IT was a masterclass in laughing in the face of adversity – from the man whose team is labeled a JOKE.
His dressing room goers may be frozen with fear, but Ruben Amorim certainly remains a paying member of the smile-high club.
Despite everything, there has been little to grin about as a Manchester United manager over the past almost two months – even when he says his struggling players are “too anxious and too scared to play football” – a grin is never far away.
And as the Portuguese coach prepared to send the worst United team in Premier League history to the lion's den that is Anfield, the humor came back to the surface.
How does he deal with the enormous pressure that comes with being the head coach of the largest basketball club in the country?
A twinkle in his eye as he cleared his throat, pointing a finger at his smiling bruiser as he quipped, “You can see it in my face… you can compare it to when I arrived and now!”
In reality, no change has taken place. Four defeats on the way, no domestic victory in a month and Liverpool and Arsenal on the horizon, but no gray yet on that shoe-shining black head.
At 39 years old, he may still be a bit young. And the arrival of wife Maria Joao Diogo and the two children after Christmas certainly helped ease the pain of a 2-0 Boxing Day defeat at Wolves.
Amorim admitted: “When you lose, of course there is a lot of pressure, but for me it's more about the pride and the achievements.
“I think it's more difficult when we don't perform well, but even when you were talking about the top four after beating Everton, I explained that I expected this.
“But it's difficult to deal with all the problems here, with the poor performances and the losses, it's really difficult. It's supposed to be really hard.
“The only thing that can help me is training with the players, but I also have my family here now, so it's so very different. They came on the 27th… it was a good day.”
There haven't been many since he arrived. And it's hard to find a United fan who sees anything other than respect towards the Premier League's top players.
Amorim knows it will take a superhuman effort.
Especially now that the fear of losing has left so many of his players almost too scared to play – a point made by the manager himself.
He added: “We have to deal with that. We need the leaders to step up to help the other guys – and I am the most responsible person here to improve performance.
“You can see that the players are doing their best, but sometimes they are too anxious and afraid to play football because this is a difficult moment – so I will help the players to get better.”
They certainly need something to make them better, otherwise the former Sporting Lisbon chief's stark warning of a relegation scrap will become a frightening reality.
He always maintained that it was not a comment intended for effect, but simply an attempt to revive his dormant losers.
Amorim added: “I know it's a problem here for the manager to say things like this, but at this moment, at our club, everyone has to understand that.
“So let's focus on reality. We know we are Manchester United and I know I'm not supposed to talk about these things.
“But I want to be very clear with the fans and the players, I think that is very important at the moment.
“Anything can happen, but we have to be focused on winning games and improving our performances. Then relegation will no longer be a problem in the future.”
Therefore, Amorim's focus ahead of the trip to Anfield was not so much on finding Liverpool's mistakes, but on correcting those of his own side.
A back-to-square-one game plan.
He said: “Of course even the best teams have their problems and we will try to find them – but to be honest I am more focused on our basics.
“Instead of trying to find things in Liverpool's shape, I focus on the way we have to play our game, the way we have to play to win a football match.
“You can't do that without the basics, so we spent two days just doing the basics, focusing on our idea and doing our thing.”
Whether that will deliver a victory against all odds in the homeland of their biggest rivals remains doubtful.
But it would certainly mean that for once Amorim wouldn't be the only one with a smile as wide as the Mersey.
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