RUBEN AMORIM told Manchester United stars they are all on trial ahead of the January transfer window.
Erik ten Hag and sporting director Dan Ashworth have already been sacked this season – and new boss Amorim admits more exits will follow if results do not improve.
Before taking on Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League tonight, he said: “We have good players, we need time to teach them our ideas and then we will see, because this is a huge club.
“If we don't win, the coach goes and the player goes, so you have to know that.”
The mixed opening results for the Old Trafford faithful have also given Amorim no qualms about playing the pantomime villain as he considers a cast change.
The problem is that, after a £660m splurge under Ten Hag in just over two years, there are only beans left rather than gold coins to work with.
Amorim is ready to start searching the land of the giants, believing the squad is simply too small to deal with set pieces on both sides of the pitch.
United have conceded three goals from corners in their past two games, as well as a looping header from Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood.
And when United's players take a minute's rest in the Amorim line-up, it's worth reminding them: “He's got your back!”
Amorim said: “I am very focused on seeing my players and understanding my players.
“We have to focus on what we have. We need to focus on the academy and have a clear profile of the players. So there are a lot of details to manage.
“You can see it in the set pieces, sometimes you look at our team, we are a small team compared to others.
“Every detail counts and we have to be very clear in the profiles, arrange the whole process and go to the stage of buying and selling players.
“We have to improve as a team, we have to sort out a lot of things in our club before we just think about buying or selling players.”
If anyone thought Amorim was a modern-day footballing Merlin who could immediately coax better performances out of this team, two consecutive defeats have suggested otherwise.
The limitations we saw under Ten Hag were clearly visible at Arsenal and at home with Forest.
Amorim said that, especially against Arsenal's title chase, you could see how far behind a team of that caliber United were.
Things didn't get any better against Forest – and Amorim has no time on the training pitch to try to change things with the games coming in quick succession.
The Red Devils traveled to the Czech Republic yesterday ahead of tonight's Europa League match against Viktoria Plzen. And on Sunday it's the Manchester derby at the Etihad.
Amorim said: “I know it's a big job. It is very difficult to win in our competition. We have to improve. There is a lot at stake right now: we have a lot to do, a lot of games. We don't have time to train.
“Sometimes I have one idea in the first week, in the second week I have another idea and then we have to see what happens because everything is so close, all the games before what happens in January.”
United are currently 13th in the Premier League, but Amorim has already set his sights on the ultimate goal of winning the title during his time as manager.
He said: “We want to take this club to win the Premier League and become an elite club, as this club should be.”
For now, he understands that reaching the Champions League this season must be a realistic goal.
To do that, it could be easier to do that by winning the Europa League, as Jose Mourinho accepted in 2017 and achieved by beating Ajax in the final in Stockholm.
Amorim said: “You can do the math and understand what it takes for the Champions League and look at the table and see that the Europa League is easier.”
United are currently twelfth in the Europa League table on the same points as opponent Viktoria Plzen at the Doosan Arena tonight.
The top eight automatically qualify for the knockout stages and Amorim says it is crucial they do so to avoid a two-legged play-off in February.
He said: “It is very important to move to the next phase. Because of all this, we have to win this match.
“If you go to the next phase without a play-off, we will play two games.”
Comments