Rúben Amorim said Manchester United will have to “suffer for a long time” before his methods help the club return to success 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 opener after 81 seconds had given United a dream start at Portman Road, but Omari Hutchinson's equalizer secured a point for Kieran McKenna's team and the home side would have won had United goalkeeper André Onana not made two crucial saves.
Despite having less than a week to work with his new team on the training ground, the former Sporting CP coach deployed his preferred 3-4-2-1 formation and said this led to his players overestimated their performance too much.
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But Amorim insisted he would remain true to his principles, even if he said it would lead to more suffering until his tactics bore fruit.
“I know it's frustrating for the fans, but we are changing so much at this moment with many games,” Amorim told reporters. “We will suffer for a long time and try to win games, but it will take time.”
“We have to win games, but we could lose if it wasn't for Onana. I think we have to understand that and think and be pragmatic that these guys had two days to train to make that much difference.”
“It is difficult for the players to manage everything in three days, but we forget the new idea. I think that’s why I was brought here in the middle of the season and we’re trying to deal with the things they’re used to.” [under Erik ten Hag].
“Next year, at the same stage, we will be here with the same problems, or we start now, we risk a bit, we suffer a bit and next year we will be better at this point, so we have to risk it .” a little bit.
“The [players] We think too much because we change too much in two training sessions and no longer have room to improve in training.
“But what I understood today is that they are trying. They really give it. Even in the difficult moments, I felt like they were doing the things we wanted them to do.”
Rúben Amorim's debut in the Manchester United dugout ended in a draw at Portman Road. Getty
Amorim said he had already told his players to stop doing what they were doing under the previous regime, citing the changes he had urged full-back Diogo Dalot to make.
“Some details: They used to pass the ball and go forward, even the central defenders,” Amorim said. “Now they have to go back. Things like that. You start moving forward and have to think too much.”
“Dalot used to do it, pass the ball to the central defenders, go inside, play as a midfielder, now he has to stay in that position.”
“If we listen to many of you saying that Manchester United has no structure, we will end up in a situation [for] You [to] See a structure and you will do it [see] but it is not liquid.
“It’s like steps. We have to put in the heads and the structure. If they start thinking about the structure, they’ll play a lot better.”
“But we need time for that and in this time we have to manage to win games. This is very important and I know it.”
United have games in the Premier League, Europa League and Carabao Cup coming up in the coming weeks and Amorim said some players will be left out of certain games so they can work on new methods at the training ground.
“We have to find a way,” he said. “I think the only way to achieve this is for us to have games and the guys who aren't playing are training, everyone will be playing, everyone will be on the bench so they have the feel of the game but they have to.” Train.
“With this schedule we need to rotate the team, so we will try to use this to train, improve the team and win games.”
“Without the time we need to find the time, I think this is the only way some of the guys will work on our idea the next day and then change their position.”
