What Ruben has learned in the last year
Saturday (1 November) marks one year to the day since Manchester United announced the appointment of Ruben Amorim as head coach.
The trip to Nottingham Forest will be Ruben’s 53rd match in charge of the Reds and he’s seeking to record four successive wins for the first time during his tenure.
United’s recent upward curve in form has seen Amorim make the shortlist for the Premier League’s Manager of the Month award, but there have been plenty of low points during the Portuguese’s spell here too.
The boss admitted that these down moments provided more of an education than when he was winning titles at Sporting and convinced him he should persist with his methods.
Ruben: This week has been different
Ruben Amorim explains how there’s been more confidence, more joy and more intensity at Carrington this week…
“During my career as a manager, most of the time I was winning,” Ruben told MUTV’s Mark Sullivan.
“When you are winning, you can say that you have convictions and you are loyal to your ideas, but you learn when you lose, when you are under pressure and I learned that when I’m under pressure, I’m stronger on my ideas and I keep with my ideas.
“Of course, it’s really important to feel the support of everyone in the club, especially the fans that help you, to give you that confidence to continue on your path, but that was the biggest learning point: when I’m under pressure, I can stick with my plan.”
The victories over Sunderland, Liverpool and Brighton launched United into the top six at the end of a matchweek for the first time since April 2024.
There’s clearly still a lot of work to be done and Amorim is keen to point out that, far from resting on their laurels, the players are hungry for further success, starting at The City Ground.
“It’s different. When you win games, you work better, you like to be here,” he added.
Part one: Press conference v Forest
Press conference 1 | Ruben discusses Licha's return to training, his one-year anniversary, AFCON and Sean Dyche...
“You like to spend time with your team-mates, so it’s completely different. We understand that, but we need to focus on the next one, because it’s all about the next one.
“It’s so much better to work like this, but we want to maintain that and to maintain that we have only one option: continue to win games.
“I felt during the week not that feeling of ‘we won some games, let’s relax’, it was the opposite: more confidence, more joy but at the same time more pace, more intensity and that was a very good feeling.”