Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has hailed our next Premier League opponents, Bournemouth, as 'special'.
The Cherries are now into their fourth straight season as a top-flight club, and ninth overall, with manager Andoni Iraola often generating a lot of praise for his astute tactics and exciting style of play.
Amorim's side will hope to continue our recent run of form, which has seen us lose just one of our last nine games, when Bournemouth arrive in M16 on Monday.
Ahead of the contest, the boss spoke to the press at Carrington, with all of his quotes from part one of the press conference available below...
“[Harry] Maguire is out. [Matthijs] de Ligt is out. Ben [Sesko] we have to see, we have to see if he's available. He had some food poisoning. So we'll see [about] that. Let's wait. We have two trainings still, but the other two are out. Benjamin, I will assess.”
Are there any other players absent? And also we're thinking of the Africa Cup of Nations. What about those three?
“No, we are still in conversation with the national teams. The game is just Monday, they are here, they are training and we are trying to prepare [for] all the scenarios [in order] to prepare [for] the game.”
Is that frustrating, not knowing if you're going to be without three senior players for this game?
“Yeah, it's frustrating but at the same time nobody knows who is going to play. So it's a good thing, I think. We have players to cope with everything and that is something with a long week, you can see a lot of things and work on several stuff to prepare the game and any situation.”
Can I ask you about Mason Mount? When you arrived, you said he was one of the players you were really looking forward to work with and obviously now he's back from injury and the stats suggest that when he is in the team, you win far more games than you do when he is out of the team. How important has he been to what you're trying to build?
“I think it's hard to make that connection. It is a fact, but it's not just that. We have to look at the way the game was. But he is a very, very smart player. He is really technical, because sometimes to be a technical player, it is not just having fun with the ball. It is the quality of the pass, the reception, how to receive the ball and in these things, he is really smart. He can balance our team quite well. So he is a very good player.”
“Yeah, I don't know if it's going to be the same situation, like you said. It depends on the games, every national team has its ideas, their ideas, about when they want the players. I expect today to have a decision or maybe tomorrow. But we are waiting until the last moment to have all the players available to choose the best team to start the game.”
Just with De Ligt in particular, you were hopeful that he would be available for Wolves and now he's not. What is the nature of the problem and how long is that going to be?
“I think he has something in his back. I don't know for sure. And sometimes you see it is not a big injury because he finished the game quite well against Crystal Palace, but he has some pain, so you sometimes think he is going to solve [it] during this week. But sometimes he feels a little bit of pain and we have to be careful with that.”
“I think they are a top team, a top manager with a special player. I don't look to the results. I look at the way they face every opponent, they press really strong, they are really direct in the game. They can play with different options in [the] front and that gives us a lot of options to work and to prepare the game. So I expect, again, a Premier League game that is really tough. But we need to win, especially at home. That is the goal.”
Recent results haven't gone Andoni Iraola's way, but what have you made of what he's done at that football club?
“Special. I think the way they play the game like a big team, what he's doing for some players. He's improving some players and you can look at that team and look for several players that can play at a high level. And that is an amazing job by the manager.”