Bruno Fernandes said there is no reason for his Manchester United teammates not to believe in Ruben Amorim's plan to turn around the Red Devils' fortunes this season.
Amorim enjoyed an encouraging week after overseeing a draw against league leaders Liverpool before knocking Arsenal out of the FA Cup with a hard-fought win on Sunday.
United endured a difficult December, losing six games in all competitions, only the third month in which they had lost six games, after April 1926 (six) and September 1930 (seven).
They also conceded 18 goals in the final month of 2024, the most in a single month since March 1964 (also 18), putting pressure on Amorim so early in his tenure.
Following their 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United, only Southampton (seven) had lost more games in all competitions between Premier League clubs than the Red Devils (six) since Amorim's arrival at Old Trafford.
Mood has partly lifted after a dark period for United, who were just seven points clear of the drop zone and entered the new year in their worst position in the league since 1989.
“It's very easy when you don't get results, when you don't perform, that you start to lose faith in everything you've done,” Fernandes said.
But I think that was one of the good things we had as a team: we kept believing in what we do, in what we have trained and where we want to go as a team, where the staff wants us to go. go as a team, what we want to improve as a team.
“And that's what gives us a little more credit now, because we've done the same things that people will probably think, 'oh, the manager has to change this three or five ago, that doesn't work.' We still have to bring back a striker.'
“You know, every time you lose, or every time something goes wrong, everyone has an opinion about what you should do differently. But obviously the manager has his own idea and we understand that.”
“What we really understand as players at this point is that he really believes in this. So there's no question that you're not going to believe it.”
“So everything he says to you, everything he tries to pass on to you – to him and his staff – he does it in a way where we really believe in what we're doing.
“Even in games where you concede a goal or have a setback, he just wants us to understand that the things we do will produce results if we do them the right way.”
United's notable improvements have been in intensity and defensive form. But if there's one area where Amorim still needs to make major progress, it's offense.
Only 44.7% of their free shots in the top flight this season have come while challenged from inside two meters (115/257) – only Liverpool (43.5%) have a lower share.
United have fired a higher proportion of shots from outside the penalty area than any other side so far (37%), with a lack of clinical edge proving to be their downfall.
The Red Devils have scored 22 goals in the Premier League this season, with only Crystal Palace (21), Ipswich Town (20), Everton (15) and Southampton (12) scoring fewer.
Fernandes has scored four of United's top goals this season (equal with Marcus Rashford) but said attacking improvements must come from across the pitch.
“The manager has told us a lot that we need to score more goals,” Fernandes said. “And that's true, because we are a team that has the ability to score goals.
“I know we have a lot of young players up front, but we have quality and we have to score goals because Rasmus is capable of scoring goals. Josh is capable, Amad is capable.
“Garnacho Rashy, Antony, me and even the midfielders who sometimes play a little deeper, like Kobbie or Manu or Casa or Christian, they are all players with goals in them.
“So we have a lot of players who have the ability to score goals. Just like yesterday, Carlos came to talk to me, the manager's assistant before the match, and told me that we needed more desire to run into the penalty area, to the flight, to get in there.
“If we are on the counter, we have to run. And that's kind of where the goal comes from. Garnacho recovers the ball, then Diogo jumps, then Garna gets the ball from Gabriel.
“And in my mind it was like, 'just run as fast as you can to get into the box, because you know Garna is fast and will get there before you.'
“So you have to run as fast as you can because you have to score.” And that desire to defend our goal must be the same desire to score goals.
“And this is something that the manager wants us to improve on. And I think we can improve a lot because we have so much quality in our team to score more goals than we have shown. This is not really the level that we to have.” here.”
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