in November, Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker explained why his future should be secure for the foreseeable on The Rest Is Football podcast. Given the drastic change to United's style of play from Erik ten Hag to Amorim, Shearer opined that the ex-Sporting CP boss must be given leeway this season, but under the condition that the 13-time Premier League winners don't find themselves entrenched in a relegation battle.

"Palace were worthy of their win," the Newcastle United icon said. "And I still can see it getting worse at Old Trafford before it gets better." Lineker responded: "You've said for a while now that you think Amorim's got a free hit. But for how long?". Shearer then determined: "Well, I think till the end of the season, so long as the worst doesn't happen, they get sucked into a relegation battle, which I don't see that happening. They'll have enough to stay clear of that. But I would have hoped and thought that he would have had a clearer path by now in terms of who he wants, what he wants and and all of those things.

"I do believe that it's so bad there that you have to cut him some slack in what he wants to do and what he's trying to do. [It's] taking a lot longer than probably he and everyone thought. But I think that's because it's so deep rooted the problems in the club that it's not going to be a quick fix. "He has to be given this transfer window [and] the rest of the season to try and do what he wants to do and then the window in the summer to have a clear run at next season to get his team." Lineker claimed that Amorim has been noticeably stubborn with his philosophy and asked Shearer if he thinks United's hierarchy will be patient enough with him and back him in the transfer market.

"Well, I think they have to be, I know that they won a couple of trophies under Ten Hag, but he had similar problems," the Match of the Day pundit said. "I mean, I know they were certainly more competitive under Ten Hag, but he still had so many of the issues that Ruben Amorim is having with individual players and basically with winning the amount of games that they feel as if they should be.". United's defensive frailties have been somewhat addressed with the arrivals of Patrick Dorgu, 20, and Ayden Heaven, 18, although both are signings for the future. A much-needed forward has yet to be signed as they hope to capture Bayern Munich's Mathys Tel before Monday's transfer deadline.

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