Manchester United's EFL League Cup match against Grimsby Town is crucial for stability under Ruben Amorim

The two game mark of a new season undoubtedly feels like a premature point to be talking about any manager under pressure, but suppose Ruben Amorim lost his third. Would it seem unreasonable to question this head coach's future at Manchester United if he had just been dumped out of the EFL Cup by Grimsby Town in the second round? And if not, is there a compelling case for keeping the manager beyond the resources that have been ploughed into making his system work at Old Trafford?

A week is a long time at Manchester United, and the optimism bubble -- for that is what it was -- that was generated in defeat to Arsenal was burst in a 1-1 draw at Fulham, a bright start frittered away in familiar fashion. The formative Premier League table has a familiar look for those who followed United last season, Amorim's side sitting 16th with a point to their name.

You can catch all the action from the second round of the EFL League Cup, only on Paramount+.

Now, of course, that could all be explained away in the tiny sample size of the early season. United had the misfortune of being handed a home opener against one of Europe's biggest teams and then didn't quite get a result at a ground where Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle dropped points last season. The problem, as United legend Wayne Rooney noted on his BBC podcast, is that last season's problems are already rearing their head again. The burst of energy that Amorim wanted to inject into this team seemed to fritter away at Craven Cottage, the midfield looks overwhelmed and few of the center backs seem comfortable defending one on one.

Amorim believes he knows the solutions to these problems, one that comes with a season out of European competition. "We need time to prepare every game," he said in his pre-match press conference ahead of Wednesday's game. "The games are really competitive, and we need time to build a base, and then, in the future, to move forward."

How to watch Grimsby Town vs. Manchester United, odds

• Date: Wednesday, Aug. 25 | Time: 3 p.m. ET
• Location: Blundell Park -- Cleethorpes, United Kingdom
• Stream: Paramount+
• Odds: Grimsby Town +1600; Draw +600; Manchester United -650

In spite of these calls for patience, there is real cause for concern in the big picture view. Amorim has now had 29 Premier League games in charge of Manchester United. He has collected 28 points with fewer wins and draws combined (seven of each) than the 15 defeats. No team still in the division has won fewer points since Amorim's November 11 appointment. Under current management, non-penalty expected goal difference per game is the 15th worst in the Premier League.

Early though it is in the new season, the signs of improvement are not really there after a summer in which United have built a squad at great expense that looks more of a fit for Amorim's preferred back three. That is the most compelling reason to keep the current coach in situ; you're building a squad to play 3-4-2-1, might as well see how a guy who wants to coach in that system fares. Amorim's demands, however, mean he cannot be afforded much patience in his rebuild. After 2023-24 hammered home the mediocrity of the current setup, one might imagine that United would have pivoted into a youth movement predicated on the simple fact that their timescale for winning a Premier League title is closer to Alejandro Garnacho's than Casemiro's.

Instead, they spent big on established Premier League stars like Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, while Amorim has rolled out starting XIs that are middle of the pack age-wise, between 26 and 27 in the first two games. Garnacho is among the four strong bomb squad, one on whose peripheries sits Rasmus Hojlund, a walking, talking warning to Benjamin Sesko of how little patience there is in the development of young strikers at Old Trafford. Kobbie Mainoo, the 20-year-old midfielder beloved by the fanbase, might be another to depart, his path to regular minutes blocked by Bruno Fernandes (31 in less than two weeks) and Casemiro (33).

In such circumstances, tomorrow's trip to the Lincolnshire coast takes on outsized importance for Amorim, largely for the downside risk of what might come in defeat. He confirmed he will rotate his side with a view to Saturday's game against Burnley and indicated that Hojlund is available for selection amid talks with Napoli over a possible move. In a match so fraught with risk, however, it may well make sense to fill out the bench with the likes of Cunha and Fernandes, just in case.

After all, a cup run could do a great deal for this club even if their dalliances with Amorim's predecessor, Erik ten Hag, showed the pitfalls of overindexing one grand day out at Wembley. Winning one of the domestic cups already looks like as realistic a path to European qualification for United as any other. It has been over 12 years since a team won the EFL Cup but didn't progress to continental football by another means. However pre and post-Amorim, United have tended to deliver their best performances against high grade opposition. The latter rounds of this competition could be a real opportunity for them.

They will have to get there first and that means avoiding any missteps in the early rounds. Defeat to Grimsby, fourth in League Two, wouldn't be terminal for Amorim, not when the club have invested what Ratcliffe claims are stretched resources to build a team for his style, but it would threaten to turn up the volume on a chorus of murmurs. Those are high stakes so early in a season.