Amorim explains Maguire’s role

Ruben Amorim explained that Harry Maguire’s late introduction as an attacking substitution against Nottingham Forest was due to the state of the game.

Trailing by a goal with two minutes of normal time to go, Maguire displaced Yoro for the final moments at The City Ground, bringing about a reshuffle in our shape.

While the defender is known for his prowess in the air, it was an unfamiliar attacking role that he occupied after being brought off the bench – although he was well-placed on two occasions, for a handful of openings in stoppage-time in the East Midlands.

Ultimately, we couldn’t find an equaliser on our return to Premier League action, as we fell to a 1-0 defeat to Nuno Espirito Santo’s side, but Amorim asserted that his team needed to get more balls into the box because of the way Forest were defending, and that Maguire’s aerial ability is among the best at his disposal in the United squad.

He spoke more on that substitution, our ability in the final third, and took on questions about Alejandro Garnacho – plus a host of other topics – in his post-match press conference at full-time.

You can now watch, or read, everything our head coach had to say in his media debrief by scrolling below.

Ruben, do you think you deserved more from that, given the amount of possession and chances you had?

“I think that is clear. We create some chances but we could create more with the possession that we had. We reached the final third a lot of times but we need to be better in that final third because that is really important to score goals and we have a lack of goals. We start the game suffering a goal and put Nottingham in the place that they want to be, defending with a lot of men. Then they have really fast players to make transitions, even that, we control quite well, especially in the second half, we push forward, but again, in the final third, we were not good enough.”

It’s a fantastic goal, Ruben, but was it a goal that could have been stopped?

“That is clear, when you have a corner, you have men to block transitions, we have all the pitch. you can make a foul. So yeah, I think if look at the game and you are the coach, you have to do better.”

Harry Maguire up top, an unconventional, perhaps, way to try to score a goal, but he did get one of the best chances. What did you make of that situation, were you at all hesitant to do that?

“In the end of the game, when the opponent is just protecting the box, if you look at the defenders of Nottingham, they are really comfortable. And then with a line of six, not five, a line of six, we can reach the final third but then we have to put the ball inside the box because it’s hard to make the combinations to get inside the box to score goal. Harry Maguire, when he’s attacking in set-pieces, is maybe the best player we have in our team, so inside the box, you are not a defender, you are a striker. So it was that idea to put I one man who is really good in the air to score a goal.”

Just one on Alejandro; he had six shots tonight, quite a few off targets, you shifted at half-time I think to the left-hand side. What did you make of his performance overall?

“He’s making everything, he’s trying, sometimes you have one day that you are doing the right things, but in the final third, you are not that good, that can happen. I was also going to ask about Garnacho as well. I know you need these chances, but do you think he’s perhaps trying to play himself into form, doing too much, because at certain times when team-mates are available, it doesn’t seem the best option he’s choosing That can happen in the game, the most important thing again for me is when he needs to run back, he’s running back. Of course, we want a player who has one against one, sometimes he’s trying too much, he has Dorgu to make a movement, but I think he wants to help the team in doing his best. Sometimes he doesn’t make the best choice, but that you can point to any player today.”

When Harry came on, in fairness to him, he did have two good chances. Is that a concern that a defender comes on, gets two chances, and then there are two strikers who the club have invested more than £100 million in, that didn’t have many chances?

“No, it depends on the characteristics. Again, Nottingham was playing with a line of six and it’s a matter also of size, in the way you have the ability to head a ball. So I don’t see it that way. That can happen with any team with the best strikers in the world. The defenders sometimes are the best ones to attack a ball inside the box. So Harry was really good on that.”

I know this was before your time, but Elanga is obviously a United Academy boy. Does the fact that he looked such a good player tonight show mistakes of the club over the years and how recruitment is just so crucial, that you have to upgrade?

“We are talking about a lot of front players that came from Manchester United and they are doing right, but they had their chance here. In Manchester United, you don’t have the time. I am saying all the time, I will not have the time – we have to get it right fast. So we are talking about players that didn’t play for Manchester United, they were here playing for Manchester United. In here, the pressure is too big sometimes. And sometimes you don’t have time and you should have time for these kids to develop, but for the team, you need a strong base to support all these kids; if you don’t have that strong base, we are not going to help our kids. So they had their chances and sometimes football is like that and the pressure of playing for Manchester United is really big.”

Matchday Review: Forest v United Video

Matchday Review: Forest v United

MATCHDAY REVIEW | Watch MUTV’s post-match show following United’s clash with Nottingham Forest…

Mason Mount came back from his injury today coming off the bench, do you see him starting in one of the two ’no.10’ positions behind the strikers because he was looking to get behind the defenders?

“If you look at the history of Mason Mount, he played in this system many times, especially in Chelsea, he played left-hand, right-hand [side]. So I think it’s a very good position for him.”

One of the strengths of Nottingham Forest is they move the ball from back to front really quickly. Is that something that you look them as a kind of template sometimes for your side, because sometimes, you still play the ball backwards rather than going forwards?

“When you play a team that is really good on transition, if you transform the game like this and don’t push the defenders to get near, if you lose the ball we are, if you play with a big pitch, it’s harder to block transitions. Sometimes you have to start the play again, bring the ball and then everybody is close, starting with some speed to the ball. So, sometimes you have to take time to control the game, to dominate the game, and today, I think I’m always when I say our team didn’t create chances, [but] today, we create chances. And I think we had a lack quality in the final third, so if we have the quality, imagine the chances that we would supposed to be [getting]. So the game is like that, if they are good in transitions, you have to push forward first, pushing to a low block to control transitions and we did that quite well today.”

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