Ruben Amorim gives defiant new year message after Man Utd end 2024 on a low note
Ruben Amorim delivered a defiant New Year’s Eve message as Manchester United prepared to bid farewell to 2024 on a low note following their loss to Newcastle.
United’s 2-0 home defeat saw them suffer five league losses in the same calendar month for the first time since September 1962, and a fourth straight reverse in all competitions means the Red Devils have lost six of their last eight.
But in a message posted on his club’s official X account on New Year’s Eve, Amorim wrote: “I know it will take a lot of hard work from everyone to get there, but I am very excited about where we can go together in 2025.”
Amorim is yet to do anything to arrest the alarming slide which led to Erik ten Hag’s dismissal in October, and the latest defeat left them in 14th place in the Premier League, seven points above the drop zone with increasing talk of a relegation battle.
Much has been said about Amorim’s 3-4-3 system and the difficulties United’s squad – not built to play this way – have had in adapting, but the Portuguese is determined to press on.
“Of course I didn’t choose the players specifically for these positions but that I already knew,” he said.
“I have to sell my idea. If I am going to change all the time it is going to be even worse.
“But I understand they have a lot of difficulties because they spend two years playing one way and then they are playing another and with a lot of losses, it’s really tough on them and you can feel it during the game.
“Even (against Newcastle) when we are near to scoring it’s more from (Newcastle mistakes) than the organisation and you can feel it but I have to sell my idea, I don’t have another one.”
Amorim did not have the benefit of a pre-season to implement such a major change to United’s tactical model, and admitted that is having a significant impact.
He said: “I think we showed some improvements in the first games, especially against (Manchester) City and Tottenham and even Arsenal in the first moments but we are losing that because of a lack of training and a lack of belief after so many losses.
“Some difficult moments when you suffer some goals at the beginning of the game, it’s then really hard during all the games so they are really tough moments for everybody.
“I think the players are losing everything, the small things that we try to work on in training.
“After one goal they lose everything because we don’t have the base, we don’t have time to build the base to cope with the difficult moments so it’s really hard in this moment.”
Newcastle celebrated a fourth straight league win, moving them up to fifth in the table as they target a return to Europe.
Alexander Isak struck just four minutes in and Joelinton added a second in the 19th minute, and the only surprise was they did not score more.
The Magpies had slipped to 12th place after a 4-2 defeat at Brentford on December 7, but have quickly turned their season around.
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“I think we knew the early season form was patchy, we weren’t at the levels either individually or collectively we needed to be at and that was frustrating for all of us,” Eddie Howe said.
“We were waiting to hit the ground running and we were determined to do that but for whatever reason we couldn’t find the missing ingredients to transform our performances to where they needed to be.
“We did still pick up points, valuable points, but now in the last few games we’ve returned to the levels we know we can be. The challenge is to stay there which is difficult to do.”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie