Manchester United’s newly appointed head coach Ruben Amorim has warned the club players’ that they will need to suffer more before his methods would help them turn the tables. Amorim kickstarted his tenure with a 1-1 draw against Ipswich Town at Portman Road on Saturday.
Marcus Rashford scored after only 80 seconds into the game but Omari Hutchinson found the equaliser for the home team just before half-time. The Portuguese coach deployed a 3-4-2-1 formation and said it will take some time before he finds success with the Red Devils.
“I know it’s frustrating for the fans, but we are changing so much in this moment with a lot of games,” Amorim told reporters. “We are going to suffer for a long period and we will try to win games, but this will take time.
The former Sporting CP manager admitted they could have ended on the wrong side of the result if Andre Onana had not made two crucial saves.
“We have to win games, but we could lose if it was not for Onana, so I think we have to understand that and think and be pragmatic that these guys had two days to train to change so much.
“It’s hard for the players in three days to cope with everything, but we forget about the new idea. I think that’s why I was brought here in the middle of the season and we try to cope with the things they are used to doing [under Erik ten Hag].
“Next year in 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 in the next year we will be better at this point so we have to risk it a little bit.
“The [players] are thinking too much because we are changing too much with two trainings now without space to improve in training.
“But what I understood today is they are trying. They are really trying. Even in the difficult moments, I felt they were doing the things we wanted them to do.”
Speaking on the changes he has made to the players’ tactics, Amorim revealed he has asked players to hold their respective positions after passing the ball.
“Some details — they used to pass the ball and go forward, even the centre-backs,” Amorim said. “Now they have to go back. These type of things. They start going forward and they have to think too much.
“Dalot used to do it, pass the ball to centre-backs, go inside, play as a midfielder, now he has to stick to this position.
“When we want to listen to a lot of you guys that Manchester United doesn’t have a structure, we will have a situation [for] you [to] see a structure and you will [see] that but it’s not fluid.
“This is like steps. We have to put in the heads, the structure. When they start thinking about the structure, they will play so much better.
“But we need time to do that and during this time we have to manage to win games. That is very important and I know that.”
Manchester United will take on FK Bodø/Glimt in the Europa League on Thursday night at Old Trafford.
