For Ruben Amorim, it’s a straightforward choice.
He either compromises his system of play at Manchester United and fits Bruno Fernandes into it.
Or he starts looking for a new job.
Harsh, but ultimately fair because the Old Trafford chief’s greatest asset is also his biggest liability.
And he needs to turn that situation around.
At present, Manchester United’s boss is the walking definition of madness.
Doing the same thing over and again - and expecting a different outcome - is straight from a textbook out of the School of Bedlam.
And his blind spot is Fernandes.
In the absence of any other real guile and inventiveness, the head coach needs the 31-year-old on that pitch - so he’s got to find room for him somewhere.
Only the Portuguese isn’t keen on being pigeon-holed.
And he certainly doesn’t want to be put into any box.
He’s not enthusiastic about chasing players back towards his own goal, either, which is the main reason why Amorim has such a deep-rooted problem.
Fernandes is a free spirit. He wants to wander wherever to cause chaos.
And he’s pretty good at it.
On the flip-side, he’s not good enough to ignore the nitty-gritty of the game.
Plonk the playmaker in the middle of the Bernabeu, surrounded by A-list quality, and there’s every reason to think he will shine.
He’ll have more of the ball and better players around him.
Ask him to shore up the midfield at Old Trafford at the moment as part of Amorim’s fabled 3-4-3 (or 3-4-2-1) and you might as well forget it.
There is a glaring lack of mobility anyway in that engine-room. A lack of horse-power.
Highlighted by the fact that Scott McTominay is tearing it up in Italy. Whoever allowed him to leave, frankly, needs sacking.
Jose Mourinho blooded the Scot and said he would be every inch a Manchester United player.
The Special One - not for the first time - was right, wasn’t he?
How they could do with him now.
At the moment, in that midfield, it’s like putting up a two-stroke lawnmower engine against a BMW M series with a straight six.
And Amorim, who trotted out the line about it never being the system that wins Manchester United the game, only losing it, is causing his own problems.
Fernandes can be a game-changer. But it needs to be on the team’s terms, not the player’s.
And his boss needs to step up.
Let’s face it, how do you measure the effectiveness of any coach?
The ones who make the most of the resources at their disposal usually progress.
They do not arrive with pre-conceived ideas and then refuse, point-blank, to change them.
They don’t ignore evidence that’s staring them in the face week after week.
That’s why there are a stack of markets - some of them being backed heavily - marking down Manchester United for failure.
Almost 3,000 bets have been taken on United being relegated this season.
Three thousand.
That’s not someone having a wager and showing off his bet slip to a mate in the boozer for giggles.
Clearly, it’s a widespread view that Manchester United are in trouble.
They are 11/4 to finish in the bottom half - and given the fact that they cannot add to the current squad until January - that’s got to be worth a look.
United are also 1/25 not to win any trophy. Grimsby Town, yes Grimsby Town, ended any of their hopes in the Carabao Cup. That leaves the FA Cup, then.
So far, they’ve beaten Burnley in the last minute. With a Fernandes penalty.
They found a way past Chelsea at Old Trafford where Enzo Maresca’s men played almost the entire game one man down.
They were two-down inside half-an-hour at the GTech Stadium.
It’s not really been that tough a start, either.
Amorim must harness his squad’s best talent. And find a way to win.
Currently, you can get better than even money he’ll still be in the job by January.
Much more of this and people will be talking about next manager markets in earnest.
So, he needs to act.
And act quickly to showcase Fernandes’s best talents - because if he doesn’t, he’s increasingly likely to pay for his stubbornness with his job.
Any odds displayed were correct at the time of writing and are subject to fluctuation.
