Beleaguered Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim admits that he’s already questioned his decision to take the job mid-season.
Amorim, 40, initially wanted to spend the rest of the campaign at Sporting Lisbon before United convinced him and his coaching staff to make the move in November. Since replacing Erik ten Hag and taking over from interim manager Ruud van Nistelrooy, Amorim has won just four of his 14 Premier League games in charge.
The Portuguese coach will hope to guide United to their win first league win since January 26 when they travel to face Everton on Saturday, and ahead of the match he admitted that he might’ve made a mistake not waiting until the summer to answer their distress call.
“I think that’s clear, it’s common sense,” Amorim confessed during his pre-match press conference. “When you start a season, it’s completely different. You feel things, have a pre-season and time to change things you feel are necessary in a team and a squad. That is clear.
“That was the choice so I don’t want to talk about that. I had my reasons to ask for it. I knew it would be tough and a risk, but it’s Manchester United and you can’t say no.”
The 40-year-old, who won two titles with Sporting and was on course for a third when he left them, also refused to discuss whether INEOS – in charge of United’s football department through part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe – pulled the wool over his eyes about how bad things were at Old Trafford during negotiations.
“We made a decision and we go all the way,” Amorim affirmed. “Sometimes it’s frustrating, and when you hear out loud four wins in 14 games for Manchester United, even in another club, it’s really frustrating. You get really frustrated and angry. But let’s move on, and we can change that in the next game.”
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Everton away is that next game and Amorim even admitted that Toffees boss David Moyes, who was the first United manager to fail at replacing the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, is now doing better than him. “The simple thing is that David Moyes is doing a better job than me, it’s quite simple,” he said.
“And then small things like winning one game, winning two games, getting that belief. The pressure is not the same (at Everton). But we have to give merit to the players of Everton, and especially to the coach of Everton. We need to do the same as them.”
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