MANCHESTER : Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim accepted club co-owner Jim Ratcliffe’s criticism of his squad but said on Wednesday that they are focused on changing his mind after the billionaire said some players were either not good enough or overpaid.
Although Ratcliffe gave Amorim a glowing assessment by describing the Portuguese as an “outstanding young manager” who would be at the club for a long time, he was critical of many players – especially those who came in with big price tags.
United are 14th in the Premier League standings, 36 points behind leaders Liverpool, and Amorim said their performances merited criticism.
“If we’re being honest, in this moment everybody – me, all the players – we are underperforming this season. We can always change that, so I include myself in that part of ‘underperforming’,” Amorim told reporters.
“You are talking about players like Casemiro, for example, that won everything (with Real Madrid) and we know that these kind of players can play so much better.
“So that is the focus and he was honest on that. The focus is to change his mind and to change all the people’s minds.”
Despite the criticism, Amorim said he has a good relationship with Ratcliffe as they are “really blunt and honest” with each other while the Portuguese manager was also happy to hear the co-owner publicly support him.
“It’s a little bit the character, we are quite similar. I always felt the support of the board and especially from Sir Jim,” Amorim said.
“All these conversations I already had in the past with them. After matches, they went to the dressing room, talked to me to explain this.
“To say it publicly is really good for the coach. But I continue to say the same thing, we need results and we need to improve the team.”
United host Real Sociedad in the Europa League last-16 second leg on Thursday after the first leg in Spain ended 1-1.
Mason Mount returned to training after recovering from a muscle injury which has kept him sidelined since December, but Amorim said Thursday’s game comes too soon for the midfielder.
Manuel Ugarte is also back after missing United’s last two games but centre backs Harry Maguire and Leny Yoro will not play on Thursday. However, Amorim is optimistic that Maguire will return for Sunday’s league match away at Leicester City.
Amorim also said United had unveiled plans for an “amazing stadium” which the club said will have 100,000 seats and will cost two billion pounds, but his focus is purely on this season.
“It’s in the future, five years from now,” he said. “So we have to focus on the present and I’m really excited to win things in Old Trafford.”
($1 = 0.7723 pounds)
