Rather than defend his current employers, Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim accepted that the club had “made a lot of mistakes in the past” when faced with Cristiano Ronaldo’s scathing criticism.
Not for the first time, Ronaldo delivered a blunt appraisal of his former employers. Amorim was largely spared his compatriot’s ire—“He’s [doing] his best. What’s he going to do? Miracles? Miracles [are] impossible”—but the wider hierarchy was not up to Ronaldo’s standards.
“Manchester United, right now, they don’t have a structure,” he sniffed. “I hope that changes in the future.”
Amorim was naturally presented with these comments during his prematch press conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur. “Of course, he knows he has huge impact on everything he says,” the United head coach began.
“But what we need to focus on is in future. We know as a club we made a lot of mistakes in the past. We are trying to change that. Let’s not focus on what happened. We need to focus on the future. Let’s focus on the way we are doing things.
“We are changing a lot of things, the structure, the way we want the players to behave, we are improving. Let’s forget a little bit the past.”
Amorim Turns to Arsenal as Example for Man Utd
Amorim has overseen a distinct uptick in performances and points over the last month, but the demanding coach is not yet satisfied. United’s only clear sheet from their 11 games this season was at home to newly promoted Sunderland. When faced with this underwhelming record, Amorim turned to the record-shattering example of Arsenal as an example to follow.
“It’s a problem,” the 40-year-old said of the clean sheet drought. “If you see the league nowadays, the team that is winning is not conceding goals. That’s a big thing.
“When you have talented players, if you defend well, in one moment, you can score and win a game. But it’s a team thing. We need to defend well and be more aggressive. Everything is connected.
“But we cannot concede the amount of goals we are conceding at the moment. Sometimes if you defend really well, you attack better. In the last game, [Nottingham Forest] had 17 shots against us. We cannot allow that. We need to pay attention to that.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ruben Amorim Responds With Surprise Stance to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Man Utd Takedown.
