Ruben Amorim Reflects On Tough First Year At Manchester United

‎Ruben Amorim acknowledged that his first year at Manchester United has been “really tough,” but he also expressed a desire to stay as long as possible as head coach.

‎Amorim was named Erik ten Hag’s successor on 1 November and officially began his role ten days later. The Portuguese manager has overseen 52 games, with 21 wins and 19 losses, a win rate of 40%.

‎“It was a journey, a big journey,” he said of his first 12 months.

‎“It was tough, really tough, good moments and bad moments. I learned a lot that is really important. I found out that even in my lower moments, I can stick with the things I believe, and that is a good thing for anyone to understand.

‎”Today the answer is different from three weeks ago. One of the biggest honours of my life to be here and I want to continue here for many years.”

‎Manchester United have won their last three Premier League matches, beating Sunderland, Liverpool, and Brighton. This Saturday they travel to Nottingham Forest, who are under the management of Sean Dyche, set to oversee his third game in charge.

‎Dyche previously suggested in August that, when not in a managerial role, he could perform better with United’s squad than Amorim.

‎“I bet I could win more games with that squad playing a 4-4-2,” he said.

‎Amorim shrugged off Dyche’s comments. “Maybe it’s true that if we play 4-4-2 we win more games,” he said.

‎“But I always said that I have a way of playing that is going to take a while, but in the future, it’s going to be better. Then I can look at Sean Dyche as a manager and then as a pundit.

‎”If you are a pundit and you don’t say very strong things, I don’t want to watch you. So I can understand that it’s a completely different job. I know that Sean Dyche is really smart and he knows how to play the game.

‎“He also understands that one thing is when we are seeing the game and talking about the game, the other thing is to coach a team. I have nothing to say, I just want to win the next game.”

‎Lisandro Martínez, who has not played since sustaining a knee injury in February, has resumed full training. Amorim said, “He wants to go to [play in] this one [Forest] he’s not going to. He’s done training with us but we changed some things in the exercises, so slowly he’s going to get better.” Amorim said he was not certain whether Harry Maguire would be fit.

‎Jason Wilcox has said United’s 3-1 defeat at Brentford on 27 September prompted him to scrutinise Amorim’s performance more closely.

‎The loss came after a win over Chelsea, and Amorim spoke about needing to sustain the momentum and finally win two consecutive league matches.

‎“The Brentford game stands out as a game in which we were extremely disappointed in the way we played,” the director of football told MUTV.

‎“But in all the other games we’ve had moments of really good play, we’ve seen progress and we’ve got to keep this going now.”