“Who? Who would be more offensive?”: Fuming Amorim fires back at reporter after critical question

Ruben Amorim admits to being “angry” after seeing his Manchester United side let a one-goal lead slip against West Ham at Old Trafford this evening. “Yeah, it’s frustration. It’s angry. That’s it;” he said, when asked to describe his feelings. Asked how he can move on, he answered “It’s working again and I’m trying to win the next one.” Why are United so bad in the second half? The next question was: “Ruben, the only second half your team has won this season was the one at Crystal Palace on Sunday when Palace were obviously tired after playing in Europe. Why do you think your team are having so many difficulties in the second half of games and winning games?” The head coach replied: “Yeah, there are second halves that we lose control of the game. Today, I think it was not that case. Maybe after the first goal, we lost some second balls and Matheus won one or two second balls there in making it a transition.” “We try to defend all the time, far from the goal, because we knew they try to make a cross, win a corner, like it happened, long ball. They win a second ball against three guys of us in the defence. We need to be better in the second half.” The next question was about making defensive substitutions. Reporter Samuel Luckhurst said “in hindsight, would you not be that conservative when you were 1-0 up?” “No,” Amorim insisted. “We are losing because of the second ball. Sometimes there’s not more men in front that you are going to win the ball. We have more men to put in the offense. Who? Who would be more offensive?” “I understand. There’s not a lot, but just maybe Kobbie Mainoo?” Luckhurst said. “Yes, it was the second ball. I was worried with Matheus. I know that Bruno reached the box really well. Mason Mount is playing in this position. So I try. They were trying to push us. Bryan has a lot of pace to try to win the ball in one transition. So that was my idea.” Are United going backwards? Simon Stone of the BBC then asked: “You came in and said you were frustrated and angry. What were you frustrated and angry at? Because your team obviously has made progress this season, but over the last few weeks, it seems to have gone backwards.” “No, it’s not going backwards,” the boss insisted. “The results are going backwards.” “We had some moments. Again, that can happen when one team you were talking about when we had that run, that the team was really perfect and I was always saying we are not far from being in the perfect moment. We are really inconsistent. But if you look at the goal, 83 minutes, we have a long ball. We have everything under control. We need to do better.” Amorim was then asked if he gets the sense that one goal is not going to be enough? “I always have the feeling,” he agreed. “I think everyone has the feeling that we need to score more goals. And that is sure. Even with Brighton, we were 3-0, and then suddenly… So we suffer with that. We are inconsistent. We need to improve.” The next question was about why United are losing duels and second balls. Is it a “desire thing or a lack of energy”? “No, it’s second ball. Sometimes it’s tactical things. We try to adjust with the players that we put and then we control. In the final minutes, we had the possession. The ball was far from the opponent, there was not a clear full press from the opponent. We cannot let a team that is so much taller than us to have a corner when the ball is in the goalkeeper. So these details makes the difference. And today, a corner in the second half made the difference.” Amorim was also asked if he takes his anger into the dressing room after the game. “No. In that regard, I’m always consistent. I had one, and you know, last year. I will talk to them tomorrow a little bit.” Featured image Justin Setterfield via Getty Images The Peoples Person has been one of the world’s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social Red Billy Red Billy is the managing editor of The Peoples Person, author of three books and two magazines and totally obsessed with football’s transfer market. Billy first saw United live in 1971, watching George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law, before becoming a League Match ticket book holder from 1975/76 and a writer since 1995. Billy still insists Matteo Darmian and Alex Telles could have made it at United given half a chance.