Amorim Confirms Manchester United Will Trigger Defender’s Contract Extension As Diallo Deal Is Close

Manchester United winger, Amad Diallo is set to finalize a new contract with the club, while manager Ruben Amorim announced that a one-year extension will also be activated for defender, Harry Maguire.

“Amad is near, and we are happy to continue with Harry,” Amorim told reporters on Friday ahead of their league clash with Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.

“We will trigger our option. (Maguire) needs to improve as a leader because we are starving for leaders on the pitch.”

Amorim’s team is in urgent need of support as they prepare for a significant challenge this Sunday against a Liverpool side that leads the Premier League table with only one defeat this season.

Meanwhile, United finds themselves in 14th place, having suffered five losses in their last six league matches.

An optimistic Amorim said, “Anything can happen in one game,” as he felt his team benefited from having two training sessions this week with no mid-week games.

“If you talk about the season… at the moment, they are better than us, but we can win any game,” he said.

“We have to focus not on the context but on the performance. We need to improve the simple things to play these kinds of games.

“Of course, it is a difficult moment because we are losing too many matches and we are going to be facing the best team of this year, but with training… we want to improve the performance compared to the last game (a 2-0 loss to Newcastle on Monday).”

Amorim swept aside questions about United’s potential activity during the transfer window, saying “I will keep that to myself. We will try to do something.”

Maguire is experiencing a rough patch with United, with defensive blunders by himself and others leading to Newcastle’s two goals on Monday.

“It is the same as Josh (Zirkzee); there are moments in the career of a player that are different, and I think he coped very well with his struggles,” Amorim said. “(Maguire) is a leader; he has to improve that part, and he has to improve our game.”

Amorim on Joshua Zirkzee

Zirkzee was substituted in the 33rd minute on Monday to a chorus of boos from the Old Trafford crowd and made his way directly to the tunnel, seemingly fighting back tears.

“(Zirkzee’s) situation is the same as the other players. He had that situation during a game, which is hard for any player, but this can happen. They understand it is part of football. Sometimes you are in a good moment in your career, other times things don’t happen the way you like,” Amorim said.

“So he is focused, he trained very well, but we have to understand sometimes that the players feel that lack of confidence and then in the game they have difficult moments. We have to move on to the next game.”