Sports
Ruben Amorim press conference as Everton stun Man United
It seemed like the team struggled to come up against 10 men, why do you think that is, and also with Matheus [Cunha] being injured, do you think that had a big impact on the way you attacked tonight?
“Of course, when you have more players with different characteristics, especially with Cunha or Ben [Sesko], you have more options to score goals, especially against low blocks where there’s no space. But that is just an excuse, we have players on the pitch, and we could lose the game but with a different intensity, the understanding of the moment when the other team fight each other and get the red card. And I think we didn’t understand the moments of the game during the 90 minutes. That is my fault, that I need to be better to explain the players how to play in every situation of the game. Again, I think they start the game with a different intensity and that was really hard for us.”
I get that you have to protect your players and you take responsibility for saying you have to explain every moment to the players. But surely, as top professionals, who are paid a lot of money, they should know, they should recognise that – isn’t that why they’re here, isn’t that why you pick them, because you trust them to be able to do that in the game? You can’t do everything for them, can you?
“I think it’s… I know, but it’s also, when I say it’s my responsibility, it’s my responsibility to explain the game, and today was not one mistake of one individual, it was the team. The way we see the results of the weekend, we should get inside the pitch with a different excitement, that is my feeling, it doesn’t matter if you are playing well, making good passes, but the feeling. And Old Trafford was there saying we are all here to give a big step-up and I felt that we were not ready again. These five weeks, everyone is praising our evolution, I’m always saying the same things: we are not even near the moment we are supposed to be in this club.”
You seem most frustrated this season when there’s been an opportunity there for the players to take, you think about Brentford, half-time at Forest, when you talked about there being an opportunity there for the players to go and take it, and then missing that opportunity. Is that the feeling you have again tonight, that there was an opportunity there, given the results this weekend as well?
“Also, that is one of the reasons, but I feel afraid of returning of this feeling of last season, that is my biggest concern. So we need to work together, we are going to work together, I’m not going… The players are trying but we need to be better. We have training tomorrow and we are going to prepare the next one.”
You’ve been in charge a year now and you’ve talked a lot about that need to have intensity in games all the time. Is the reality that you just have some players who can’t deliver that intensity for you every game, they’re just not capable, or not good enough, to every three days or every week deliver that intensity that you demand?
“We need to find a way, so it’s not that we can… I don’t like to say we can: we can, we show. And then like you said, it’s one game by week, it’s not back-to-back games, so we need to be ready for these kind of games. And again, 20 minutes in the game, red card for the opponent, we need to win this game no matter what, no matter the situation. So it’s a lot of frustration, but, again, we need to… I have that feeling we have a lot to do, and we have a lot to do, and we are going to do it.”
Given the way that the way that the Everton player was sent off, do you feel a sense of embarrassment that the team that are literally fighting each other were able to come together and produce that performance when it feels like you’re sort of saying that your players didn’t have that fight themselves in this game, to sense that moment and go for it?
“First of all, it was also 11 v 11, I felt, since the first moment, you can feel it. And then fighting is not a bad thing, fighting doesn’t mean that they don’t like each other, fighting is that you lose the ball, I will fight you because we will suffer a goal, that was my feeling when I watch. I don’t agree with that sending off, so I’m going to say that. It was we can fight with the team-mate, I know it’s violent conduct, the referee explains. I don’t agree with that. I hope my players when they lose the ball, they fight each other. Now, they cannot get sent off. But that is a good feeling, not a bad feeling. Again, my players show in many games that we can do it. Today, we didn’t, I need to help them, we are going to help them, we are going be better in the future, and, today, we are really frustrated.”
