Rúben Amorim
Rúben Amorim said Manchester United will have to “suffer for a long period” before his methods help the club enjoy success again after a 1-1 draw at Ipswich Town denied the new head coach a debut win in his first game in charge.
Marcus Rashford’s opening goal after 81 seconds had given United a dream start at Portman Road, but Omari Hutchinson’s equaliser sealed a point for Kieran McKenna’s team and the home side would have won but for two crucial saves by United goalkeeper André Onana.
Despite having less than a week to work with his new squad on the training ground, the former Sporting CP coach deployed his favoured 3-4-2-1 formation and said it led to his players overthinking their performance.
But Amorim insisted he will stay loyal to his principles, even though he said it will lead to more suffering until his tactics bear fruit.
“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.
“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.”