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Saturday 27 September 2025 16:24
Ruben Amorim wants his players to show “more personality” to control matches following the 3-1 defeat at Brentford.
The Reds couldn’t recover despite a spirited response to going two goals down after 20 minutes, with Igor Thiago at the double.
Benjamin Sesko’s first United goal set-up a grandstand second half, the Slovenian striker scoring from close-range to get off the mark following his summer arrival from RB Leipzig.
Unfortunately, the points were claimed by the hosts when the match swung in the Bees’ favour. First, Bruno Fernandes’ penalty was kept out by CaoimhIn Kelleher before Mathias Jensen wrapped things up for Brentford.
Amorim met with assembled media inside the Gtech Community Stadium following the final whistle.
Keep scrolling to read, and watch, everything he said, with the spot-kick incident a key topic…
Ruben’s post-Brentford press conference Video
Ruben’s post-Brentford press conference
Press conference | Ruben Amorim discusses the potential red card for Nathan Collins and explains how we can improve…
You spoke about the players’ understanding the need for momentum, yet your team conceded two goals in the first 20 minutes. What causes that – people are again saying it’s the system...
“It is always the same, when we win it’s not the system, when you lose it’s the system. I think it’s more that we play this game like Brentford wants to play this game. With long balls, we kick the balls, second balls, and we never settle down in our game. We never play our game. We never pushed the opponent, every time they recovered the ball. We suffered two goals like that. I think the penalty could change things, but my overall view of the game is that we never settled down, we didn’t have control of the game.”
You are now 30-odd Premier League games in. It feels quite basic the things that are not happening?
“I know, guys. We talk about this every time our team loses. We need to work on a lot of things. Again, today, my biggest concern is that we didn’t settle into the game. We missed a lot of crosses. We suffered goals in transition that we knew during the week, we worked on that. So those are the things that we need to improve.”
So, how does it change? How do you get some consistency from this squad?
“You work on everything – work on everything. The frustration is that the goals today, we worked on that during the week. That is frustrating. We can do better with the ball. We can have more control. We can understand that sometimes when the decisions are not in our favour, the momentum is not in your favour, we can control the ball – we can settle down the game. That is something that I know this team can do, but when things are against us – the penalty, the foul before the first goal – all these things are against us, we need to have more personality to control the game.”
I’m sure you’re not suggesting the referee’s decision contributed to the final result, but were you disappointed that Collins wasn’t sent off?
“No, I’m just trying to explain that sometimes the decisions are not in your favour – that can happen. We have the ability and the capacity to control the game, to calm down the game. We didn’t do that today. You guys have the ability to make your decision with your opinion of the decision. The referee told me that Bryan [Mbeumo] was not in control of the ball. I think he was not in control of the ball because he was pulled. So that was the decision. Again, I want – especially in these kind of moments – not to focus on the referee. What we should have done this afternoon is play better, and we need to play better.”
Are you still confident that you can turn this around?
“It’s like ups and downs. When you win, you feel that everything, the momentum is there. When you lose, you go back to the same place and you fight again for one win that can help you to create the momentum. Guys, I’m always doing my job. If I win, I’m in a different state of mind. That is normal. I’m always confident because I know what to do.”
You’ve always taken a lot of responsibility on your own shoulders and not wanted to blame the players, but there were an awful lot of individual mistakes today. Do you feel the players aren’t taking responsibility themselves?
“That is my job, and I’m not here just to protect the players. I’m trying to do what is best for the club and the team. I don’t see a point, because I see the guys training. I feel that sometimes in the games when things are really hard, they are not the same, but that is the pressure of the club. I’m just thinking here what is the best to win the next game. I’m not trying to protect the players, or myself. I’m just trying to win the next game, and create the momentum. That’s it. I am trying to be really objective in my analysis to the game. Today, we played the game of Brentford – not our game, and when you play the opponent’s game, it’s harder to win.”
Can you see a clear way forward now? Can you take this club forward? Right now, it feels like it’s one step forward and one step back…
“Guys, I cannot tell you more than what I say every time when I lose the game. Sometimes we see a team that performs really well and you see improvements, and then sometimes you don’t see that improvement that gives you the confidence to say that Manchester United is going to get back. So, it’s always the same conversation. It depends on the next game. So let’s try to win the next game and to improve certain things. But I think it’s clear that we can create more chances. Sometimes we reach the final third more and sometimes we lack that little bit of quality in the final third. There are things we need to improve on.”
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Saturday 27 September 2025 16:24
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