Ruben Amorim could face the sack if Man Utd suffer from an awful month while three of his players are away on Africa Cup of Nations duty, according to a former Red Devils chief scout.

After winning three Premier League games in a row for the first time under Amorim, Man Utdhave become inconsistent again with two wins from their last six matches.

Despite that, Amorim’s side had pushed up to sixth in the Premier League tableahead of this weekend’s matches with the Red Devils facing another Monday night fixture against Bournemouth.

Due to the inconsistency of many Premier League sides this season, Man Utd have a real chance of achieving European qualification after their awful 15th-placed finish last term.

However, former Man Utd chief scout Mick Brown thinks they are at real risk of slipping down the table while Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and?Noussair Mazraoui are at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Brown told Football Insider: “There’s another huge test Amorim will have to face.

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“Losing Mbeumo is going to be a big blow, because he’s so important to what Man United have done recently with his pace, drive and impact on that right-hand side.

“They don’t have anybody who gives them the type of energy he gives going forward.

“Plus, Amad and Mazraoui will be going away too, so that’s the right-hand side weakened.

“Now, the manager needs to find a way of coping without these players and without the impact Mbeumo gives them, because they don’t have great depth in the side.

“However he feels might be best to deal with it, it’s something that will have to work, because otherwise results and performances are going to nosedive.

“Things aren’t perfect as it is, so to lose such important players, I can see them really struggling.

“At this point, it would be a shock if he was sacked, something dramatic would have to happen so I understand that, but there are definitely concerns.

“If he now loses Mbeumo to AFCON and the other players as well, and these results and performances have a sudden dip, then we’ll know why.”

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Man Utd boss Amorim revealed on Friday that the Red Devils are still in conversations with national teams about which of Mbeumo, Diallo and?Mazraoui will be available for their match on Monday.

Amorim told reporters: “We are still in conversation with national teams. The game is Monday, they are here, they are training and we are trying to prepare all the scenarios to prepare the game.

“It’s frustrating, but nobody knows who’s going to play. It’s a good thing – we have players to cope with everything and that’s something [you get] with a long week, you can see a lot of things and work on several stuff to prepare the game.”

On AFCON, Amorim added:?“I don’t know if it’s going to be the same situation [with each player]. It depends on the games of every national team. They have their ideas about when they want the players.

“I expect today to have a decision or maybe tomorrow, but we are waiting until the last moment to [see if we can] have all the players available, to choose the best team to start the game.”