A shellshocked Ruben Amorim apologised to fans and questioned his players’ desire, saying they “spoke really loud about what they want” after Grimsby’s penalty shootout win dumped Manchester United out of the Carabao Cup.
United trailed 2-0 at the break following goals from Charles Vernam and Tyrell Warren. The panicked visitors forced penalties via Bryan Mbeumo’s 75th-minute strike and Harry Maguire’s header 60 seconds from the end. But when Mbeumo missed his second kick and 26th of the tie‑breaker United had lost against fourth-tier opposition for the first time in the competition, 12‑11 on penalties.
Amorim was clear the defeat has to be the nadir. “I think this is a little bit the limit,” he said. “Something has to change. In this moment, we need to focus on the weekend and then we have time to think.
“Everything [was wrong]. The way we started the game, we were not even here. When everything is so important in our club, everything that happened – it’s a problem in our club. We should do so much better. I just have to say sorry to our fans. I felt my players spoke really loud today about what they want.”
Amorim was asked to expand on the last comment. “I think it’s easy for you [to know],” the head coach said. “Let’s focus on the next game and then we have the stop for the international games. We will think things through. I think football was really fair today. The best team won.”
Amorim was asked if he could believe what had been witnessed. “No, but I’m the manager,” the Portuguese said. “It should be my job to understand what happened. Again, I’m really sorry for our fans. Let’s focus on the next game.”
Last season United finished in a record Premier League low 15th. Amorim admitted that his side has not improved. “That is more than a result. That is the biggest problem in the team. I think it was really clear today. I would like to say very smart things and very important things but I have nothing to say.
“This is the biggest problem also – to see the same mistakes. I’m really sorry for our fans. It’s too much sometimes. You cannot change so much – you cannot change everything in one summer. You need to win games. You need to not show this kind of performance.
“At half-time, I said: ‘We have 45 minutes to try to win the game.’ In the first half, I told them that they were speaking really loud to me – I understand what you are doing, what I am seeing. Let’s try to change that in the last 45 minutes.”
