HONG KONG :Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim said his team cannot hide after they were booed off in their defeat in Malaysia ahead of their friendly with Hong Kong on Friday.
Three days after they concluded their worst Premier League season with a 15th-placed finish, Amorim’s team kicked off their Asian tour with a 1-0 loss to ASEAN All-Stars in Kuala Lumpur, with many among the 72,000 fans voicing their displeasure.
“It’s hard to face the fans around the world (after such a poor season),” Amorim told a press conference on Thursday. “(But) it is clear, we cannot hide.
“If one thing is really important in this club, we need to face our fans in this moment, and give something to our fans around the globe. We want to do that, but sometimes it’s really hard.
“We were not really focused in the last game (on Wednesday), everyone can feel it. In that moment I can understand the fans and the players.”
Harry Maguire, Andre Onana and Diogo Dalot will not feature in Friday’s match as they travelled to India instead for a club sponsor event.
Amorim also ruled Luke Shaw out. Matthijs de Ligt, Mason Mount and Joshua Zirkzee did not play in Malaysia, but the Portuguese coach gave them a clean bill of health at Hong Kong Stadium for their final match of the tour.
“Of course the team is tired because we flew to Malaysia and with the jet lag we had a game in difficult conditions,” Amorim said. “But we are ready to play again and are really happy to be here.”
Hong Kong’s coach Ashley Westwood, a former United academy player, suggested that Amorim’s team would have preferred post-season rest over extra games and travel.
“If truth be told, no players want to do (a post-season tour), you want to recover,” Westwood told reporters. “Most Manchester United players are reporting for international duty on June 2. They probably need this like a hole in the head.”
