Every word of Ruben Amorim’s Crystal Palace press conference

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has been speaking to the media ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash with Crystal Palace.

The first question was from BBC’s Simon Stone: “Ruben, on Monday, you spoke about your team being… You felt your team is still quite a long way from where you wanted to be. Last year and during the summer, we took you at face value when you were saying the things about your team. But this week, you’ve had a whole week off, and you’re playing opponents who were away from home in Europe on Thursday night. Isn’t this exactly the game that Manchester United should be able to step into?”

“In our club, it’s the same thing because last year, we had to win every game all the time, and we took a lot of things, a lot of criticism because we were not winning,” Amorim replied. “So in our club, there is no excuses. About Europe, I already talk about Europe. And I said the same thing last year when we were in Europe, and I said the same thing this year, the advantage and the disadvantage of not being in Europe. So there is no excuses. Last year or this year, we have always to win games.”

The next question was whether he is disappointed with where his team is now.

“I think if I look at the games, we should have more points,” he answered. “And because we had control of some games, we had the advantage in some games, and we lost that control. So if I look at our games, we should have more points, and that is really disappointed. And it was really frustrating, especially the last game.”

How will Amorim stop his players from becoming demotivated and “going into a tailspin”?

“To start again, but it was really tough this week as it should be. It was hard to get this result, this defeat. But the process needs to continue, and we need to go for the next game, and we need to understand that, especially in our league this year, everything can change really fast. So let’s go again and focus on the next one.”

Amorim was then asked about the fitness of Harry Maguire , Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko.

“No [Sesko will not be ready next week]. Sesko is going to take a little bit more time. Harry, the same. I expect to have Mateus in the next one, not this one.”

Has there been a setback with Sesko’s recovery?

“No, it’s just take a little bit longer. We are taking care of the injury,” he said.

The next question was: “Ruben, you mentioned after the game on Monday, feeling similar to last year and being afraid of having similar feelings to last year, how much did that increase after the game? Do you think the players share that maybe nervousness that they could repeat last year?”

He replied: “Again, if you look at the game, I think we can play better. We could be better in the game. With everything that happened in that game, we should have won that game. We have to feel that urgency of winning games. We know what happens around the club if we don’t win games. If we know that, let’s do everything in the right way. But again, we lost that one. We cannot change that. Let’s focus on the next one.”

Attention then turned to United’s dismal away record, with one win from 11 games. What can Amorim do to change it?

“The same things that we need to do, to show to the players why we lost control of Nottingham, why we lost control against Tottenham,” he said. “If you look at that games, we’re there to win. Then sometimes a small detail can change everything. Then I felt during this year that when we play at home, the intensity was higher. I felt in this game [Everton] at home, the intensity was not at the same level. I think it’s something that we need to work on. It’s hard to point one thing why we are not winning away. There’s a lot of issues. We are improving. Like I said, we have advantage in the away games. We need to know how to finish the games in order to win.”

The next reporter asked whether Oliver Glasner’s success at Palace playing a similar system to his own is inspiring to him that it can work in the Premier League .

Amorim answered: “We play a different way. And you can understand that by data. But now it’s hard to explain everything. Like you said, it’s a different club, and they are doing things better than us. So that is quite simple. But you don’t say that all 4-3-3 play in the same way, right? We play in a different moment. We defend in the different space. We try to attack in a different way. They are just doing the things better than us.”

“I play against him in Frankfurt with Sporting, so I know the players. I take inspiration from everyone. When I have in two weeks for national teams, I watch all the managers and try to take all the inspiration that I can take. I have six years as a professional manager, so I’m always trying to learn to improve my team.”

The boss was then asked if he thinks he needs to strengthen his wing-back options.

“I said that in the last year,” he said. “To give an example, the last game, we should have an Amad with the right foot to put on the other side to play against 10 men. So it’s this characteristics that we, in time, we will try to get to be a better team. If we are the perfect setup to play in this way, not yet, but like any other team, we need time to put the right characteristics in every single position to be prepared for everything.

A reporter then noted that “Munoz and Mitchell are in the top five for most distance covered in the Premier League , and United’s wing-backs are quite a way down. Do you feel as though those players are still having to develop to get those attacking instincts that you want?”

“I don’t know how you read that data,” Amorim mused. “Maybe they play more games, more minutes, so you cannot compare the data. We make a lot of substitutions. Sometimes we change because we know that is a different position, or you want to change the feet with Amad and Patrick, and we change a lot. Sometimes we start with Amad in front, but most of the time, if we need to win the game, I put Amad on the right. Amad changes position all the time, so that can change all the data and you see different things. But again, they are doing the things really well. They play more in transition than us. The opponents see it in a different way. So all these things we have to look when we compare teams. But of course, in every position, we can do so much better.”

The embargoed section of the presser will be published in full here tomorrow at around 10.35pm.

Featured image Patrick McDermott via Getty Images

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