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

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim says Cristiano Ronaldo has a “huge impact” when he comments on United.

Amorim was facing the press in the pre-match presser ahead of Saturday’s Premier League match against Spurs in London and was asked about Ronaldo’s recent comments about the club.

Asked about performances varying across 90 minutes, Amorim replied:

“I think a little bit. But if you look the game against Nottingham [Forest] that we control in the first half, put the two games [halves] at the same time, you can sense the energy was not the same. And that is something that you can watch in the first moments of the game. So it’s a little bit both.

“I think we can manage the game better now. We can always change from one moment that we are struggling, we can change that also because we have players that can change that for us, not as a team but sometimes the individual can help us to change that.”

The next question pertained to how different the boss thinks his team is now to the one that lined up in the Europa League final.

“First of all the characteristics of the players,” he said. “We have different characteristics in our team, but we also have a lot of players that play last year.

“So we are a better team, we play better, we understand the game better. I think we are more confident. We reached that final confident that we could win, because we were doing well in Europe. But in this moment we play with a different confidence. We manage better the moments of the game.

“But if you remember that game, they have that shot on the goal, they won the game. So I expect a different game that we can play better, but also to have a little bit luck to help us to win the game.”

Another reporter asked if Amorim felt there was a difference this season because the team had fewer injury problems.

“No, it’s not a change,” he replied. “It’s one game every week. And then, again, a little bit of luck. Because sometimes you have problems with players, with knocks. And it’s not something that’s a soft issue.

“So you never know what is going to happen in the next training. If you play with intensity in training, something can happen. But I think the big reason, of course we try to do everything well, the big reason is one game every week. You can give an extra day to the players that you know that could struggle in the next training. So I think that is the biggest reason.”

The BBC’s Simon Stone then asked “You conceded two goals last week against Brighton. You’ve still only kept one clean sheet. Is that a problem?”

“Yeah, it’s a problem, especially if you see the league nowadays the team that is winning all the games is not suffering goals,” Amorim admitted.

“Maybe some shots on on target and that is a big problem, big thing especially when you have talented players. If you defend well, in one opportunity you can score a goal and win a game, but I think it’s not [the defence], it’s more again a team thing. We need to defend better.

“We need to be more aggressive. And that part of the energy when we have the full energy in every ball, we defend better, so everything is connected.

“But of course we have a lot to do, we cannot suffer the amount of goals that we are suffering and that is a thing that we need to improve.”

Will it be possible to reduce the goals conceded without also reducing goals scored?

“No, I think you can attack really well. Sometimes when you defend better, you attack better. So I think it’s not that. It’s the way we defend the box. But the last game I think we struggled a little bit inside the box because outside the box we allowed the crosses without any pressure. So these small details that you watch from the last game, we worked during this week to try to improve that.

“The opponents, we suffered goals in the beginning, especially in the beginning of the season, but we didn’t allow much to Arsenal to win that game. But in our last game, they had 17 shots – that we cannot allow. That is something that we need to change and we pay attention to that. So, yeah, we can attack the same way. We can score even more goals, but we need to defend better.”

Amorim was then asked if having lost the Europa League final was a blessing in disguise.

“It’s not the fact of seeing the positive, it’s using the positives,” he explained. “So any situation that you have in our life, you can look in the positive way or in the bad way. If you ask me, you prefer to be here with a cup. in Champions League, Champions League more money, more players maybe, of course, I will say yes, but you have the other side. You have more time to train, to know your players, to arrange everything, the connection between staff and prepare the future.

“In the future, it will be with the European competition. So we just try to use the positive thing of not playing all the games during the week. So yes, I can see the positives.

Finally, the Ronaldo question came. The reporter asked: “He said that you’re doing a good job, but you can’t provide miracles. But he’s also a bit damning on the players, saying that some players don’t have Manchester United in their mind. Do you think that’s quite unfair from a club legend like him that maybe some of those players in the squad look up to as a legend of the game?”

Amorim replied:

“Of course he knows and he has a huge impact in everything he said. What we need to focus is in the future. We know that we as a club made a lot of mistakes in the past, but we are trying to change that.

“So let’s not focus on what happened. Let’s focus on what we are doing now. And we are doing that. We are changing a lot of things in the structure, the way we do things, the way we want the players to behave. We are doing that and we are improving. So let’s focus on the way we are doing things. We are improving, let’s continue and forget a little bit the past.

The embargoed section of the presser will also be covered here in full at around 10.30pm tomorrow.

Featured image Alex Livesey via Getty Images

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