Every word of the embargoed section of Ruben Amorim’s Nottingham Forest pre-match press conference | OneFootball

Ruben Amorim says he doubted he would survive his first year in charge of Manchester United.

Amorim was addressing the media in the embargoed section of the pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to the City Ground to face Nottingham Forest.

On reaching his one year anniversary at United

The first question was about how Amorim “smiles a lot and laughs a lot”. How does he do that when he’s “under so much pressure and the results have not been great?”

“It’s hard, it’s also my character and then sometimes it’s also… I know that a lot of people want me to see me arriving here with that face that I’m suffering and I like to do the opposite,” Amorim replied.

“Sometimes I think about that. But it’s the way of seeing things. So I said since the first moment, this will not change who I am. I’m like that. I live my life like this. I know that football will change in some moments. Now we are in a good moment, but always with that feeling here that something can change. I try to balance my life. You can say that I laugh a lot, but you also can say that I’m always like this [covers his face with his hands] on the bench. I just live with emotions and I follow my team. If my team is playing well and running a lot, I will be a happy man.”

Luke Shaw for England?

The boss was then asked whether he thinks Luke Shaw should be recalled to the England squad.

“It’s hard”, he said. “It’s hard here, it’s hard in Portugal, where I have the same questions about the players. It’s really hard to choose the players. People will point a finger at you if you are the national manager, if you choose this one or the other one.

“England has a lot of good players and you can choose two teams to win a World Cup. I know it’s tough for you guys as it is for us in Portugal. But it’s an opinion, it’s the way you play, it’s the way you see the opponents that you will have in these next two games will change what kind of player you want to call up.

“So I think he deserves, but also a lot of players deserve to be there. For me, I want him to go to national team, but I also want Luke Shaw here, training with me, recovering with me, and be prepared for my game. So I’m a little bit selfish on that. So if he’s not going to national team, for me, it’s fine because I can control better what he’s doing.”

Having won three games in a row, Amorim was asked if he felt like saying “I told you so” to his doubters.

He answered:

“No, because I know that in two weeks this could change again and you will say ‘No, no, you were right!’ So it’s like a crazy conversation. I just, I have a clear idea how I want to do things. I’m always saying the same thing. We start from, if you think Guardiola, 4-3-3, and then that thing is built up with 2-3 and it will change. For me, it’s a 3-4-3 that we are going to change against different opponents. I just need time, like every manager. Maybe my way of doing things is going to take more time for people to start seeing things. There are managers that arrive in one club, in the next four games they can win three and lose one, but then there’s luck also in the games.

“Again, we had some luck against Liverpool, and all the narrative changed because of that. So I understand football, and I just do what I feel is the best thing for the team and for the club.

Qualifying for Europe

The head coach was then asked “Europe was the target at the start of the season. Does that mean Champions League, specifically now after three wins on the bounce?”

“No, it’s not,” he answered. “We need to go to Europe. Because of everything. Our club needs to be in Europe. It’s hard to have a very, very good scorer. Imagine what it is for me to have Kobbie Mainoo with the minutes that he is playing. He needs more games for me to make a rotation, because with one game is really hard. I have to take one of the guys that is playing to put another. When you have more games, you can divide, you can manage the group in a different way. We are trying to use the time that we have to train to be a better team, to be prepared in the future to have that European Games.

“But the target doesn’t change. We have to go to Europe. To be in top four is really hard for our moment, but you never know. We just need to focus on winning the next one and then we’ll see.”

The next question was why Amorim believes so strongly in the 3-4-3 formation.

“I think the rotation of the team is easier for me because I spend so much time thinking about that,” he said. “I don’t see it as a 3-4-3. I see it at the beginning, the base of the idea of 3-4-3. I don’t know because I spend a lot of time playing like that because when I start thinking about the system, nobody was playing with 3-4-3, so I can understand how to rotate players.

“Even in the the way we buy players, if you have a clear idea how to play it’s more easy for you to point ‘this is the guy that I want and that can help you’. When you have today it’s 4-3-3 and then tomorrow it’s 4-4-2, it’s harder to make the characteristics right for the players.

“So I try to use all this knowledge to search for the right players for this kind of play.”

A central midfielder in January?

The next reporter asked “would you like to bring a central midfielder in, even if on loan?”, in the January window.

Amorim laughed.

“No, guys, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know what is going to. I don’t know what is going to happen. Yeah, a lot of things can happen, even in our club. And you know that we have World Cup. Some players are not playing, they will ask to leave. So I have to manage everything. And then we want to bring players, everyone here, wants to bring players that we can see a big future in Manchester United. We are not just buying one guy because now we feel now in December that we need this kind of player for now. Now it’s going to be, we want to buy players that we know that we are not going to change a lot of times. So that is our idea.

“So I don’t know what is going to happen. But of course, we think about how we can improve the team. In January, the window is open. We can do something.”

Amorim was then asked to explain what he meant by being a different team at home than away.

“We are a different team. We need to be a different team than we are showing away from home. Because when we play at home we are more intense, we are more focused. Our fans help us a lot. When we have an opportunity you can feel the stadium helping us to control the game. When we play away it’s different. The fans are not there for us.

“Against Brentford, we were not so intense. We were like, our recoveries were not so good. Against Fulham, we lost the control of the game when we are winning. And we show a different team, that we are a different team playing in our home. So it’s not a technical thing. It’s not a tactical thing. It’s not we need to play a different style. We just need to be the same team. to believe in the same way that we show at home, we need to show that away.”

Was it always Amorim’s intention to play a fast, direct style, or is he part way through a process that will evolve even more?

“I also don’t believe that we have a style that we have to build up always from the back,” he explained.

“We want to build up to push the opponents to have space to score goals. If the space is there, it’s a numbers game, if there is three against three in front and I have Ben, Cunha, for example, and Bryan, I will put the ball in two passes. I want to score goals in two passes. But sometimes you have to build up. What I try to teach my players is which kind of game I need to play in this situation. That is my job. I don’t want to teach my players to build up with a lot of touches.

“If you need a lot of touches, you will understand that you need a lot of touches. If you need one, put the ball, because the fans want to see a different game. We are in England. I tried to show you a little bit of English football in the past. It’s that. I don’t have a clear way of building up. I just look at the space, the number of players, the characteristics of my players and try to use that to win games.”

Are the bad times over?

The next question was “On your first year again, you said the storm was coming, and the storm definitely came. You said the good times were coming, we’re now seeing those good times. Has the storm passed?

“It’s hard to say, Amorim admitted. “We need to think positively, but we also need to be prepared that football is like this, and we are not that team that I can say to you, no, no, no, now we can lose here or there, but we are going to maintain [made an upward trajectory gesture]. I trust in my players more. I think they trust me more.

“That will come with wins and you can sense that, because everyone now is saying that how connected they are and they believe in the manager. It’s about winning games. It didn’t change a lot, because against Arsenal I saw the same team. So I don’t know. So I think that we are in a better place, but it’s also really good to be always with that feeling and prepared that something can change. If we have that feeling, we will pay attention to the details and we will maintain that course of our path. I can say that we are a better team in this moment. We feel that and we know that. That can help us to overcome better the bad moments.”

Were there any moments when Amorim doubted that he would make one full year at United?

“It’s hard to say that. Sometimes, in some moments… I know that you are going to write [laughs]… But there were some moments that were tough to deal with, to lose so many games. That was so hard for me, because this is Manchester United.

“The position that we had in the last year, putting all the attention on the Europa League and not winning, that was massive. I had some moments that I struggled a lot and I was thinking that maybe it’s not meant to be. Today is the opposite, so you can write this one. Today I feel that, and I know that that was the best decision in my life. I want to be here, but for that I need to win against Nottingham.”

He was then asked how he keeps the substitutes and fringe players motivated with so few games.

“First of all, they understand and I prove that anyone can play. Everyone has to do the same things, not in the same way, but there are some things that everyone, no matter what is your name, you have to do it to play for Manchester. That can help to manage a group. I try to explain all the time to the players that this is, we are not just playing today, not just this year, but then the next seasons. So they feel that they are part of the journey and that we are part then of something bigger than just one game or one season. So they are part of our path.

“And then I show also to them that Casemiro was not part of the starting XI, he was behind. And then he fought, he won the place. And if you win the place, you will be playing. So I think that helped them to understand that I’m trying to be fair. And they are part of something very special that is playing for Manchester United.

The impact of scheduling changes on United’s travelling fans

Finally, the boss was asked about lunchtime and Monday kick offs for away games and whether he thinks it’s fair.

“I think we have also games on Monday. It’s the price that we have to pay,” the boss replied. “And I’m not saying that it’s right or wrong. I prefer to play at the weekend. But it’s the price that you have to pay to have all these good players, all these good managers, to have by far the best league in the world.

“I think it’s not fair. We need to pay attention to that, I think. But that you have to ask to Premier League and then you have to respect if you sell our games to the, how you call it, operators? TVs? If you have to sell that, you earn a lot of money, but then they decide what time the game will be played. I think it’s not the right thing, but then I also want the best players to play for our club. You can see it in both ways.”

He was asked if it’s a disadvantage to play on a Monday after everyone else.

“Maybe if they have bad results, it’s a very good thing because you use that to motivate the players. If they are winning, you also have the pressure on you, you need to win this game to maintain position. So you can see both ways. But in our club, the good thing is you have to win no matter what. If not, it’s going to be a problem. So for us, it’s the same..”

United’s match against forest kicks off at 3pm tomorrow.

Read what Amorim said in the first part of the presser here.

Featured image Alex Livesey via Getty Images

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