Key quotes: Ruben’s pre-Arsenal press conference

Key quotes: Ruben’s pre-Arsenal press conference

Ruben Amorim addressed journalists at Carrington on Friday ahead of Manchester United’s Emirates FA Cup third-round encounter with Arsenal.

We travel to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday for a 15:00 GMT kick-off in the competition’s headline tie, seeking to begin our defence of the trophy in positive fashion.

Amorim was asked about his starting goalkeeper for the tie, transfer news and his knowledge of the historic tournament, given this will be his first FA Cup game as a manager.

Here are the key quotes from part one of Ruben’s press conference, with part two available to watch from 22:30 GMT on Saturday 11 January.

THOUGHTS ON THE FA CUP

“I see what everybody sees: a really old competition with a lot of history. I remember some finals, I think when we won the Treble against Newcastle, Sir Alex Ferguson saved some players, it was really important for the club. We won some cups, we want to continue. We know that, at this stage, we already have a really strong match but we want to win and also we want to continue to improve the team and the performance.”

TRANSFER PLANS

“The first thing I think is… I don’t remember to say clearly that I want new players. What I said is that sometimes the profile for this system is different, and the players came here with a different idea of how to play. So I don’t remember saying that so clearly, that I want new players. What I said is that we need to improve recruitment. When we are targeting players, we need to be sure that they will cope with the demands. Sometimes, you have to bet a little bit. And what I also said is that we have to improve our Academy, to bring young kids that fills the club in the right way, and also with that rules, we are able to do some business and have some money to invest in the team. Our idea is always to keep the best players and the players that we build for this club. But we know the position that the club is in at the moment, but we will see. I’m very happy, I like our players, especially the guys from our Academy.

“My players are always my favourites. I really love my players. I want to keep my players, especially the talented ones. Like I said, it’s a special moment in this club, it’s a hard moment, but, of course, I’m really happy with Kobbie [Mainoo], he’s improving, and also with Garna [Alejandro Garnacho]. We will see, guys. Let’s focus on the game. They are available, they are training, we will see the selection for this game. They have to focus just on playing the next game.”

VIEW ON ARSENAL’S ODEGAARD

“I think he’s really special because his influence on all the games of Arsenal is impressive. I played against them with Sporting, and he didn’t play both games and you feel it in the team. When he’s playing, Arsenal is a different team. They can win and they can lose with Odegaard. I expect a strong team. If Odegaard is in the team, they will be stronger, for sure.”

ROTATION

“I think I rotate more in that part where we were trying to find out what kind of players we have. Then, a lot of players were returning from injuries. Now, we are rotating less. I feel that sometimes I have to choose fresh legs because I look at some players in the same position and I feel that they are at the same level, so I try to put in some fresh legs. Now we have time to train a bit more, I expect our team to understand better the game. We try to work on set-pieces, because it’s really important. We suffer a lot in the last games. So we will see. I don’t rotate because I want to rotate. I’m not different than the other coach. I’m trying to find out the best solutions to win every game and, sometimes, I have doubts over which game I’m going to put and I put the guys who are more fresh to meet the demands of the game.”

IS THE LEAGUE OR THE CUP MORE IMPORTANT?

“In this moment, I’m living day by day. What I’m thinking is that one week without any game, we had a day off, we could work the team a little bit and then it doesn’t make sense for me to rest players now, then to play both games really near. So I think we have to put the best team, we have to win and we have to follow the last performance. So I’m not thinking in that way, because we are not in that moment. We are in the difficult moment, we are improving, we had some training, let’s put the best team to try to win and then we will focus on the next game. So my focus is more on our week, we had time to train, to rest, so I will choose the best team to win, because we also want to win the Cup. In the Cup, you never know, so let’s win. Sometimes, it’s better to win this kind of game and then you have less time to rest but your mind is so different that you can cope with the physical aspect of the game. So my focus now is different, it’s day by day, we just want to win this game and then we will think about the next one.”

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WHICH GOALKEEPER WILL START?

“That is a special position, it’s a very good question. Altay [Bayindir] is playing.”

NOTICED A CHANGE IN MENTALITY?

“It was different [before Anfield] because we could train, so you can push them, you can show them what they need to do. It’s so much easier with training, and then the environment is different because they felt the confidence in the performance. But we can say anything after a match or during a week, we have to show it in the next game so we are focused on that. But I felt that, and I felt, during the week, they were focused on improving and they were open to learn, and that was a good feeling this week.”

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