Amorim: Risks must be taken for progress

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Monday 25 November 2024 09:00

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim says that risks must be taken in the short-term to ensure the Reds can make long-term progress.

All appeared to be going to script in the Portuguese’s first match in charge, when Marcus Rashford netted with merely two minutes on the clock at Portman Road.

But Ipswich fought back and, after a tense 90 minutes, the spoils were shared in a 1-1 draw.

Following the game, Amorim was appreciative of the effort his players put in to the apply the system he wants to adopt, despite limited time on the training pitch with a full cohort of players.

“It is hard to expect anything now,” he told journalists in his post-match press conference in East Anglia.

“It is not a surprise but you see in-game. That is why I was a little bit anxious, because you cannot understand what will happen in the game. I felt that. I felt that they were trying. They were thinking too much in the game and that is normal.

“We start very well, but then we should have more possession with the ball and kept more of the ball. Sometimes, you have more of the ball in the defence and the rest of the guys were too stuck because they were thinking where they should be.

“This is the first point, when we make a new structure and we are so clear on that, they need time to have some fluidity in the game. I felt that, but it is [just] two training [sessions] and they did OK.”

United enter a period now, after the international break, where three matches a week will be a regular occurrence. This further limits the time our new head coach has to work with his players on the training pitch, but the 39-year-old and his staff have a plan.

“We have to find a way,” he added.

“I think the only way to do it is we have games and the guys that don’t play, have training. Everyone is going to play and everyone is going to be on the bench so they have the feeling of the game but they need to train.

“With this schedule we need to rotate the team, so we will try to use that to train, to improve the team between matches.

“Without time we have to find the time and this is the only way. Some of the guys are going to play and some of the guys in the next days will work on our idea and then they will change the positions.”

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Despite being only 13 days into his tenure at the club, the patterns of Amorim’s philosophy were clear to see against Ipswich. While not quite as fluid as United supporters may have hoped, the boss firmly believes that implementing this style from day dot is our best route to progress.

“They are thinking about too much, because things are so different,” he said of his players.

“Some details, they used to pass the ball and go forwards and now they have to go back. These types of things, they have to think too much. [Diogo] Dalot used to do it, he would pass the ball and then go inside and play in midfield. Now he has to stick in this position.

“It is hard for the players in three days to try to cope with everything, but we have two ways: we forget about the new idea – and I think that’s why I was brought here in the middle of the season – and we try to cope with what they are used to doing. And next year, at the same stage, we will be here with the same problems.

“Or we start now, we risk a little bit, we suffer a little bit and next year we will be better at this point. So we have to risk it a little bit.”

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Monday 25 November 2024 09:00