Ruben: I share the pain with the fans

The Reds dominated the second half at San Mames but were unable to recover from the only goal in the first half, eventually credited to Brennan Johnson, who got the final touch after the ball bounced off Luke Shaw.

Ruben was asked about a lack of potency in front of goal, choosing Mason Mount ahead of Alejandro Garnacho, the future and how he can turn things around.

See what he had to say in Bilbao, after the disappointing end to what had been a fine European run...

Commiserations. How do you go about assessing that and the damage it does to Manchester United? 

"It's in the future, I'm not going to talk about the future. This loss, the pain of losing this match. I can see it was clear, we were the better team but then we managed not to score again, so it's very hard to win football matches but the guys tried everything to win the game. In the future, we will have time to assess everything."

Do you regret not doing something in January to try to change that? Do you still believe in the players to deliver goals?

"There were some times we didn't create situations. Now is not that time. We are creating situations, if you look at the opportunities that we have, it's different players. So it's not a problem of one guy. We are not scoring goals. Their goalkeeper did a great job. Of course, I'm confident in my players. It's my job to improve my players. To arrive in January and make a lot of changes was not possible because all that the problems that we had to deal with and then I had to assess the team. So the problem is not just one player but we are missing chances with all the players."

Alejandro Garnacho did more in his first couple of minutes than Mason Mount did in 70-odd minutes. I appreciate the selection calls can be tricky but, looking ahead, do you think you've got to be a bit more proactive with your style of play, rather than pragmatic?

"What do you mean?"

Well it feels like Garnacho has more of a goal threat. As I said, it's difficult with selection but he comes on and has an opportunity and Mount wasn't really involved...

"How many times have we had this conversation and it was the opposite? Some players come in, like Mason Mount, against Bilbao and changed the game. So now it is easy to say. Who missed the big opportunity in the first half against Bilbao? Yeah [Garnacho]. Of course, now it is easy for us to talk about a lot of views. I just look at the game and try to manage things and improve the team and try to win games. I can see it both ways. I remember everything about the past so it is easy for me to respond to that question."

What do you say to the Portuguese people at this moment and are you interested in signing Viktor Gyokeres?

"I have to speak for our fans, for the English people, and for the supporters of Manchester United. So I have nothing to say to the Portuguese people at this moment. I just have to share the pain with our fans. They deserve better. We try everything about the future, we will see what we are going to do."

“We have two plans, even for the market and we need to understand it’s tough for a club like ours not to be in the Champions League. But we have to use the other side. If we have more time, we have more time to think, to work during the week and to be better in the Premier League. That will be our focus.”

I appreciate you don’t want to talk about the future but the season has been quite poor. The fans have come here and seen another quite poor performance. Is there anything you can say to the fans to give them optimism that things are going to be better in the future starting with next season?

“I think I was always really honest with you guys. We didn’t perform perfect today, but we were better than the opponent, and the opponent also played. In the second half, we try everything – with the central defenders, with the players wide, crosses going inside the box. I think I’m really honest with you guys, so I expect the same and there are some days where I said we were really poor. I think today was not the day. We were not perfect. We have a lot to improve, but I am always honest with you guys.”

“We have to see. We have to see. I know everything that you did [say], I said before you. In this moment, I’m not going to be here defending myself. It’s not my style, I cannot do it. It’s really hard for me. I have nothing to show to the fans and say. [I can’t say] ‘I’m going to improve because of this, I have these problems’. I will not do nothing, so in this moment it’s a little bit of faith, so let’s see. Like I said before coming here, in the flash [interview positions], I’m always open. If the board and the fans feel I’m not the right guy, I will go in the next day without any conversation about compensation, but I will not quite. Again, I’m really confident about my job and, as you can see, I will not change nothing in the way I do things.”

Ruben, you mentioned you found it difficult to improve the players, having only just come into the club mid-season. What areas can you point to for improvement, because I think there’s a genuine argument that the team has gone backwards in the second half of the season, not forwards?

“In some moments, I don’t agree with that. I think we had some bad results. I think we improved in certain areas. We were competitive in more games but we didn’t score and sometimes in the small details we lost some games. I remember a lot of games – I will not try to [list them all, but] Nottingham, Wolverhampton. We created more chances against City at our home. We didn’t score and we lost some games. It’s a different way of playing. I try to put the players the best I can, try to help them. I was really hard on the players. I’m a young guy, but I also understand that with the chances we had in the second half, if we managed to score one the game should be different and our press conference should be so much different. So I have to deal with that and I understand. I have nothing to show to our fans, I am really honest with that. But again, I will continue to do things the way I know.”