Manchester United entered the away derby at Manchester City with hope on Sunday, and Ruben Amorim’s men were nailed to the earth by Erling Haaland and their Manchester derby rivals.
How will Amorim see this game? Not well, apart from a few bright moments that failed to hang around past Man City’s quickfire Erling Haaland goals after the break.
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There wasn’t a lot to like, but Amorim will need to find some comfort in the fact that Noussair Mazraoui did well upon return and Matheus Cunha, Mason Mount, and Diogo Dalot missed out and would’ve been expected to be key parts of any derby success.
So what did Amorim say?
Ruben Amorim reaction — How did Manchester United manager view blowout derby loss?
“We are a big team and a big team in certain moments are big teams. If you look at our three goals we can avoid these goals. Doku with a lot of space, bounces go to Foden. In the second we started really well and to suffer that goal because we want too much to recover the throw-in. Then you have the chance to open the game with Bryan, great save from their keeper. Small chances, and in the end against top teams small details will make the difference.”
What happened? “We can avoid those goals. That was the biggest difference. We suffered goals where it’s clear that we can do better, especially the second one. You start the second half well. You are pushing for our goal to open the game. Even the 2v1 where Bryan could score. Those moments went for the opponent and then the third goal is hard to describe. So, we suffered goals that we can avoid.”
“The biggest difference is when we had transitions, we didn’t score. When City, especially in the second half, the game changed a little bit, we suffered transitions and they were better in that moment — and in the game. We can clearly avoid the goals. And that makes the difference in a game like this.”
“We can do better. That is clear but again transitions, the third of goal, lack of quality in the connection. People don’t know who is going to the ball and then the guy is free to score. The first one, he’s in “
Frustrations with goals? “The first one he is in the middle of four guys and we know we can be more aggressive in that moment because we were near the ball. The second ball we want to recover the ball so fast. On the throw-in they have one-against-one, Leny’s going from the outside not the inside. We can fix that. In these games we need to be perfect and we weren’t perfect.”
Even more frustrated because you feel chances were there? “The frustration is always the same. With the amount of chances, we need to score goals. When you don’t, you don’t open games when you are drawing, to take the lead and control the game in a different way. When we’re 2-0 you can feel us near the goal. When you don’t you have to push more men up and you have to take more transitions. Frustrated today and we need to work on a lot of things for the next game.”
“They put four in the middle. We have three central defenders, two midfielders, you can see Bryan inside, Sesko is there. We played last year the same way of course with difference because the opponent is playing in a different way. It’s not the midfielders because you can feel on the first goal. Doku gets the ball and takes two guys into the box.”
Formation change could help? “It’s three defenders then it’s five midfielders. It’s the way you want to see the game. I saw a lot of teams played here with five midfielders just blocking and they suffered more than us. I saw a lot of Man United games playing here with a lot of midfielders. It’s not about that. It depends on the game of the opponent.”
“We play against one coach that won seven Premier Leagues and we are building things and trying to fight against these teams again. I’m not going to defend myself or try to protect myself. We need to better. Last year we draw and we won against City and today we were a little bit better in certain things but in the small details we were not good enough. We are building things and of course we need to win.”
“I didn’t see player of my team not giving the maximum. The rest is with me. What I feel disappointment is sometimes I feel like we could run more. I didn’t have that feeling. I am emotional when I feel that we can do better in effort. It’s my fault, not theirs. Sometimes I’m emotional, sometimes I just move on.”
Bruno Fernandes reaction
“We need to score goals and not concede. That’s the main thing of football. We keep creating chances to score and we are not able to score as much as we want. We conceded three goals we could’ve avoided, especially the first one. The second goal from a throw-in we need to be much more aware in that moment.”
“I was trying to press further because the aim for the game was for one of the midfielders to jump on Rodri and the other on Foden. I saw Leny jumped up and I tried to go more than Rodri. Because of a miscommunication we gave them too much room. We need to take more risks, be more brave. That’s what City does.”
