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Friday 20 December 2024 13:30
Ruben Amorim has explained that he wants his Manchester United players to forge connections on the pitch, while appreciating this is difficult due to the rotation of the team.
The schedule and workload may be a taxing one, but the boss is looking to see more progress when the sixth-placed Cherries visit Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon (14:00 GMT kick-off).
Despite Tottenham ending our Carabao Cup journey, Amorim was keen to highlight the improvements he has seen his team make, since his first game in charge, as he is pleased to be back at Old Trafford before Christmas.
He was also asked about Antony’s performance, plus Marcus Rashford’s availability and provided us with an update on Mason Mount.
Read everything that Ruben said in his pre-match media briefing below…
I know I asked you yesterday about Mason, but you said he was seeing a specialist yesterday. Have you got any idea how long he might be out for?
“Several weeks. I don’t know the exact date, but it’s going to be for long and that’s it. It’s part of football and you continue.”
And is Marcus available for Sunday? If you decide to play him?
“Yes. Of course.”
So, he wasn’t left out today? It was nothing to do with disciplinary issues?
“No, no, it’s the same thing, guys. It’s the same thing. It will be the same thing.”
Ruben, can I just ask you what you’re most encouraged by? Just talking about the spine, going forward to this game, what you’re most encouraged by with your team, and what you’re most concerned about? What you need to fix quickest going into this game at the weekend?
“I think we are improving near the opponents’ box. We had some games that we are near the box, but without a real threat. You could see different things today and you can see that we can shoot. We are near the goal and you feel it. You really feel it. I think it is a good thing in our team. I feel that our team is faster, are pressing more, the physicality is improving, the understanding of the game, and you can see it by the controlling of the game and you see it more. Especially in this game, but also in the last game. We understand more [0about] the position and the movement that we should do. So, there are a lot of things but, today, it’s hard to think of the good things. We are out. Let’s focus on the next competition.”
With Mason being out for a while, obviously it means other players need to step up. You played Antony tonight. He’s obviously had a tricky time at United throughout his career so far. But what have you liked, what you’ve seen from him so far? And what are you hoping to get out more out of him?
“He needs more confidence. If you remember Antony and I played against him in Ajax. He lacks a little bit of confidence to go to one against one so he will improve. But he’s working really hard and he’s trying in displaying more inside than outside, especially in this game. And he just has to do that, to work really hard and I will happily help him to be a better player.”
Ruben, just on Mason again, I think he’s only played something like 33 games out of 78 for the club. Will you use this period now where he’s out to try to get to the bottom of why he has had so many injuries?
“No, it’s not. That is not my department. What I can do, is to help Mase, to teach him how to play our game when he’s recovering, try to use that that time for him to think in the different things. Then I think it’s the worst part is that we don’t have time to train like we should do, when you are recovering from a lot of injuries. So, we are always travelling. We have we have games, training, we don’t have the team, all the team together and this is really hard to recreate the game, before they come to the game. And you can see with Vic [Lindelof]. Vic was recovering; they trained really well, we push him, we make all the sprints that he should do before to come to a game. But the game is a completely different world, so they have to have more time to train. So, it’s really hard. We try to manage that with rotation, but even with rotation, it is really hard to have all the squad. So, with Mason Mount, we are going to help him, it’s really hard for the player to be out for so long and he’s trying really hard, the same as Antony. If they try really hard, we will help them until the end.”
Ruben, this feels like quite a while since you played at Old Trafford, how much are you looking forward to sort of being back there and you lost last time. How sort of eager are you to make that place a fortress again and start winning?
“Yeah, it was really hard. The Nottingham Forest game was really hard to lose that game and the way that we lost. So, I’m always looking forward to hear that song and to play with our fans and to try to put some happiness in their lives, because today was really tough for sure for them.”
Ruben, you talked about the three days, another game, three days, another game. What would you like to do with more time? What would you like to do that you can’t do at the moment?
“Training. That’s simple. Because we are rotating players. When you rotate players, it’s really hard to work in every connection. So, if you are always working with a different guy next to you, in the more or less in the same position, it’s really hard to work on that connection, and we start in the middle of the season, and we already know. So, if I have more time, we will use it to train the team, that’s all.”
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Friday 20 December 2024 13:30
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