Amorim says he was being self-critical when calling his team ‘worst in United history’
Amorim says he was being self-critical when calling his team ‘worst in United history’
Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim said he was criticising himself more than the players when he labelled his team as possibly the worst in the club’s history after Sunday’s 3-1 loss to Brighton and Hove Albion.
United, which has lost seven of its 15 matches since Amorim took charge in November, is 13th in the Premier League. The 39-year-old Portuguese said he was frustrated for not being able to help his players produce better results.
“It’s more for me, I was talking more about me than the players,” Amorim told reporters on Wednesday ahead of hosting Rangers in a Europa League clash.
“I’m frustrated sometimes… I should not say in those terms but it is what it is… sometimes it’s really hard to hide the frustration.”
Amorim said he had said the same thing in a different way in the dressing room earlier.
“So the response was quite normal,” he added.
“Sometimes you’re a young guy and you make mistakes and you improve. I don’t promise that I won’t do it again, I don’t know. So I will try to improve.”
United defender Harry Maguire said the players shared the coach’s frustration and disappointment after Sunday’s loss, which came after they knocked out Arsenal in the FA Cup on penalties and beat Southampton 3-1 at home.
“We had the confidence we could go and beat Brighton. Obviously we didn’t perform well on the day, so we’ve got to look at ourselves and take responsibility,” Maguire added.
Amorim, who is trying to implement a new playing style at United, said he expected some bad results before it was done.
“I understood that changing things, we are going to suffer. For me it was really clear. But in this moment I don’t want to say that it’s going to take a lot of time. It’s getting really hard,” he said.
“You get loss after loss, it’s really hard for everybody. And I know that sometimes I show that frustration but I don’t know that we can change that tomorrow.”
