Ruben Amorim says Ayden Heaven will continue to start for Manchester United if he continues to play like he did against Real Sociedad yesterday.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s Premier League match against Leicester City, Amorim was asked about the 18 year old’s performance.
“If Ayden Heaven continues like that, he’s going to play!”, Amorim beamed.
“Of course, he’s young, he didn’t play much this season, maybe just 45 minutes for the U21s, then a few minutes here and now a full game. I really like his confidence, I like his pace, I think he’s good in defending the box.
“I think he’s quite complete, but he has a lot of work to do. In the Premier League, we will face a different kind of player and he’s going to be tested in a different way, so we are trying to manage all this because he’s still really young.”
Amorim was also asked if he thinks the players are starting to respond to his methods.
“I feel that in the last games that we can understand better the idea that what we want to do,” he said.
“We are better understanding the plan for the games. We’re giving more time to the team to win or draw games. We are not suffering one goal then losing our minds and suffering other goals.
“So we are understanding better the moments of the game and understanding better the way we want to play.”
On squad rotation, he said:
“With different competitions we have to rotate to protect players. For example, Casemiro was so tired, we didn’t want to risk Manu Ugarte he wanted to stay here [at Carrington] … we have Mason Mount, we want him to return really really slow. Kobbie will maybe return in a few weeks, we’re not sure. Harry Maguire, we don’t want to risk, we’ll see for Sunday.”
“Everything is important and we want to continue with this feeling that we can win games, and games after games. It doesn’t matter about time to prepare, we can do it. We showed it against Arsenal, we have to forget that, we have to forget the table and face them like we faced Real Sociedad and improve our position in the table.
“We need to continue this feeling of winning and improving as a team.
“I know that in football, especially in our moment we can have a really good moment and then drop really fast so our focus is to continue. Don’t be too happy, too depressed. We have to survive, that definition could change in the end but our idea is to improve the team and to prepare fresh for the game against Leicester and not focus a lot and changing our mind because we win or lose.”
Amorim was then asked what he feels about former players’ criticisms of hat-trick hero Bruno Fernandes.
“He’s so important for this team, and you can see by the numbers, in these last games he’s always the guy that scores. He’s not the most important thing, not the only thing, but he’s always there.
“When you play for this team you have to be prepared for the critics and I understand former players had a lot of success and the standard for them was so high. They see things like that sometimes, black and white and life is sometimes black and white, there are other colours and you have to understand the context.
“He’s always there trying his best and I’m really proud to coach a player like him.”
The conversation then turned to Mason Mount’s return from injury.
“I already said that I really love Mason Mount. Because I see him, I know how he suffers, I know he does everything right. He eats right, his physical aspect is perfect. He’s trying too much. Maybe he’s thinking too much about everything.
“He was a European champion. He’s a really talented player. And when the player does everything like he does, he will always have the support of everybody here in the club.
“So we’ll try to manage the load. I saw some players that have a lot of problems during one time but in some moments they can stay fit and I believe a lot in Mason Mount.
“I think he will go to the bench,” the boss said.
“If he’s fit, I’m going to take him. He cannot play too many minutes, but just five minutes of Mason Mount is perfect.”
Featured image Alex Livesey via Getty Images
Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social
Red Billy
Red Billy is the managing editor of The Peoples Person, author of three books and totally obsessed with football’s transfer market. Billy still insists Matteo Darmian and Alex Telles could have made it at United given half a chance.
