Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim on the Manchester derby against City, injury news and his start at the club
Carrington, Manchester, UK
Carrington, Manchester, UK
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00:00Hi Ruben, obviously Manchester City are in quite a strange run of form at the moment,
00:06do you think this is a good time to be playing them?
00:09No, I never think about these things. We will face a great opponent and I'm more focused
00:18on our problems. So we have a lot of issues here, so I'm more focused on what we should
00:24do on Sunday to win the game, so I'm really focused on my team.
00:31Yesterday you said that Pilsen is a team that can run, and multiple times you keep talking
00:43about the need to run. How do you improve this at a time where you haven't got much
00:47training time? How do you get this Manchester United team to run in the way you want?
00:53So, tell them to run and tell them which kind of position they must have when the ball is
00:59in our box. So try to make some targets during training, during games. Try to push them to
01:06press and if they don't have time to train, they can play three and three days, so they
01:12can cope with that and improve on that. So we put some small targets, some marks on the
01:18pitch telling when the ball is near our box, everybody should be near the box and that's
01:25it. I think it's the only way to do it.
01:27Is the team reaching those targets?
01:28I think they are improving. If you see the transitions, you see that I think we are improving
01:36on the speed. Sometimes we cannot do it still, but we are trying and I can feel it in the team.
01:48Before you became United coach, you were linked with possibly becoming Pep's replacement
01:54at Manchester City. I know you've got a close relationship with Hugo Baiana. Did you ever
01:59have a conversation about the prospect of going to City at any point?
02:02Never, never, never had and this was my only option. When Manchester United talked to me,
02:11I had no doubts because I had already something in my mind. It could be a possibility and
02:18with Manchester City or Hugo Baiana, nothing about that.
02:28How much are you looking forward to your first sporting?
02:35Not with Benfica, I guess with Benfica.
02:36Yes, very good.
02:38Problems for me, that's very good.
02:42How much are you looking forward to your first Manchester derby?
02:45I'm really focused on the details. I just want to improve the team. I cannot leave it like a
02:53normal derby. It should be two great teams fighting for the title and it's not that in
03:01this moment. It's just one more game with a very good opponent. Both teams are struggling
03:08in the moment. I hope in the future to feel that real feeling of a derby. I know that is
03:15really important for our fans but my goal now is to improve the team, win games and
03:20we'll try to win this game.
03:24It was a difficult day for Andre at the weekend. He's obviously been involved in the goal
03:27again tonight. Have you any concerns about his form heading into such a big game on Sunday?
03:32We have to take it like it is. He had already in the past situation like that so we have to
03:41work on this. If you see at the play we are trying to build up a lot with the goalkeeper,
03:48making the bounce with Mat a lot of times. This time we have a disconnect a little bit during
03:56the play and when we try this we suffer a difficult goal for us in the end of the second
04:02half. But we managed today, not like against Nottingham, we managed to help Onana like
04:09he did in the past for us.
04:14You mentioned there that both teams are having a difficult time right now. You obviously
04:18played Man City and Pep not long ago, I think about seven games ago, with sporting a 4-1
04:23win for you. Do you feel that on Sunday you will face a different, kind of weaker Man City
04:29team? A team in a different moment maybe?
04:32No, no, no. The great teams can respond at any moment and I think they are in a better place
04:40than us in the type of understanding the game, the way they play, the confidence they have,
04:45even in these kind of moments. We have a lot to focus on our team so our focus is totally,
04:52of course, we will have a strategy, try to win the game with a strategy like it should be,
04:59but we are focused just on our team.
05:05I love a boring team, these questions. I was just wondering how the squad is looking for Sunday,
05:09any knocks tonight and will Jonny be involved?
05:11I don't think so. It was five minutes ago so I have to see it, but no, some players were
05:19tired in the end, you could see it. Also because of transitions in the end, it was a crazy game
05:25today, but I think everyone is going to be fit and ready to win the game. Yeah, he's training already.