Ruben Amorim says Manchester United will “have to suffer for a long time” before he can help the club achieve success again in his own way after being held to a 1-1 draw against Ipswich Town.
Marcus Rashford’s opener after 81 seconds gave United a dream start at Portman Road, but Omari Hutchinson’s equalizer sealed the point for Kieran McKenna’s side and the home side would have won had it not been for two crucial saves from United goalkeeper Andre Onana. It was obvious.
Despite having less than a week to work with his new team on the training ground, the former Sporting CP coach deployed his preferred 3-4-2-1 formation and said this led to his players overthinking their own performance.
But Amorim insisted he would remain true to his principles, even as he said it would cause more suffering until his tactics bore fruit.
“I know it’s frustrating for the fans, but we’re changing so many things at the moment with so many games,” Amorim told reporters. “We will suffer for a long time and we will try to win games, but it will take time.
“We need to win the game, but if it wasn’t for Onana we could have lost, so I think we need to think and be practical and understand that these players need two days of training to change a lot.
“It’s hard for the players to cope with everything in three days and we forget new ideas. So we brought them here in the middle of the season and we think they’re trying to cope with what they’re used to (under Erik Ten Hag).
“Next year, at the same stage, we’ll have the same problems. Or we’ll start now and take a little risk and suffer a little bit. Next year, at this point, we’ll be better, so we’ll have to take a risk a little bit. .
“(The players) are thinking too much because they are changing so much now in two training sessions with no room for improvement.
“But what I understood today is that they are trying. They are really trying. Even in difficult moments, I felt that they were doing what we wanted them to do.”
Amorim said he had already told his players to stop doing what they did under the previous regime, noting that he had called for change from full-back Diogo Dalot.
“Some details — they would pass the ball and go forward, even the centre-backs,” Amorim said. “Now I have to go back, these things. I have to start moving forward and thinking too much.”
“Dalot used to pass the ball to the centre-backs, go inside and play as a midfielder, but now he has to stick to this position.
“At a time when many of you are saying there is no structure at Manchester United, we are faced with a situation where you can see the structure and you can see it, but it is not fluid.
“It’s like a staircase. You have to put your head and structure into it. Once you start thinking about structure, you play a lot better.
“But that takes time and during this time we have to win games. It’s very important and I know that.”
United have Premier League, Europa League and Carabao Cup matches ahead of them in the coming weeks and Amorim said some players will be excused from certain games to allow them to train in a new way at the training ground.
“We have to find a way,” he said. “I think the only way is that we have a game and the players who are not playing are all trained to play. Everyone will be on the bench so they have a feel for the game but they need to have a feel for the game. There is.” train.
“This schedule requires us to rotate the team, so we will use that to train, develop the team and try to win the games.
“I think this is the only way some players will play if we don’t have the time to find it. The next day some players will study our ideas and then change their stance.”
