MUFC boss wary of his side’s propensity to capitulate as they gear up to face Athletic Club in the Europa League semis second leg.
MUFC boss Ruben Amorim wary of propensity for Manchester United to ‘lose our minds’.
Despite having a 3-0 lead, Ruben Amorim acknowledges that Manchester United “can lose their minds” during games and is uncertain of their performance in Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg against Athletic Bilbao.
After winning at the San Mamés last week courtesy to two goals from Bruno Fernandes and a header from Casemiro, United is the frontrunner to advance to the final on May 21. They gave up a 2-0 lead over Lyon in the return leg of the previous round at Old Trafford, resulting in a 4-2 deficit. They then scored three goals in the closing seven minutes of extra time to guarantee their spot in the round of four. In the first leg, United led Lyon 2-1 as well, but Rayan Cherki equalised in the 95th minute.
“Sometimes during the game we are one team, something happens and we lose our mind a little bit.
“If you look at our team we cannot say today what is going to happen. Control the narrative – we cannot do that. I feel we need to score to go to the next round. We will have to suffer a bit to go to the final.”
Due to injury, Athletic will be missing their top scorer, Oihan Sancet, who has 17 goals this season, as well as Nico and Iñaki Williams, who have each scored 11.
“It doesn’t matter,” Amorim said of their injured players. “For us it is the top team of Athletic [who will play]. I understand it is hard to play without key players but for us it doesn’t matter. We need to go to the game and try to win it.”
Amorim reiterated that Bruno Fernandes is not for sale after Al-Hilal’s reported interest in United’s captain. “He is a top player, we need top players. He is a leader, he’s the captain, so he’s really important,” said the 40-year-old. “It’s normal that a lot of clubs want a player like Bruno, like [Alejandro] Garnacho, like others. But we want to keep the best players, and Bruno is clearly one of the top players in the world, so our idea didn’t change. We want Bruno here.”