Ruben Amorim said that the FA Cup victory of Manchester United on Leicester City had nothing to do with “Fergie Time” and took responsibility for another poor Red Devils display.
Harry Maguire led a controversial winner of 93rd minute when United is back in Old Trafford and an embarrassing exit from the tournament avoided that they won last season.
Despite the repetitions that demonstrated that Maguire was clearly offside, VAR was not introduced in the 2024-25 edition of the FA Cup to the fifth round.
Former Leicester Center-back Maguire became the first United player to score a winning goal in the second half of the stopping time in the FA Cup since April 2016, when Anthony Martial did this against Everton in the semi-final.
United went on the trophy under Louis van Gaal that season, but Amorim saw few reasons to be positive on Friday.
He discussed the performance of United and suggested that they had to go further from the idea of ”Fergie Time”, after he had built up a reputation for late winners among the legendary Alex Ferguson.
“We had to believe until the end, but this game has nothing to do with the time of Fergie,” Amorim told ITV Sport.
“I think the performance … We have to do so much better with the ball and without the ball. We had no energy in the beginning, especially in the first half.
“Then we played a little better in the second half, with a little more speed, winning second balls.
“We managed to reverse things, so it was a good result, but not a good performance.”
Harry Maguire's Last-Minute Header sealed a 2-1 victory for title defender Manchester United and sent them to the #EMiratesfacup fifth round pic.twitter.com/nquurnlj5u
– Emirates FA Cup (@Emiratesfacup) 7 February 2025
United only had two shots of both on goal-for peace, collecting a meager expected goals of only 0.04 xg before the break, to Leicester's 0.84.
That XG figure is the worst United that this season has included in all matches in the first half of every match.
Five of their worst six versions of that metriek-exclusive the 3-0 loss of September for Liverpool under Erik ten Hag-being under Amorim. Four of those five games, they noticed a single shot on goal during the opening period during the opening period.
Amorim said he should blame for the constant attacking shortcomings of United, and added: “The coach is the first responsible.
“If a team does not perform, it does not improve, it is the coach. But we are here to do things and to see the game, to study the game and try to improve for the next game.
“I think it's the little things, if you sometimes see the games, we have to control the ball, having the ball, not giving the ball away in the first edition.
“It's the little things, it's the big things, it's all. At the moment it is difficult, but especially at home. We have to deal with it and we will try to do the next game.”
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