Every word of Ruben Amorim’s Wolves pre-match press conference | OneFootball

Ruben Amorim says he will not select Kobbie Mainoo for Manchester United when he does not believe he is the best option.

Amorim was speaking to the media in his pre-match press conference ahead of Monday’s trip to Molineux to face Wolverhampton Wanderers. The press conference took place immediately after the West Ham post-match conference, but was embargoed until this lunchtime.

On overlooking Kobbie Mainoo

The first question was about the fact that there are only four squad members who have not started a match this season: Tom Heaton, Tyrell Malacia, Lisandro Martinez and Kobbie Mainoo. Can he understand Mainoo’s frustration?

“I see, I see it and I just want to win,” Amorim answered. “I try to put the players. I don’t look who it is. I don’t care about that. I’m just trying to put the best players on the pitch. You have Ugarte that played two games. One of them, Casa, was out. Bruno is always fit. He’s the guy that is doing his position, so maybe it has to do with that.”

Would Bryan Mbeumo’s trip to AFCON provide an opportunity?

“I don’t know, guys,” he replied. “It’s the same question. I don’t know what is going to happen. It depends. I see the training, I see it’s the best thing for the team, I will put it. That is the only way I know how to respond to that.”

Speaking about Monday’s opponents, a reporter asked Amorim how important it is “not to take the fact that they’ve not won a game this season for granted because you just played 18th?”

“Everything can happen, and that will change;” he said. “There is no team in Premier League history that didn’t win one game. It can be any game. We need to try to improve, to rest the players, work really well, and prepare a tough match because with us, it’s always a tough match.”

Simon Stone of the BBC then asked, “Do you understand why we ask about Kobbie? Because he’s homegrown, because he’s an England international.”

The head coach replied, “of course, I understand.”

“My job is to answer, but I’m trying to answer always the same thing. You ask me always the same thing. I understand what you are saying. You love Kobbie. He starts for England, but that doesn’t mean that I need to put Kobbie when I feel that I shouldn’t put Kobbie. So it’s my decision.”

Stone followed this up with the statement, “For all you say about the academy, you don’t actually trust the academy.” Amorim asked, “why?”

“Because you never pick any players from there,” Stone answered.

“Any players? We have Kobbie Mainoo,” the boss answered as he started to appear cross. “But Lacy, in difficult situations… Lacy, sometimes when Bryan is not there, I put Amad because I have other wing-backs to play. Sometimes it’s hard. You are asking me why I don’t put Lacy to play when I have other guys that are international and they are also on the bench. So I try to put the best guys, the prepared guys for this moment of the club, and try to win a game. That’s the only thing, guys.”

The team’s confidence

A reporter then asked: “when the team has had the opportunity this season to step on and push up the league to move into the top four, top five areas, there seems to always be a setback, like tonight. Do you think there’s an issue with their belief, coping with the pressure of the moment in these games?”

“I don’t know,” Amorim admitted. “It’s a clear fact, but I think it’s not a mental thing. I think they are not thinking, ‘We are going to top five’. No. I think it’s some moments we play good, sometimes we play bad, and we are not getting the results.”

Will Dalot and Matthijs de Ligt be available for the Wolverhampton Wanderers game?

“I think so. We’ll see,” he answered.

The reporters returned to the subject of confidence. They asked:

“Ruben, you’ve used the word anxious when you described Patrick Dorgu last week. Diogo Dalot used the same word after today. How do you go about solving the team maybe feeling anxious when they have a 1-0 lead?”

Amorim answered:

“I said that Diogo is anxious?”

“No, last week you said Patrick Dorgu, sometimes when he’s on the ball. Obviously, it’s similar with Diogo used the word, the team felt anxious when they were 1-0 up today. How do you help the team get through that feeling of feeling anxious?”

He replied: “I didn’t feel the team anxious. I feel the environment a little bit anxious because it’s normal, because we proved in the past and people understand that nothing is certain here. But we didn’t draw because of that. We draw because in one second ball, we have advantage. We let a corner in the corner, and anything can happen.”

Was there an issue with the team’s physicality, in their inability to win second balls?

“We can win second… We were winning second balls, and after the goal, we lost a little bit the second ball, especially with Mateus,” he replied.

“It’s moments of the game. That’s why I tried to put Manu and Mason Mount. They are aggressive, trying to win the second ball. That can happen in moments of the game, not all the time.”

He was then asked, “To be clear, do you believe that’s a team problem, concentration?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Maybe it’s more tactical than physical. It’s to be prepared for fighting for if we have a second ball, maybe because we score a goal, we are a little bit more relaxed. I have the feeling that we have the game under control because the opponent is not even near our box. I don’t know. I have to check.”

Then came a question that was not received well. A reporter asked, “Please forgive me for this question… You said ‘I don’t know’ multiple times. But also, you do know the things that you want to do to improve them and then fix them?”

“I said, We don’t know today,” he answered.

The reporter persisted. “Across this press conference, you said ‘I don’t know’ in response to these answers.”

“This one?” he asked.

“More. This one today,” the reporter confirmed.

“Yeah, but when? I’m essentially asking, when did I say, we don’t know, which question? That’s a big one.”

The host then suggested moving on to the next question. Amorim was looking extremely irritated at this point. He was then asked if there was an update on which games would be missed by players going to AFCON.

“No, we are dealing with everything. They are going to play the next game, and that is the only thing I care,” he growled.

Finally, a reporter noted the lack of goals coming from forwards in recent games and asked him if he feels he has enough firepower or whether he would consider strengthening the attack in January.

“We need to wait until January,” Amorim responded. “We need to see what we are able to do. I don’t know. I really don’t care about that in this moment. I just want to prepare the game with the players that we have, and we have to be better in the next game. Thank you.”

Featured image Matt McNulty via Getty Images

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