Idrissa Gana Gueye’s rare first-half dismissal for clashing with his own teammate proved irrelevant as a lackluster United side failed to equalize after Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s goal on the half-hour mark secured victory for the visitors at Old Trafford. ..Continue Reading
Bruno Fernandes and Joshua Zirkzee had the best opportunities, but the Red Devils managed only six shots on target despite playing with an extra man.
Amorim showed clear disappointment after the match and told Sky Sports multiple times how “frustrated” he felt. The Portuguese manager criticized his players for poor decision-making and allowing their intensity to “drop” as their five-game unbeaten streak came to an end.
Amorim said: “Really frustrated like any other person that supports Man United. The way we started the game, the way we didn’t understand how we should play against 10 men. They deserved to win. Even suffering with 10 men that is normal. We had a lot of chances but the quality and the decision-making was not there.
“The understanding of every situation of the game was not there. And then the quality near the box. But the most important is the intensity. You can feel it right away when we start the game in the first minute you can feel when we are at the top level of intensity and when we are not. Then when we are not we cannot win in this way.”
Asked if he was surprised, Amorim added: “Of course. But I said in many occasions that I understand that we have a lot to do.
“But I am really frustrated with the way we played the game, especially at home and understanding what happened this weekend with the other clubs, looking at the table and felling everything.
“And the way we presented from the first minute is really frustrating. This is more than that [a missed opportunity]. We need to play the game in a different way. Sometimes we can do it, sometimes we can have good runs of results and performance, but sometimes we drop.”
Leny Yoro and Bruno Fernandes were at fault for the defensive lapse that led to Dewsbury-Hall’s goal, while goalkeeper Senne Lammens failed to make a strong save.
When asked what United could have done differently, Amorim replied: “Everything.
“I don’t want to put anything specifically. We didn’t play well. We didn’t understand and we were going with the flow of the game. That is my biggest concern.”
And centre-back Matthijs de Ligt reacted: “It’s quite clear. A bad night for us. 70 minutes more or less 11 vs 10, conceded a goal and not creating many chances. A few but not enough for a match against 10. A disappointing night.
“From our side, we didn’t do enough. Didn’t make the runs or bodies into the box. They are strong in the air so we didn’t have the players to score from that. We basically played to their strengths. These are the main aspects, but we have to look at ourselves and it’s not good enough.
“We’ve been away and trained for a while together. I just think we lacked a bit of urgency in several situations. They get punished if you lack this urgency. If you don’t score, you lose this game. We lacked this hunger to make a difference on the most important moments.”
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