Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim gave an honest assessment of his side’s performance after they were held to a 4-4 draw in a remarkable game against Bournemouth
Ruben Amorim has identified where Manchester United let the game slip against Bournemouth following an end-to-end 4-4 draw in the Premier League. United led three times at Old Trafford but ended the match with just a point after the Cherries hit back time and again.
Amad Diallo put United ahead with a close-range header before Antoine Semenyo found the bottom corner to equalise for the away side. United went into the half-time break 2-1 up thanks to Casemiro’s back-post header from a corner.
But Bournemouth roared back through Evanilson’s precise finish and Marcus Tavernier’s blasted free-kick to lead 3-2. Bruno Fernandes curled a free-kick of his own into the top corner before Matheus Cunha kept his cool to finish a simple chance and make it 4-3 in the 79th minute.
However, United’s leaky defence was evident once more when Junior Kroupi beat Senne Lammens five minutes later. Lammens had to be alert late on to keep out David Brooks’ effort as it finished all square.
United were much the better side early on and, on reflection, Amorim believes that is when they should’ve made their dominance count to kill the game.
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“It’s really disappointing,” he told BBC Sport. “We are really disappointed. Crazy game. It might look like we lost the two points in the second half, but I think we lost them in the first half.
“We dominated and created so many chances. We had to go to half-time with a different result. In the end we deserved more. It was a fun game for everyone at home.
“People especially at Old Trafford want to win but they want to be inspired to see a team play good football. We did that well in certain moments. It was a good performance but we need to be more clinical because created so many chances.
“Lammens did really well. There were opportunities for both sides. We created more. We need to find ways of closing the games because this happened many times. That’s part of the process. We try to do things the best we can but in some moments it’s not enough.”
He made similar points when he spoke to Sky Sports. “It was a fun game for everyone at home. I think we started really well. We did a good first half,” Amorim said.
“The result should be completely different. And then again, six minutes of the second half, similar to Nottingham [Forest], we lost the concentration, and they score two goals. But we managed to get back to the game, we scored two goals again, and then we have to finish the game. Just a throw-in in our possession, we have to close and think about not to go again, to stay calm and close the game.
“I saw the effort of the players, I saw the effort of the defence, and at the end of the game, you make 4-3, I had the feeling that we would continue to push and score another one. We tried but in the end it was a draw.
“A lot of good things, but a lot of things to work [on]. We are not winning games sometimes in the details. It’s not because it’s a back four, back three, back five.
“It’s the details that we need to work, understand the momentum of the game and we need to be clinical. Again, today against a very good team, we created many chances to win the game, and we should have won the three points.”
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