In his post-match press conference, Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim revealed his frustration following a 1-1 draw against West Ham United at Old Trafford.
Diogo Dalot provided the Reds the lead just shy of the hour mark, but Amorim's side were unable to hold on, as Soungoutou Magassa poked home a rebounded corner that Noussair Mazraoui had just cleared off the line, with minutes left to play.
The boss was asked about the equaliser, his substitutions and when he'll next address his players.
Keep scrolling to read, and watch, everything he had to say...
Evening Ruben, is the feeling frustration after a result and performance like that?
“Yeah, it's frustrating, it’s angry. That's it.”
How can you get the team to maybe perform better, and put that to bed, I suppose?
“It’s [through] working again and trying to win the next one.”
Ruben, the only second half your team has won this season was the one at Crystal Palace on Sunday, when Palace obviously tired after playing in Europe. Why do you think the team are having so many difficulties in the second half of games, and winning games, and seeing out games?
“Yeah, but there are second halves that we lose control of the game. Today, I think it was not that case. Maybe after the first goal, we lost some second balls and Matheus [Cunha] won one or two second balls there and made it a transition. We try to defend all the time far from the goal because we knew it. They tried to make a cross, win a corner. Like it happened, long ball, they win a second ball against three guys of us in the defence. So, we need to be better in the second half.”
You made five changes overall, four of them were defensive players who came on. I know it probably didn't have the impact that you wanted, but in hindsight, would you not be that conservative when you were one-nil up?
“No. We are losing because of the second balls. Sometimes there's not more men in front that you are going to win the ball. We had more men to put in the offence? Who? Who would be more offensive?
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I understand, you've not got a lot of options. Kobbie Mainoo?
“Yes. It was the second balls and I was worried with Matheus. I know that Bruno [Fernandes] reached the box really well. Mason Mount is playing in this position. So, I tried. They were trying to push us. Bryan has a lot of pace to try to win the ball in one transition. So that was my idea.”
Ruben, you came in and said you're frustrated and angry. What are you frustrated and angry at? Because your team obviously has made progress this season, but the last few weeks, it seems to have gone backwards.
“No, it’s not going backwards, the results kept going backwards. We had some moments. Again, that can happen when one team you were talking about, when we had that run, that the team was really perfect and I was saying, ‘We are not far from being in the perfect moment’. We are really inconsistent. But if you look at the goal, 83 minutes, we have a long ball. We have everything under control. We need to do better.”
Do you have that sort of sense with the team in the moment that just one goal is not going to be enough?
“Yeah, well, I always have the feeling. I think everyone has the feeling that we need to score more goals and that is sure. Even with Brighton, we were three-nil, and then suddenly… So, we suffer with that. We are inconsistent. We need to improve.”
When you talk about second balls and duels and losing out in those, that's obviously not a tactical thing. Is it a desire thing? Is it a lack of energy?
“It’s second balls. Sometimes it’s tactical things. We try to adjust with the players that we put [in], and then we control. In the final minutes, we had the possession, the ball was far from the opponent, it was not a clear full press from the opponent. We cannot let a team that is so much taller than us to have a corner when the ball is with the goalkeeper. So, these kind of details makes the difference. And today, a corner in the second half made the difference.”
You're saying you’re frustrated and angry, I’m guessing your players are as well because they don't want to concede like that. Is it your style to go into the changing room after this kind of a goal being conceded or do you leave it to the next day?
“No, in that regard, I'm almost always consistent. I had one, and you know, Brighton last year. So, I will talk to them tomorrow.”