Manchester United will host Chelsea at Old Trafford. Ahead of the match, Manchester United manager Amorim attended a pre-match press conference, where the Portuguese coach shared his views on various topics and situations regarding the team.
On the team’s injury situation
“Cunha and Mount are currently in good physical condition and both available for the match against Chelsea. Diogo Dalot will miss the game, and Lisandro Martínez is still in the recovery process; there are no other new injury concerns beyond this.”
On Malacia’s recovery progress
“He is currently training with the U21 players. We need to observe further to see if he can gradually regain his match rhythm and physical form.”
On Garnacho facing Manchester United
“Garnacho is no longer our player, and my attention is now fully focused on our own squad. I am very pleased with the return of Mount and Cunha. As for other questions, you should probably discuss them with Chelsea's head coach.”
Responding to his meeting with Sir Ratcliffe this week
“He offered me a new contract to stay in charge longer—that’s a joke (laughs). Actually, it’s normal for them to offer me support. I usually communicate with him, Omar, and Jason regularly.
“We did have a meeting where we jointly analyzed various data of the team so far this season. It was a routine meeting, and in fact, we have held many similar meetings before. At this current stage, it’s normal for there to be external attention on this.”
On Lisandro Martínez’s recovery
“Martínez is set to return, which is very important for us. After an injury, you need to go through a long recovery process; everyone hopes to recover as soon as possible, but in reality, this often requires patience. You have to keep an eye on whether you are truly making progress.
“So we miss Lisandro very much. Both his on-pitch aggression and his excellent performance in all aspects are badly needed by the team. Even during his recovery, he insists on attending every club meeting and even stays at the training ground to watch training sessions. I think this team really needs him.”
On the pressure of managing Manchester United
“That’s football, especially when managing one of the clubs with the most pressure in the world—you will face external comments and doubts. But what I really want to make clear is that we all have a desire to win. It’s fair to say that last year, I was very critical of our style of play.
“I think we play well outside the penalty area and have performed well in both defensive and offensive organization, but we need to be more efficient and calm inside the penalty area. Beyond that, I believe we are making progress.
“Regardless, I know we have to win. This season, we have already lost to Arsenal and Manchester City. We don’t like losing, especially considering our performance last season, so our current results are indeed an issue we need to address.”
On the club’s recent performance
“We used this time to analyze the last game, the next game, and prepare for various things. I think we perform very well before reaching the penalty area. If you look at our number of shots, expected goals (xG)—all of these things for us are very good—but if you don’t score, then such statistics don’t matter. Because you won’t win games that way.
“We carefully analyzed the way we conceded goals in games, and we could have avoided such situations many times. We are too naive in defense, and we need to be more aggressive to win games. We just need to maintain our style of play, but improve our performance in the opponent’s penalty area and our defense in our own penalty area.
“Especially against Chelsea. When they deliver crosses, they have more people in the box to meet them, and we struggled a bit in the game against Fulham. We have done a lot of work over the past week to do better in this aspect.
“It’s always the same cycle: analyze what we did wrong on the weekend and make improvements the following week.”
Responding to his comments after the loss to Manchester City
“You more or less understand what I was trying to say. You have all been journalists here for a while and have your own sources, so you know what I was referring to. I am now focused entirely on the game against Chelsea, and we hope to secure a victory at home.”
