Ruben Amorim and Tyrell Malacia sat in front of the press on Wednesday evening ahead of Man Utd's match against Viktoria Plzen in match 5 of the Europa League.
There has been a lot happening at the club since the last game five days ago which was that damaging defeat to Forest at home.
On that loss, the manager said that it "is really simple" as to why his team suffered a second-straight defeat. Amorim felt like his side needed to pass the ball quicker and that positional play is key. While it led to a goal straight after the second half started, the Man Utd boss still wants his side to play out from the back but to be able to do it in a low block so as to have that cover in defence should a mistake be made. He pointed out that Leny Yoro's "bad pass" was what led to Forest's second goal.
In terms of the club's vision, Ruben Amorim and co are aiming to take United back to the top as "we want to take this club to winning the Premier League", says the 39-year-old. Winning the league title - which MUFC haven't done since 2013 - "is the main goal."
United and the now former Sporting Director parted ways on Sunday despite him being in the role for just 5 months. Amorim was asked about this to which he said "I have felt, since day one, the support from everybody so one person leaving doesn't change nothing."
He adds that while it is "a bad situation", he feels that the vision is very clear and that that vision "does not change only because one person leaves."
Amorim also talks about how he received great support from United's football hierarchy but acknowledges that in football, things and people change. "I know it is not the best situation but the important thing is we continue in our way."
There's also been a lot of talk of transfers for the club in both January and in the summer with it looking like United will need to sell to buy. Amorim was asked about this to which he replied "I'm really focused on my players and understanding my players, I think that was one of the problems of this club. We have to focus on what we have, the Academy and also to have the clear profile when you get the players."
He also wants time so that his ideas can be taught to the players he already has. Amorim wants the focus to be on improving players and the academy before we start to see where changes may be needed.
The Portuguese also said that he "really doesn't know" whether there will be movement in January. As with there being so many games so close to each other, the boss emphasized once more that "we don't have time to train."
Amorim is open to the fact that once the January window comes around, the club can see what can be done but for the moment, his focus remains on improving the team and winning games which starts against Plzen.
United want to play Champions League football. That is a given. However, with the Red Devils being 8 points being neighbors City in 4th (who they happen to be playing on Sunday in the league), the top 4 race appears all but done despite being just 15 matches into the season. Amorim was asked that whether winning the Europa League is a better route to Champions League football rather than through the league.
Once again though, he said that "our goal is to win our Premier League." In saying this, he did then say that when looking at the league table, it maybe easier to qualify for next season's Champions League via winning the Europa League as it is important for United to be in Europe's elite club competition.
He reiterated the fact that the best way to get into the Champions League is by winning the Premier League which is the goal.
On his time at Old Trafford so far, Amorim says that he knew it will be hard and that he has "a long way to go." He cites that winning home and away is important and that qualifying in the top 8 of the Europa League is so vital because it then means that you won't have to be two extra games (play-off) which can ease the load of an already demanding schedule. "That is massive."
He then spoke about tonight's opponents and how they are unbeaten at home and have a good record in Europe. Plzen's record in the Europa League is almost identical to that of United's with only goal difference putting MUFC ahead of their Czech opponents. The manager also wants his team to be better at set pieces which are an obvious weakness of his team.
Amorim also confirmed that Tyrell Malacia will play.
Speaking of the defender, he spoke about how there is a lot of change at the club but that he likes it and that Amorim is a manager who is "very clear for all of us. That's the most important thingg, we know what we have to do in the game."
On trying to return to form, Malacia says that the best way is through training and improving week by week. He already felt that there was a difference between his performances against Bodo/Glimt (his first match in over 500 days) and Arsenal. However, the players are still trying to get used to the play style of Ruben Amorim.
Final Thoughts
I've had my say on the loss to Forest here but I don't think it was Yoro's fault for that second goal. That pass from Bruno was blind and was behind the defender who made a good forward run. A better ball to him and we were out of a relatively tight situation and moving into attack. And then obviously Onana cocks up big time.
I don't think calling out Yoro specifically is something he should've done whether it was his mistake or not. For a young lad coming to United and only playing his first minutes recently, that could lower his confidence. Criticize the whole team, not just one player.
Of course the vision is to win everything, PL included. I get that that is what our ultimate goal is but saying that this is our goal even now is a little bit delusional imo.
At the moment, we're not even in the top half of the table so how can winning the league be a goal of ours now? Perhaps he's just saying it but I would rather he said something a little more realistic like 'the goal is to play good football and win, to build some momentum and try to get us back on track.' That is more akin to where we are.
I know he did mention something to that extent but he also mentioned winning the league is the goal on several occasions.
But something that is more realistic is winning the Europa League. That is our best bet into the CL next year because top 4 is gone and I also believe that City will beat us despite their predicament and if we want to play in the Champions League, which is where we belong like Amorim said, the Europa League is the way. That will also give us a trophy and more money which will help in terms of transfers and any other financial issues of the club, of which there are many.
Both transfer windows are also an opportunity to sell and buy whether that is something you want to do or not. As the manager says though, things change. We also know that we do have problematic areas of our team that need solving asap, like the left wing-back position.
When saying that one of the problems of this club is looking to sell to buy and that there are players currently there that he can improve, it sounds to me like he has to work with what he's got as he isn't going to get the funds he wants. It actually comes across a little ten Hag-ish. He was saying things like this all the time.
I'm not sure if Amorim knows but a lot of these current players are shit. The haven't been good enough in a long time and we need to move many of them on. I get that he has to back his players but I'm hoping that behind the scenes he really does see that they aren't MUFC quality.
Yes we have a lot of financial issues causing us to need to sell to buy but I'm hoping that the club sell the right players for the right reasons, not just for money.
I also found it very blunt from the manager when he said that the 'vision does not change only because one person leaves.' Obviously that person was Dan Ashworth and there was a lot of rumors about how there seemed to be a clash of heads in terms of what he wanted and what the rest of the club did, which would no doubt have included Amorim.
With the reports saying that he was the reason to keep Erik ten Hag when Sir Jim Ratcliffe didn't would've definitely caused some issues. Ashworth apparently wanting to replace ten Hag with Gareth Southgate or Eddie Howe was also clearly something else that the rest of the board disagreed upon as other news said that it was CEO Omar Berrada who wanted Ruben Amorim as ten Hag's replacement. Obviously there was a disagreement there.
If this is true, Amorim may have had some angst towards Ashworth at some point knowing that he didn't want the Portuguese as manager but rather someone English.
Clearly, Ashworth's vision wasn't matching up to that of everyone else's resulting in this mutual parting of ways.
The way Amorim spoke about Ashworth's departure came across as someone who didn't care too much about him leaving. I know that the manager has several of his own problems on the pitch but the last thing he would've wanted was to see his Sporting Director leave just two weeks after taking over as head coach. That would've made things even harder.
But where I do agree with him is that we cannot steer clear from the vision because of one person and that we need to move on.
Background Image: Ruben Amorim | Image credit: Getty Images via Goal