Ruben Amorim has reiterated the importance of his captain Bruno Fernandes to the team, amid criticism from Roy Keane.
Keane questioned our no.8’s leadership qualities in comments made on the Stick to Football podcast, published the day after United’s 3-2 win over Ipswich Town, when all three goals came from Fernandes set-pieces.
But the boss – who as a former central midfielder himself is a big fan of Keane - was keen to highlight the manner in which Bruno shoulders the burden for United.
He added that any frustration shown by the Portugal international on the pitch emanates from the results we’ve been experiencing.
“I heard about that [podcast]. I have a different opinion,”
Ruben said. “Bruno is really important for us in the club, especially for me.
“He's playing well in a difficult context, he wants always the responsibility.
“I know sometimes as a captain, he does things like with his arms and sometimes you see it like criticising the team-mates. I think, most of all, it is a lot of frustration for this year, in the last year and the others.
“He wants to win and sometimes it's really hard to deal with that frustration.
“But, like I said, everybody has an opinion, Roy Keane has big standards from his time and it's normal to have an opinion.
“I have the opposite opinion and I think it is more important, my opinion, because I am the coach and I think he's doing things quite well.”
Scroll down for all the other quotes from the press conference...
How important is this competition to Manchester United and will you have any players back for the game?
“No, I think no one different is back. They are still trying to recover to help us in the next games. It's really important for us [the FA Cup] but nowadays everything is important. Like the last win, just the feeling of winning, the way we work in the last days is completely different. So, we want to go to the next stage, to have two wins at home, especially at home, we need that feeling.”
We spoke briefly the other night about Alejandro Garnacho, I just wonder if you could clear up the situation there?
“Yeah, he came to me. It was funny, the next day he came to my office. I did some investigation and he went to the dressing room [during Wednesday's game] to change his clothes because he was wet. He watched the game in a different [place], not on the bench, and at the end of the game he went home so there's not an issue there. But I told him that in Manchester United, everything is important and perception in every club is really important. So, he is going to pay a dinner to all the team and that is it.”
It's been a super-difficult time on the pitch for United and I can imagine super-challenging to manage. We've spoken about surviving the storm, getting to the summer, I want to know has there been any discussions around recruitment and what you will get involving the squad and your image, given the financial constraints?
“Guarantees, we don't have. We know the situation of the club, we need to make some deals. We know the situation but we are trying to project the next season. We have to do it as a big club, we are changing a lot of things, in our squad, the Academy. We are working for the future of the club, so guarantees I cannot give you. The board [can't give me guarantees]. It's clear the situation, we have to deal with that. But we are preparing the next season for sure.”
How important is it that Dorgu receives support? Only a young player, a difficult week, there'll be lots of criticism and noise as there always is with United, but people need to remember he's only 20 and came into a difficult circumstance mid-season...
“It's business as usual. No big deal. Of course you don't want a [player] sent off, because it's really hard to play with 10 men and then we lose the player for three games. There is a lot of noise, like I said before, it's Manchester United [so] everything is a big issue, but for me it's a normal thing. Try to explain the situation. He already knows. You go inside the dressing room, he's talking with me without talking so he's frustrated and sad but he's working and preparing for the next games. We have so many games, we have on Thursday another game so he'll be ready for those games and we will wait for him because he's going to be a very important player for us.”
Just on the team news and the goalkeeping situation, will Andre [Onana] continue to start this weekend and do you feel he has suffered not having Altay [Bayindir] there to compete with him? Because he possibly would have played against Leicester...
“He passed this in the last year, I think I don't know for sure, some difficult moments but he did some great saves that saved our team and then sometimes [he] had some problems. But that is normal and I think if you look through our team, you can find a lot of players with that issue. So, I think we are not performing so well as a team and sometimes players have problems. People talk a lot about the second goal from Ipswich, he's waiting for a touch of [Liam] Delap, I think that's really clear. Then the ball continues to the goal, that can happen. We just have to support Andre and prepare for the next game. Forget about the past and prepare for the future.”
Earlier this week, Erik ten Hag spoke about the modern-day player being quite soft in some ways. Do you think even though he's spoken to you about what happened on Wednesday that Alejandro was an example of that and do you think he didn't see the bigger picture of the team and why he was being taken off?
“He is a young kid that will learn. The important thing was that the next morning, he was speaking with me. I think we need to see small things, walking out of the pitch, because Zirkzee did the same thing and the context was different. But it was the same thing. So, we have to understand the situation, the context, the age of the players. Of course, they have to be better and understand the perception here is really important but you can deal with that the next day and move on. So, let's just move on.”
Just following on from that, does a modern-day player need to handle criticism better and have a thicker skin, a tougher skin? Particularly at Manchester United because the focus is so great...
“I think it's completely different for the players nowadays. Before, it was two newspapers and nothing more. With social media, it's completely different. They are so focused on social media. You can't go to social media without seeing news or a photo or if you read something bad, you focus on that. You can have 100 good things, but then one bad thing and you focus on the bad thing. I think it's really hard for them, you can call it soft, but they have that access to criticism and it is really, really hard to deal with that. They need help to deal with that so it's the modern football, and they have to be prepared for that.”
Just on Garnacho again, to clarify, will he be available this weekend?
“Yes, he has a knock. When he went to shoot, when it was blocked almost inside the box [against Ipswich]. He has a knock, I expect him to be ready but we will see, I have to wait until tomorrow.”
Just in terms of that chat you had with him about perception, did you get the impression that he fully understood what that means and he buys into all that now?
“I think he understands but like I said, they read everything. All the small things. I know the players quite well, I played for quite a while and I understand they are frustrated. He was sub [against Everton], he was playing well and he has to go off in that moment of the game. So, it's hard to deal with everything but they have to deal with everything so I'm just trying to help them to be a better football players that understand modern football.”