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Sunday 04 May 2025 17:50
Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim says it is important for his young players to learn from Sunday afternoon’s defeat to Brentford.
The Reds lost 4-3 to the Bees at the Gtech Community Stadium. Mason Mount opened the scoring but an unfortunate own goal from Luke Shaw, a brace from Kevin Schade and a fourth from Yoane Wissa put the hosts out of sight.
There was a sniff of a late comeback with late goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Amad but, in truth, it always looked like being Brentford’s day after they went 2-1 up in the first half.
Amorim fielded a young side – United’s youngest-ever Premier League starting XI – and answered questions on that, plus Matthijs de Ligt’s first-half injury, when he held his post-match press conference inside the stadium. Read everything he said below…
Ruben’s post-match press conference Video
Ruben’s post-match press conference
▶ PRESS CONFERENCE | Amorim talks De Ligt, Shaw, fitness and more following our narrow defeat against the Bees…
What were your thoughts on the performance, the way the game developed?
“I think it’s a little bit of a reflection of our season. We start quite well, controlling the game, not creating big chances, but controlling the pace of the game. We suffer a lot with the throw-ins and set pieces, but we already knew that our team would struggle against this team because we didn’t have the height [that] will be necessary for this kind of game. They score twice in these kind of moments, even with Matta [Matthijs de Ligt] on the floor. And then in the second half, I felt that we were near the draw, and then we suffered a goal and, like some other times, we disconnect. And then another goal a few minutes later. And then we push forward, try to score, we scored twice, but we didn’t have the time to do better.”
You mentioned lack of height there, so with the half-time changes, were they tactical or were they pre-planned?
“No, it was just [a case of resting] Luke Shaw as, with Matta, we don’t know what will happen on Thursday. If we don’t have Luke Shaw available, we can have a problem, and then we don’t have enough defenders for the game.”
So, is Luke Shaw injured?
“No, no, no, no, no. What I’m saying is that we have to protect some players at half-time, thinking about Thursday. So, it was just that, not about thinking about [how] the game [had gone].”
Are any players actually out injured for Thursday? In terms of Matta, what was your view of that second goal when he went down and the players were appealing for a foul?
“I will not comment. The important thing is to have Matta. I’m not thinking about Thursday. Not a big issue; it’s the only thing I ask. It’s not to have him available for this game or for whatever is going to happen in the future. I just don’t want a big issue because we had a problem with Licha [Lisandro Martinez] and with Matta. But I don’t know, I’m just talking. I have no idea. He could be training in three days, I don’t know.”
How important is it that your young players learn from today? Because obviously it’s an incredibly young team.
“It’s really important. They have to understand in this season, this season is really important, and also to understand that we cannot do this anymore. Of course, we know the context, but this kind of season, we need to change that. They need to understand what it is to play for Manchester United. I think they did really well. They are not playing so much, but then they have to play 90 minutes because we have to change some other players to save them for Thursday. And I think we can help even more the young kids, especially Tyler [Fredricson]. He did quite well but for the third goal he needs more help from Amad. So, with these small things I think we can help them more, but I’m really happy with the performance of the young kids.”
And how pleased were you for Mason Mount? Great finish, huge smile on his face…
“It’s not just the finish, it’s the position that he has on the pitch. He’s like a third midfielder that can reach the box, he’s really intelligent, so he’s getting there. And he trains really hard. Sometimes I have to push him back and to take him off the pitch because he wants to do so much more. We are taking care of him, he wants to play more minutes, but the minutes were controlled. I’m really happy with him.”
Ruben, just on De Ligt, you don’t know what the injury is yet or how soon he can return?
“No, no, no. I have no idea.”
Just on the younger players, I know you spoke about going forward what they can do, so how good will this experience be for them? It’s a learning curve.
“Yeah, it’s really important because you can train a lot with the first team, but to have that feeling, playing with the players, feeling the players, the speed of the game, I think is the best thing. So, again, I think they did quite well. Chido [Obi] fought all the game, but you can feel it is really naive sometimes in the way he puts his body. He’s going to understand what is the feeling of playing in these kind of games. This is the best way. So, we can take that as a positive, but the rest we lose. We didn’t win points, so it’s just that.”
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Sunday 04 May 2025 17:50
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