Ruben Amorim has said that Manchester United must take the positives from the narrow defeat at Aston Villa, as he provided an update on injured captain Bruno Fernandes.
Ruben says it is too soon to know the extent of Fernandes's injury and doesn’t know when midfielder Kobbie Mainoo will be fit to play after he was forced to withdraw from the squad for the trip to the Midlands.
The defeat sees us miss the chance to climb to fifth and he stressed the importance of bouncing back by providing a festive lift, at home to Newcastle United on Boxing Day.
Ruben met with the media inside Villa Park following the final whistle.
Read every word of the head coach’s press conference…
“I don’t know, I think he is going to lose some games but I don’t know for sure. You can’t control these things, I don’t want to talk too much about the matter, but this is a guy who is always fit and he has shown he can always recover.”
What are your thoughts on the performance?
“We did really well. I think we were the better team today. We created our chances, we have been really consistent in the way we create our chances and we have defended well. We left one against one most of the time and we tried to recover really fast. We played well but the frustration is still there. We need to take the good things into the next one.”
“I don’t know, I don’t want to talk about that. Sometimes it is bad luck, sometimes it is all the things at the wrong time.”
What did you make of Benjamin Sesko after coming back in?
“He’s returned really fast, he is going to improve a lot. The idea was 70, maybe 75, minutes. We are trying to control everything. He did well, he fought a lot and he is going to do well.”
We have spoken about how the fact your team concedes goals too often, and how there has only been one clean sheet all season. Both goals were similar - is it a fundamental problem at the moment?
“No, I think you can suffer goals and defend well. Today, we defended well. Rogers can go both sides, so it is really hard to defend against a player like that one-against-one. Against Nottingham Forest, we let in so many shots but today is different. We tried to recover the ball and we did well. Leny [Yoro] and Ayden [Heaven] defended so well, and Luke Shaw the same. It is not always that you suffer goals, it’s how you suffer goals. The first one he [Rogers] did well. The second, he gets the rebound and scores. It’s the details and it can change the narrative. We defended well.”
“I will see. I think Kobbie Mainoo is out, but we will see. We are going to find solutions. No excuses, we need to win the next game and we are going to try to win the next game.”
Before the game, you said we need to find different ways to win. With more injuries, how do you do that?
“We have to find different solutions. Last year, we had the same issue. When you have that experience, maybe it doesn’t look so bad. We know, without all these players, that we are going to suffer. We are going to try.”
Do you need short-term help if you are to get through without putting more strain on results?
“We need to deal with that. What we cannot do is reach January and try to do everything with urgency and make mistakes again and be left saying 'here we go again'. I am not going to go to Jason [Wilcox, director of football] and say we need a lot of players. If we have to suffer, the club comes first. Of course, we are in the moment that we need points, but we are going to continue with our plan. In this moment, you may feel we are going to struggle, but we will see.”