Ruben Amorim offered details on his conversation with Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe as he addressed the media before our Saturday evening Premier League fixture with Chelsea.
Sir Jim was present at Carrington on Thursday, while Ruben and his squad continued preparations for an exciting Old Trafford meeting against the Blues.
The Reds seek an immediate response to last Sunday's disappointing derby defeat against Manchester City.
See what Ruben had to say about the game, his conversation with Ratcliffe, team news and much more, with every word of the press conference below...
Hi Ruben, in terms of the squad for tomorrow's game, how's the squad? Mason Mount, Matheus Cunha, Lisandro Martinez, Dalot?
“[Diogo] Dalot is out. Mason [Mount] is in the squad. [Matheus] Cunha is in the squad. Licha [Martinez] is still out. I think that is it.”
Obviously some windows have shut around Europe since we have had the chance to speak to you. What's the situation with Tyrell Malacia?
“He is returning to contact with team-mates and the ball in the Under-21s. Then we will see.”
I am led to believe Sir Jim Ratcliffe was hear yesterday? Obviously, there is a lot going on at the club but a lot of focus is on you. Can you just tell us what you spoke about with him?
“A new contract, he was offering me! A new contract. No, it is normal things, just to show the support and explaining that it is a long project, he said many times that this is my first season. For me it is not. Normal things and we spoke with Omar [Berrada] with Jason [Wilcox], just to see all the data around the team, so a normal meeting and we have several. But it is just normal and people should pay attention to that.”
I understand you will appreciate the support, but you also know you do have to win matches, don't you?
“This is football at the club with maybe more pressure in the world, but we want to win. You can say whatever. I think last year I was very critical of the way we play. I think we are playing well until the boxes, defending and attacking, we need to be more aggressive in the boxes. We need to be more clinical. The rest I think we are improving compared to last year, I think we are in a better place. But again, we need to win, we lost against Arsenal and City, and here, losing, especially in the beginning after last season, is a problem.”
Afternoon Ruben, you said after the City game that there are a lot of things that happened in the last few months that we don't know about. Appreciate you may not be able to say everything, but can you give some context?
“No guys. You know more or less and you are here for a while, you have your sources. So you know what I was talking about - but now I am focused on Chelsea.”
I just wanted to ask about Chelsea - and the returning Alejandro Garnacho to Old Trafford - as you say about needing a new environment when he left. What conversations did you have with him to decide that would be best?
“[Alejandro] Garnacho is not our player. I'm focused on our player. I'm really happy with Mason and Cunha returning. That is my focus and the rest you have to talk with the Chelsea manager.”
Hi Ruben, you have had a full week with the players, so I am just wondering what you have managed to do this week and how helpful it has been to have that time with them?
“We used the time to analyse the last game and to analyse the next game and prepare with different things. I think we are playing well until we reach the boxes, we need to be more clinical and if you see, we need to improve shots and with xG and all these things are good, but if you do not score, it doesn't matter if you do not win games. Then, again, I said it after the last game, the way we suffered the goals, we can avoid that. We are being naive and we need to be more aggressive in order to win games. We just have to maintain to play the way we are playing, but improving in the opponent's box and in our box. That was the focus of the week and especially if you play against Chelsea, this is the team that when he crosses, he has some guys in the box and we suffered a little bit against Fulham, so we worked a lot during the week to be better on that. So it is always the same cycle, to analyse what we did wrong in the week and to improve the next weekend.”
Potentially good news for Lisandro Martinez as he posted a picture of him running out on the grass again. I appreciate he is still a little way away from coming back because he has been out for so long, what might that do for him mentally?
“It's really important [to be on grass]. When you have that injury, you have that time where you recover a lot of things really fast, then there is the boring part, it looks like you don't go to the next step. We miss a lot Licha, especially in this moment, we miss his aggression in everything he does, we miss him, but he's always there in every meeting, in every training, he sometimes finishes his and stays to watch the training. We need Licha in this team.”