Amorim looking to keep resurgent Manchester Utd on track against Brighton
shot on 16/01/2025 embagoed until 1330 GMT 17/01/2025
Old Trafford, Manchester, UK
shot on 16/01/2025 embagoed until 1330 GMT 17/01/2025
Old Trafford, Manchester, UK
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SportsTranscript
00:00You came out early for the second half, has there been a case yet where you've got angry
00:10with the players at half-time?
00:13No, I think the best thing to help the players is to be calm and try to explain what we need
00:19to change. Then we'll have time to be angry with them. I think, and I say that, today
00:28of course we didn't play well. First off, we suffered a lot. But I felt some players
00:35tired and when they are tired and trying, I have the responsibility to try to help them
00:40sometimes to change them. That is my part.
00:45I came before the team because I had Antony and I wanted to explain the situation of Antony,
00:52what I need from Antony to go inside off the pitch. That was the only reason.
00:59There's some speculation that he could leave on loan this month, do you want to keep him?
01:06Like I said, I want to keep my players, I'm focused on these players. I don't know what
01:12is going to happen with this window, we'll see. But he did a good job today.
01:19Because you've come in mid-season with no time to train, do you think this is going
01:24to be how it is until the summer now, with your up-down, full performance, bad performance?
01:30I think it's going to be hard until the end of the season. It's going to be a little bit
01:36of that rollercoaster. Then it depends on the time you have to train. We are still in
01:43the cup and we have UEFA games for Europa League. Then it's important also to focus
01:50on next Thursday, to win and to try to be in that top eight. In that way you can take
01:57two games from the schedule and have a full week. We are trying to do everything at the
02:03same time. We had like seven trainings together in 14, 15 games. So it's really hard.
02:12But we have to continue and try to win it. Sometimes playing good, sometimes playing
02:18bad. We will try to win games.
02:23I appreciate it's probably the most demanding and intense league in world football. But
02:30if the club bring a £50m down the fielder to the club, do you not expect that he could
02:37be able to play every three or four days? Is it not a concern that he struggles to play
02:46back-to-back games in the tight space of time? Or is it just something he's going to have
02:50to learn to get there?
02:53The players will get used to that. I'm trying to be honest with you guys. I talk openly
02:59about the game and you are focusing on what I said about Ugarte. Ugarte was tired because
03:04he did a great job against Liverpool, against Arsenal. You see it. Maybe if you look at
03:11the game of Arsenal, maybe Ugarte and Bruno were the best players against Liverpool. They
03:20didn't play against Newcastle. I think that happened with all the players here in the
03:26Premier League. They can play, but they don't play the same way.
03:30It's an adaptation.
03:31I think so. I think so. I think so. It's also my fault. Because if you lose the timing of
03:38the pressure, if I don't explain well the pressure, it's always lost in that. And you
03:43feel it today. Mateus, with the number seven, was creating a lot of problems for Manu because
03:49Manu was running against two guys. It's more my fault than his fault. He's going to get
03:55used to playing in three days.
04:00You talked about the number of games you've got coming up in a relatively short space
04:05of time. You also talked about hoping to keep certain players. Is it difficult to prepare
04:10for those games in the transfer window, not necessarily knowing who will still be here
04:15at the end of the month?
04:16Of course. They are our players, so we have control on that. We decide on that. Sometimes
04:25it's harder for the players because they have some information and you can feel it in every
04:31team in any summer. It's like that. For me, it's harder to prepare the games when we lose.
04:39When we win, we can manage everything. Expectations, bad mood for some players. We'll prepare the
04:48game in the same way and just focus on the next game.
04:53Is the lack of time at Carrington one of the reasons why you've struggled a little bit
04:58when it comes to set-pieces? Another goal from a corner today. Is that something you
05:03want to work on and get better on?
05:05Everything. But today, it seems like a simple headache. Sometimes you are in the moment
05:15that everything is against you. But then in the end, things change and we manage to win.
05:20But of course, we need to improve. We play against the best teams maybe in the world
05:24with set-pieces. We did a very good job. Like I explained to your colleague, this season
05:31is going to be like that and we have to improve in all the areas of our game.
05:41Are you concerned by Raza's goals recently? He's not getting the goals, he's not really
05:48getting as many chances as he had.
05:51I think it's a team problem. You can see it. It's not just from now, it's from the past.
05:57We have clearly a lack of goals and a lack of threat. When you threat the opponents,
06:05the opponents maybe don't press you so high. So everything is connected. All the players
06:13have moments in this season. I think when we started this journey together, Rasmus was
06:19the player that was always scoring. So he can come back in the next game, we'll see.
06:23But I think it's more a team problem than a Rasmus problem.
06:28You were talking about investigating the reasons behind not being able to play the same level
06:36as Arsenal and Liverpool games like this and now you have Brighton. Do you think that maybe
06:41it's because this squad might be built for a better way to be reactive and transitioning
06:47than taking the lead in matches?
06:50This is something that you can see from the past. We were in the past a team of transition
06:57and we still are. You can feel it. To create chances in the final third, we struggle a
07:03lot. But for that I think it's the most difficult moment to train against slow blocks, trying
07:12to create situations. So I think it's a team that feels more joy to play, waiting for the
07:23play and then in transition creating problems. So it's something that we have to change.
07:28To change we need training. So to have time to change also we need to win games, we try
07:34to do that.