Ruben Amorim said Manchester United must adopt survival mode to end their miserable run after a fourth defeat in five Premier League matches dropped them to 14th, eight points above the relegation zone.
United’s Portuguese manager blamed the lack of time to coach his players as a barrier to progress after a sapping Boxing Day defeat at Wolves, where his captain, Bruno Fernandes, was sent off early in the second half after picking up a second yellow card.
Amorim is the first United manager to lose as many as five of his first 10 games in charge of the club in all competitions since Walter Crickmer in January 1932.
“I manage but I didn’t train [the players],” said Amorim, who replaced Erik ten Hag six weeks ago. “They need time to train, they are completely changing the way of playing, it is really hard on them and for the staff to pass on all the information. When you don’t have results, it’s even harder for them to believe.
“In this moment we just have to survive and to win some time to work on the team. We already knew it. I started this job, with the team, the new idea, without any time to train, with a lot of tough games. It is a long journey. We have to continue to fight these bad moments. We need time to work. We also have to win games to sell the idea to the players. If not, it is really hard.”
Wolves scored directly from a corner through Matheus Cunha, a near-identical goal to the one Son Heung-min scored in Tottenham’s 4-3 Carabao Cup quarter-final victory last week. Cunha admitted his teammates were asked to “manage” the United goalkeeper André Onana by unsettling him.
“We analyse every match and we, myself and all the staff try to understand the spaces we can explore and we tried to not allow them to do it against us,” said the Wolves head coach, Vítor Pereira, who maintained his 100% start after securing back to back victories since succeeding Gary O’Neil. “He [Cunha] is a top player, a special player, he can make the difference in the small details.”
Asked whether United can think about qualifying for Europe, Amorim replied: “We have to work on a lot of things in our club, inside the pitch, outside the pitch, so let’s focus on each game, each time. We have to use every minute of training and to improve the team.”
