Amorim reflects on his first year in charge of Manchester United, is clear he wants to be head coach for a long time.
‘Tough, really tough’: Ruben Amorim on his first year at Manchester United.
Although Ruben Amorim has acknowledged that his first year at Manchester United has been “really tough,” he is adamant that he wants to serve as head coach for as long as possible.
On November 1, 2024, Amorim was formally named Erik ten Hag’s successor. Ten days later, he took over. In 52 games, the Portuguese has won 21 and lost 19, for a 40% winning percentage.
“It was a journey, a big journey,” he said of his first 12 months. “It was tough, really tough, good moments and bad moments. I learned a lot that is really important. I found out that even in my lower moments I can stick with the things I believe and that is a good thing for anyone to understand. Today the answer is different from three weeks ago. One of the biggest honours of my life to be here and I want to continue here for many years.”
United has defeated Sunderland, Liverpool, and Brighton in their last three Premier League games. Sean Dyche, who will be in charge of his third game, will lead them when they travel to Nottingham Forest on Saturday. When Dyche wasn’t a manager in August, he asserted that he could outperform Amorim with United’s team. “With that team playing a 4-4-2, I bet I could win more games,” he remarked.
Amorim shrugged off Dyche’s comments. “Maybe it’s true that if we play 4-4-2 we win more games,” he said. “But I always said that I have a way of playing that is going to take a while, but in the future it’s going to be better. I can look at Sean Dyche as a manager and as a pundit. If you are a pundit and you don’t say very strong things, I don’t want to watch you. So I understand that it’s a completely different job. I know that Sean Dyche is really smart and he knows how to play the game.
“He also understands that it is one thing when we are seeing the game and talking about the game, the other thing is to coach a team. I have nothing to say, I just want to win the next game.”
Lisandro Martínez, who has not played since sustaining a knee injury in February, has resumed full training. Amorim said: “He wants to go to [play in] this one [Forest] – he’s not going to. He’s done training with us but we changed some things in the exercises, so slowly he’s going to get better.” Amorim said he was not certain whether Harry Maguire would be fit.