Manchester United face Brentford on Saturday, on the back of a famous win against Chelsea at Old Trafford last weekend.
And all eyes will be on Ruben Amorim, who has the chance to pick up back-to-back wins in the Premier League for the first time since he took charge in November of last year.
And the head coach revealed during the embargoed section of the pre-match press conference that he is more confident going into games as compared to last season.
Rather damningly, he also revealed that he is still not sure which United will turn up to games, but promised that the current campaign will be more exciting than the last term as he is not afraid as much as last season due to the squad being much stronger.
Feeling is different as compared to last season
“Completely different. Now, I have always the feeling that we can win the next game, and we can be dominant. I have that feeling now. What I’m saying is that sometimes, in the small things, in that urgency.
“If you compare the way we start against Chelsea to the way we start against [Manchester] City, [it] is completely different. In that, I’m not certain, all the time, what is going to happen.
“And I’m really clear on that with you and with the players. But the feeling is completely different. I look at my team and I’m going to play against City, Arsenal, and I’m feeling, we can score goals, we can be dominant, we can control the game in certain moments. So, it’s a feeling completely different from last year.”
“I know that it’s going to be tough, but it’s more excitement than fear this year. So, I’m always excited to see the team.”
He revealed that added time on the training pitch is helping, but the mistakes fans are seeing on the pitch is because players are losing focus at crucial moments.
The Portuguese tactician is working on that, and he explained that having midweek games would actually have been more detrimental to the team at this moment.
Training time
“You can try to work on different things, try to imagine different scenarios. You have more time, not just to prepare the next game in terms of the strategy for the game, but also to work on your base.
“And I think you can see that when we play, we create more situations. We are suffering goals that we suffered also last year. I think that has to be [to do] with that urgency, that focus, that understanding that we cannot lose games in.
“Especially nowadays, we are going to have situations to score, so we also need to focus [on] that, if we give time to the team not suffering goals, we are near to winning games. So, I think that is special, to have that time with the team, and we are improving because of that. I think we would struggle a lot if we had a game in the middle of the week.”
And on picking up back-to-back wins, Amorim pointed out that it is more of a mental block, that will be lifted should the team win on Saturday.
And more the players win, more they will begin to believe. Rather tellingly, he pointed out that quite a few players are hurt by what happened last season, which might affect them on the pitch.
That sinking feeling
New signing Bryan Mbeumo helps in that aspect, as he is much more positive, and can help lift the players up during adverse situations.
“Depends. We need to win the next game. I think if we start winning, it’s not 10 wins in a row [or] seven. I’m talking about the second one, then the third one; the feeling will change.
“And again, that is something about the environment that we are living [in] for a while. If you look at Bryan [Mbeumo], in those moments when we are struggling, you feel a different guy compared to the rest of the team.
“And that is, you have to understand, some of the guys are here for a while, and that feeling is still here. And for that, we need to win games. Simple.”
Amorim can gauge what might happen in games from the warm-up, and he urged his players to start strong, like they did against Chelsea.
Ruben Amorim urges players to start strong
The Blues were down to 10 men within the first five minutes, and the 20-time English league champions had taken the lead soon after.
The start against Arsenal, Fulham and Burnley showed how much the team was up for the contest, and even though certain results did not go as planned, that hunger and desire is what Amorim wants from his players in every game.
“I think it’s going to help us. I know for people outside the club, it’s not a big thing. It should not be a big thing in Manchester United, but I think it’s going to help us a lot. So, for that, again, it’s not about playing well.
“It’s the way we are going to do the warm-up and the preparation, and if we are excited to go to the game, like we are sometimes when we are in the limit and we have to win some games. If we have always that feeling, I think it’s going to be massive for us. So, it’s massive to win this game.
“I don’t know, but the important thing is to do the maximum and to face that game like we face sometimes, Liverpool last year [for example] because we were struggling. The way we start the season against Arsenal, we were really excited to start the season.
“We should have that feeling all the time. So, we are in the beginning. We won the last game, we need to do everything to win against Brentford, and we need to win the game.”
Feature image Matt McNulty via Getty Images
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Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
