“We are losing the feeling of being a massive club,” says Manchester United coach
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has reacted to the club’s situation, saying that they “need to change a lot of things during the summer” to avoid another disastrous season.
Speaking after United’s latest defeat, a 2-0 loss at home to a previously 17th-placed West Ham side, Amorim questioned even his own future at the club if the requisite changes are not made in the summer. While the Portuguese avoided naming individual players, his message was loud and clear: Manchester United are not functioning like a top club.
“I don’t know, and I don’t want to talk about players, I’m talking about myself, the culture in club, the culture in the team,” said Amorim.
“I have that feeling, we need to change that, and we need to be really strong in the summer and to be brave, because we will not have a next season like this if we start like this.”
Amorim’s comments come near the end of a campaign that has been nothing short of miserable for United. The team sit in the bottom half of the table, with no wins in their last seven league matches, and have collected just six points since late January, and only against already-relegated clubs.
While Manchester United are still preparing for a Europa League final at the San Mames in Bilbao later this month, Amorim made it clear that one match does not make up for an entire season of underperformance.
“Everybody is thinking about the final, the final is not the issue in this moment in our club, we have bigger, bigger things to think [about].”
United’s attitude and intensity against West Ham showed that they were almost unwilling to even play the game. Unwilling to run or defend, willing to lose, it is an astonishing lacking of drive in a team representing one of the biggest clubs in the world.
“I think it’s quite similar in some games that we have here, Wolves was a little bit the same,” said Amorim. “We create more chances than the opponent but the lack of urgency to protect our goal in the few times that West Ham was near our box [was disappointing].
“We need to be more aggressive. If you cannot score in the first ball, [then] the second ball, if you cross the ball, if we are aggressive, we can score. We had a lack of pace. We have to do so much better.
“For me, the biggest concern is that feeling that ‘it’s okay, we cannot change our position so much, so it’s okay.’ That is the biggest problem in our club in this moment, because we are losing the feeling of we are a massive club and that it’s the end of the world to lose a game at home. So I think that is the biggest concern in our club.
“As a manager of Manchester United in that position, [I feel] embarrassed, and it’s hard to accept. And I think everybody has to think seriously about a lot of things here.
“Everybody is thinking about the final, the final is not the issue in this moment in our club, we have bigger, bigger things to think [about]. And we have to change a lot of things in the end of the season.”
