by Ruben Amorim has warned his Manchester United players that he has a ruthless side which he will not be afraid to use if they fail to meet his demands. The Portuguese has a reputation as a wise manager and innovative tactician, but not everything will be smooth sailing.
The 39-year-old begins life as head coach at Ipswich on Sunday, aware of the task ahead of him as he attempts to turn United around. Amorim arrived with the team 13th in the Premier League after four wins in 11 matches and must improve their results if they are to have European qualification ambitions for next season.
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“I can be ruthless when I need to be,” Amorim said. “If you think as a team I’m going to be the nicest guy you’ve ever seen, if there’s anyone who thinks that, I’ll be a different person. I’m not the type of guy who wants to show that he is a boss. They will feel it in the small details I can be the one who smiles, but when you have a job to do, I will be a different person, and they understand that.
Amorim insists he will take risks to change tactics and style but will have limited training time due to United’s busy schedule. There will be two games a week for the foreseeable future as United balance domestic and European competition. Amorim will get their first taste of Old Trafford on Thursday when Bodø/Glimt visit in the Europa League.
“It’s so much harder to join a team in the middle of the season,” Amorim said, “because you have to know the players during the matches, so we don’t talk about national team periods to work with the players – it’s just games. If you win, it’s a lot of fun to play a lot of matches, try to make tactical changes and win. But if you lose, you don’t have time for yourself. train to perfect whatever you want to work on.
“Where you can improve a team is in training; this is the most important aspect. You can tell players to recover and react really fast, but if you don’t do any drills with that, it’s really hard to do it on video or during recovery training, but we’ll find ways to try to face.
Even though Amorim’s predecessor, Erik ten Hag, won a trophy in each of his two full seasons, the fact that United have not won the league title since 2013 weighs heavily on Old Trafford. Sir Alex Ferguson was the last United manager to win the trophy. He has done so 13 times and is the club’s most successful coach.
“It’s hard to copy someone, so I have to be myself,” Amorim said when asked if he sought advice from Ferguson. “I’m not the best person to show the history of Manchester United. It should be the club first and so should I, because I always pay attention to these details and try to focus our players on the history of the club, but not the recent history.
“You have to be very demanding. This is a club that needs to win, it has to win – we have to show that to our players. It’s a different time; I can’t be the same guy Sir Alex Ferguson was. I have to have a different approach but I can also be demanding with a different approach. That’s my goal.
