Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim slammed his players’ costly defensive errors following the club’s embarrassing 4-1
defeat to Newcastle.
The two teams were level at the break after Sandro Tonali and Alejandro Garnacho traded goals, but United simply couldn’t handle the Magpies’ second-half onslaught.
Harvey Banes struck twice before Brazilian midfielder Bruno Guimaraes completed the rout in the 77th minute of proceedings.
Most of Newcastle’s goals came about through some pitiful defending from United. For their opener, Victor Lindelof and Leny Yoro failed to get tight enough to Alexander Isak, who was afforded the time and space to dink the ball over the pair and into the path of Tonali, who didn’t need a second invitation to smash in home.
The second saw Tino Livramento easily get past Diogo Dalot before he delivered a low cross inside the box to Jacob Murphy. The Newcastle forward cut it back to Barnes, who sent the ball into the back of the net. For their third, Barnes capitalised on a huge error from Noussair Mazraoui and broke through on goal before beating Altay Bayindir.
Finally, the hosts’ fourth goal of the game was as a result of Bayindir’s poor pass that was intercepted by Joelinton and finished off by Guimaraes.
After the final whistle, Amorim spoke to Premier League productions and raged at the defensive lapses that dearly cost the Red Devils.
Amorim said [as quoted by BBC], “Many mistakes. Newcastle were stronger in second balls. We did a lot of mistakes that made it harder to win a game. That’s all.”
He added about the loss, “It’s a little bit of everything. It’s hard to point to one thing. It’s really hard to win against these top teams like Newcastle. When we make mistakes to help the opponent, it’s even harder. Let’s focus on Thursday.”
On the defensive errors, he further stated, “I think you can see that we can do so much better. That’s it. Let’s focus on Thursday. All the mistakes we did today we cannot do Thursday.”
Amorim explained that he will not let criticism from outside affect him or the team.
“I understand but I don’t care. Nothing is worse than losing games. People can say whatever they want to say. I don’t want to defend myself or anything like that.”
“If you look at our position in the table, it says it all. Thursday is really important. Losing games is the hardest part by far of this job. Let’s focus on Thursday.”
Ahead of Thursday’s crucial Europa League meeting with Lyon, Amorim remarked, “Of course it’s really important. We have a chance to get Champions League. It’s an important game. It will be really hard.”
“We have to focus on that and get to the next stage. We have a season a lot like that with difficult losses. We are used to getting up. Let’s do that Thursday. It’s a different game. We need to give something to our fans and to go to the next stage.”
United’s defeat at St James’ Park has seen them drop to 14th in the Premier League table, sitting just below Everton on goal difference.
Featured image George Wood via Getty Images
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Derick Kinoti
Derick Kinoti is a football writer at The Peoples Person who has covered Manchester United and the game extensively for many years. He is a keen analyst with expertise in SEO and journalism standards. Derick is convinced Wayne Rooney is the true GOAT and won’t hear otherwise!
