Ruben Amorim responds to Manchester United criticism from Class of 92 pundits – ‘the issue’
Ruben Amorim has faced plenty of criticism as Man Utd manager from former players at the club but insists he doesn’t have a problem with it.
Ruben Amorim has had a hard time from former United players in the media, including Paul Scholes
Ruben Amorim said he had no problem with taking criticism from former Manchester United players in the media and accepted the fact that he is underperforming meant much of it was warranted. There has been conflict between former club greats and the current crop of players, as well as recent managers, in the last few years over some heavy-handed criticism from the comfort of TV studios and podcast booths.
Paul Scholes was the latest to stick the boot in this week, saying on his podcast with Nicky Butt, The Good, the Bad and the Football, that Amorim didn’t get the club and that he wasn’t the right man for the job. Gary Neville and Roy Keane have been vocal critics of the club on Sky Sports as well, but Amorim played down any idea of a feud or the comments being unhelpful and sought to take the flak on his shoulders.
“I think it’s normal,” he said. “I think it’s a fact that me as a manager of Manchester United, I think we are underachieving. We should have more points, especially this season. So I take that naturally. Sometimes they don’t have all the information and they see Manchester United with the standards that they lived here. Always winning. So it’s hard for them to see their club in this situation.”
Some previous United managers have felt that the criticism was unhelpful for a group of players trying to match those standards and restore the club to the top of English football, but Amorim denied that was the case and said the only way to quieten the criticism was to win more often.
“I think not winning is the issue,” he said. “Of course you can point a lot of things and they point a lot of things that we need to improve but the big issue is not winning. If I’m winning I can go to the games in a horse, arrive there, playing with just two defenders and everything will be fine.
“The problem is that me as a manager I’m not doing good enough and that is a fact also and I can accept that. So that is the only problem. For them it’s that Manchester United is not winning and is not in the position that it’s supposed to be.
“We have the best league in the world and there’s a lot of things around the game and every press conference I leave here and I’m going to give an interview. So it’s a completely different world and again in Sporting there is no issue because we were winning all the time. So if you are winning there is no issue. So I understand that and that’s okay.”
Amorim is self-critical as a head coach and said he needs to improve United’s play in several areas to deliver more wins and make the team more consistent.
“I just watch the games and sometimes we play well,” he said. “Sometimes we are not consistent. I think we need to work on the variability of the way we play, especially in the build-up. I think I need to find different ways to take all the juice from the team, from the squad.
“I think I need to inspire a lot of players that are not playing in a different way and that’s maybe something about the way we play. So I’m just trying to find out solutions to win more games.”
