Man Utd: Ruben Amorim talks in-depth about his work at Old Trafford, a new stadium, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his own ‘hurry’ to win | Football News

During the testing opening four months of Ruben Amorim’s reign, Manchester United’s communications department and senior hierarchy have fielded a persistent question: is there annoyance at the head coach’s frank public assessments?

From not being scared to reference relegation, framing his team as “the worst maybe in the history” of the club, saying he would rather pick his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach over a player that doesn’t want to give their all when Marcus Rashford was the discussion point, and offering unvarnished analysis of United’s performances, it is a legitimate query.

The answer, however, has repeatedly been “no.” Co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, INEOS director of sport Sir Dave Brailsford, CEO Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox were fully aware Amorim intended to be direct, honest, emotive in the role.

It is how the 40-year-old conducted himself during his initial meetings with United’s leadership, and they were attracted by his surety and determination to be true to himself. It explains why Amorim can casually tell Ratcliffe to “**** off” during conversations and offer such a rare honesty in front of the press. His comments arm pundits with ammunition, with there being an endless stream of thoughts on what he has said and why.

Amorim is unfazed and there is a refreshing element to the way he can mesh the brutal truth with warmth during the most turbulent period in United’s modern history. No-one flags that he needs wins more than the man himself. When he is asked to address caustic criticism of the players and team, Amorim always includes himself in the equation – he is not absolved. He is, however, trying to change the course of a critically ill club.

During an in-depth sit-down with Sky Sports News, Amorim explains that he doesn’t lie to himself so he won’t do so to anyone else. He also discusses:

• Why his idea of football is his safe space
• Why winning made it easier to be himself and honest
• Why he doesn’t care about the criticism from pundits
• Why public backing from the hierarchy offers the stability of the club
• The private backing he has received from them in the dressing room
• The measures he is taking to help Rasmus Hojlund’s confidence
• Why European football has felt more comfortable for his players

Ruben, the club have announced their intention to build a new 100,000-seater stadium, which would be the biggest in the UK. What was your reaction to seeing the plans and concept?

You imagine the future. You see the stadium but it’s more than that, it’s the future of the club. Where we are going to be in the future. It’s an amazing stadium. More space for more people because we are a massive, massive club but it is in five years, I think maybe six, maybe seven, I don’t know… So we need to focus on the present. And the present is to improve the team and win games.

I know you said you want to focus on the present, but Omar Berrada told us the club would like to open that new stadium with you still as Manchester United head coach. How do you feel about that?

Yeah, it’s a very good feeling. But I felt that support and I listened to that in every match because winning or losing, they are there. They are in the dressing room talking about the game, the future, to be calm… so I always felt that support, but to hear that support publicly is a different thing. But we need to win games and when you are a coach, no matter who you are, when you arrive here, you don’t have the idea of being here for a while and then move on. You just want to continue. I have that feeling and every, every, every coach that arrives here just think about to continue in this club.

Very interestingly, there, you said you’ve had the support privately, but it’s important to have it publicly. You’ve had it now in the last two days from not just Omar Berrada, but Sir Jim Ratcliffe too. So does that just give you a little bit more confidence – for everyone to now know around the world that you are receiving that support?

It’s important more for the other people. Not for me. I’m a confident guy and I’m really honest with me. So I can see our performance and our results. I, I am guiding myself through that more than with just the support. The support is a good thing, but I don’t lie to myself, so I am always confident in my capabilities, but I’m driving myself with the performance and the results more than what other people are are saying. But it’s really important because gives stability to the club. There is a plan, there is a owner, a CEO, a coach, and we are going to through the time to try to turn things around. And that is a good thing.

Because you don’t lie to yourself, does it explain why even when you’ve gotten the private support and now public support, you still say things like, ‘I don’t feel like I’ll be given as much time as Mikel Arteta’, for example, because you don’t want to lie to yourself. And for you at the moment, the results and the performances are not what you want, not what you expect from yourself?

They and I truly know, I truly believe that they all – everybody here in the club – wants me to stay here for many years, and I want to be here for many years, but we need to win games. So that’s why I know that in this kind of club with the exposure that we have, with the past that we have – and that is also important because one thing is to have a bad results, a bad season, another thing is to been suffering for a while. I know that we need to improve things in the hurry pace. Of course we have a plan that is a good thing. I know how I want to play, and I feel the support from the board. So the plan is there, but we need to win. And that is a good thing. And also excited thing to live.

You spoke about the exposure. You knew this is a huge club before joining; the pressure would be different, expectation would be different, but what have you found most challenging? Is it the constant criticism and all the eyes being on Manchester United? Is it the challenge of the Premier League? How intense it is? Is it the fact that you haven’t really had the time or the squad to play your way so far?

I think everything has been challenging. I don’t want to say difficult, but challenging. I’m learning a lot. Even the type of game is completely different. And I felt in the Europa League, the game is so different and I’m learning that. I’m learning also because I was so lucky and I had a small experience as a coach, but I was always winning. And when you are winning, you can say whatever you want. And I’m quite honest and I’ve always felt really free because I back myself with the results. And when you don’t have the results, you have to balance that. And I’m learning that also [laughs]. Here everybody has an opinion and the type of opinions here are stronger with a lot of legends, and you have to manage that. But when I said in the first day that I really don’t care, and when I say I really don’t care, is that I know that the results will change everything. You can have an opinion today, next year at the same time, at the same hour, you will find me a completely different coach. So I’m focused on that. And the hardest part is to lose. I will say it again, no matter what people say without the context, the squad, that doesn’t matter. Not winning games as a coach it’s the hardest part of our job.

You said you’re not used to that because you were very successful. How do you deal with the losses?

I study the games. I’m trying to understand why we are not winning. I’m jumping from the present to the future, trying to see the big picture, trying to see what I want to do. This is the way that you can be positive and then not just negative. Because sometimes you are so close to the action, you just think about this moment, you get desperate. So you are jumping positive – negative, present – future. And I’m learning to do that. The good thing that people sometimes say is that is the bad thing, is the identity that I want my team to play. That is my…

Your guiding light?

Yeah.

You can always go back to that?

It’s my safe place, yeah. I know what to do, what kind of player I want, why we are not winning. I’m trying to understand. Sometimes I know and I cannot tell you because it involves a lot of things… So I’m trying to balance everything. I’m growing up as a coach, not just inside of the pitch, but also outside of the pitch.

When you say your style and your idea and what you want to see, did we have a glimpse of that in the second half against Arsenal, particularly the ball from Dalot to Mazraoui, the aggressive wingbacks, slick transition and chance creation? It seemed like a little bit of a marriage between what the players feel comfortable in – the low block – versus what you want to see from them.

We have to understand the game as a whole. And of course you can see the simple things are there, we can see it now, llittle bits of what we want, but we are going to be so much different. Sometimes you have to defend in the low block, but every team does that. So you can see against Manchester City teams like Arsenal or even Liverpool. We have to adapt and I adapt as a coach in our team. I’m trying to see what kind of players I have, what kind of game they are suited to with that characteristics. So we have to manage that. But the way we want to play is to do that what you saw, like three times, four times in that game, but many more times. We want to have more possession, sometimes with a little bit more high pressure in certain moments. So you can see it a little bit, but it’s far from the idea that we have.

You spoke about the Europa League being quite different, and we can tell it feels like United are more comfortable, confident, assured in that competition versus the Premier League…

I think you can see it in the physicality. And we are more comfortable there. I I feel that our team is sometimes stronger than the opponent in that aspect. In some games in our league, I don’t feel that. We have more time to think. And this is a very important thing when we have to build up in the different way. We have an idea, they know what to do, but they need a little bit more time because it’s not natural. When you have a little bit more time, you are more in control of the momentums of the game. So I felt it’s the speed of the game give us more chance to be more comfortable and more dominant in the games.

Rasmus Hojlund; he’s such a talented young player, huge work ethic, and it’s just not happening for him at the moment. Obviously, it’ll be affecting him psychologically, he’ll be overthinking his actions on the pitch. How do you try and help him through that?

We are trying to show the good things that people don’t see. For example, the goal that we score in Spain you have a play with Dalot, with Garnacho. And if you look at the play, Josh has the space because Rasmus did the run. And when Josh is shooting the ball, Rasmus is blocking one defender that can reach the ball. And we show that to the team before in the preparation for this game. So I’m trying to show that everybody here is really important. People cannot see, but I see it and Rasmus is doing a lot of things well, but he’s in that moment that as a striker you need to score. And sometimes when he has the opportunity or the ball, he struggles because the confidence is not there. But the work that he does in the games is helping us to, for example, achieve this stage of this competition.

You spoke about the support and the good relationship you have with Ratcliffe and Berrada. It was funny to hear Sir Jim say that you are not afraid to tell him to ‘**** off’ and he likes that. Talk to me a bit about some of the conversations and what you feel from the ownership and from the leadership team.

I think we connected since day one. That is a good thing because sometimes you work with people that you don’t have connection. I felt the connection and that’s one of the big reason that I left a really comfortable situation to this project. Of course, this is Manchester United, but I felt that ‘I have to go’. And part of that was my conversation with, with Sir Jim, Sir Dave, Omar, Jason even Dan [Ashworth] at that point. And then they know how I am, and I’m so clear when we had the interviews and the conversation. I was so clear what kind of guy I am, that now is easy to have this kind of relationship. And then they know that we need time, but I’m always in a hurry. I don’t know if it’s something about my age or I don’t know, but I’m always in a hurry. So I think they like that because I want to win. They want to win. And we are similar in that aspect. We are in a hurry. We want to win. This is a special club. Everybody knows that if we turn things around, it’s a special feeling that we have with each other. And we believe a lot in what we are doing.

Watch Man Utd travel to Leicester City in the Premier League on Super Sunday, live on Sky Sports Premier League from 6.30pm, kick-off 7pm.