- 22/11/2024
Manchester United new boss Ruben Amorim on his ambitions at joining the club, what he expects from the Premier League and facing Ipswich
Carrington, Manchester, UK
Carrington, Manchester, UK
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Ruben, welcome to Manchester. You'll have had a perception of the club before joining.
00:06How does the reality differ? Is it bigger and better than you even had imagined?
00:12Yeah, it's bigger. There's a lot of departments. It's so much different than Sporting.
00:18Sporting is a big club, but it's in Portugal. You feel that it's a global club, so you have so much to do.
00:24It's not just coaching the team. But I have a lot of help, a lot of meetings.
00:32So I'm improving in that area, but I feel very happy, very comfortable, so I feel at home.
00:41Ruben, you're the sixth permanent manager of Manchester United since the club last won the Premier League title.
00:47What gives you the belief that you can be the one to restore the club to that level?
00:52I'm a little bit of a dreamer, and I believe in myself. I also believe in the club.
00:58I think we have the same idea, the same mindset, so that can help.
01:06But I truly believe in the players also. I know that you guys don't believe a lot in these players, but I believe a lot.
01:15I think we have room to improve, and I want to try new things.
01:21You guys think it's not possible. I think it's possible. We will see in the end.
01:29Ruben, what are your first impressions in these early days of your squad in training?
01:34How much time do you think you're going to need, realistically, to repair United?
01:41I don't know about repair, but like I said, we have space to grow as a team.
01:49I think we have to improve in a lot of areas, the understanding of the game.
01:55I know it's a different way of playing, and we are changing in the middle of the season.
02:02I think we have to improve the physical aspect of the team. It's something that we want to improve.
02:09And that's it. I don't know how long it will take.
02:14I know that when you are at Manchester United, you have to win games.
02:19I will not tell you that I need a lot of time.
02:24Of course, we need a lot of time because it's a great league.
02:29It's the strongest league in the world, and we have to improve a lot to try to win it.
02:38What can I say is that we have to win games, to win time, and then to win titles.
02:47You've obviously got belief in your players, and there's a lot been spoken about this system.
02:52Is it going to be a case of evolution or revolution?
02:55It's not revolution because football is not so different with five players in the back,
03:00three players in the back, four players in the back.
03:04I cannot say evolution because we have to wait and see, but we will play a different type of football.
03:11We have our ideas. I'm not saying it's the best ideas, but it's our way of seeing football.
03:20It's not evolution or revolution. It's a change in the way we play football.
03:26You famously came here six and a half years ago and met Jose Mourinho during that internship.
03:32What are your memories of that, and have you spoken to Jose since you took the job here?
03:37He sent me a message. He told me that it's a lovely club, a big club with lovely people,
03:43and that is correct. It still is.
03:48But a lot of things have changed. We are in a different building now.
03:53We are building a new one. I'm a different guy. I was learning at the time,
04:02and I hope to teach something here to my players.
04:07But the club is still big. It's still the best club in England, and we want to win again. That's all.
04:19Every manager looks for quick wins, quick gains when they turn up at a club.
04:26Where do you see those coming from Manchester United?
04:29What have you seen here that you think you can make an impact straight away with?
04:35In simple things, I think. If you want to speak about the team, the way we play,
04:43I think we lose the ball too often, and we have to keep the ball.
04:48We have to be better at running back. I think that is clear for everybody.
04:55And we have to be very good in the details. Sometimes we are hoping to change a lot of things,
05:01big things. I think it's the small things, and we have to improve on those small things.
05:06The way we see football, players as a team, understanding the game in one way,
05:11that is the focus. In the small things, I think I can help these players a lot.
05:20I'm old enough to have been at Jose Mourinho's first press conference in 2004 when he joined Chelsea.
05:25Did you recall that yourself? What did you make of it?
05:31What was the most significant influence he's had on you as a manager?
05:35First thing, not just in me, but all the Portuguese coaches. It shows that we can be the best in the world.
05:43This is something different in a small country. This can put a stamp on everybody.
05:51But I'm different from Mourinho. I'm a different person. But I remember that time.
05:57In that time, you look at Mourinho and you felt that he can win everywhere.
06:03It's not the same thing. He was a European champion. I'm not a European champion.
06:11But I'm a different guy in a different moment. Football nowadays is different.
06:17I think I'm the right person for this moment. Because I'm a young guy, I understand the players.
06:26So I try to use that to help my players, like Mourinho in that area did in Chelsea.
06:36If you remember, the young guys were like Lampard and these kind of players.
06:42Nowadays it's so much different. So I think I'm the right guy for this moment.
06:48The recruitment at Manchester United in the last decade has been quite mixed.
06:54To say the least, it's been very much like that.
06:57Do you expect to have an influence on the players that come into this football club?
07:01Or will that be left to other departments?
07:04I think it has to be all together.
07:06Because if you are a coach that came in here and already chose the players, it could be wrong.
07:13Because this is a football club that will be here for a long time.
07:17And you as a coach, you don't know that.
07:19So you have to work everybody together.
07:23And for that we have to improve the process of recruitment.
07:27The data, the profile of the players that we want.
07:30But I have to have a strong position on that.
07:35Because I'm the coach. I know how to play.
07:38So I think it's all together.
07:40But in the final word, as you can say, it should be the manager.
07:44Not just because it's your right, but it is your responsibility.
07:48Because in the end, the results, they will ask you about the results, is to me.
07:54So I think it's all together, improve the process of recruitment.
07:58I have to understand the league. That is important.
08:03And then, when everything is aligned, all the ideas, everybody is on the same page,
08:09we can buy and sell players.
08:11Has that been agreed that you have the final sign-off?
08:16I'm saying here the final. It's not the final, the final.
08:21But I have a great responsibility when we choose players.
08:24Because this is something that should be done in this way.
08:30I'm the manager, the head coach, so I have to choose the players.
08:36Manchester United has been described, certainly in the last 10 or 12 years,
08:40as the impossible job, given the calibre of managers that have come before you.
08:43The likes of Louis van Gaal and Jose.
08:46What's your perception of that view?
08:48And what do you see as your biggest challenge here?
08:51I really don't know the biggest challenge.
08:53I will find out during these months.
08:59You had here different types of coaches.
09:02So the guys that won everything, like van Gaal and Mourinho.
09:07You have new ones, like they knew the club inside out, like Solskjaer.
09:13Then you have one of the best that there will ever be,
09:19outside the five strongest leagues, who is Ten Hag.
09:23So I don't know. I think we have to improve as a club.
09:27We have to acknowledge that we are in the time, that we need time.
09:31Every coach that comes here needs time.
09:36But acknowledge also that we have to win games.
09:40And that's it. So I don't have answers for that.
09:45You have different types of coaches, the same result.
09:48We will try to do it our way, Ineos' way and my way.
09:53And try to win it.
09:56But here it's not an impossible job?
09:58No, of course not. I believe that.
10:01Call me naive, but I truly believe that I'm the right guy in the right moment.
10:07I could be wrong, but the earth still will turn.
10:12The sun will rise again, it doesn't matter.
10:15So I'm not worried about that.
10:17I truly believe that I'm the right guy for this job.
10:23You just said earlier that you believe in these players,
10:26and maybe some people here do not.
10:28But didn't these players get Ten Hag the sack?
10:30Isn't that the reason he's no longer at the club?
10:33Because the team was down in 13th or 14th, they couldn't win,
10:36they couldn't play, they couldn't keep hold of the ball,
10:38like you sort of just said then.
10:40Why do you think these players have failed so badly for the last gentlemen?
10:44It's a belief, like the word, you have to believe.
10:48I believe in them.
10:50Because when I started this week, you can say that it's one week, three trainings,
10:56they changed the coach, of course everybody is excited.
10:59But they are open to different things.
11:02It's the only thing that I ask.
11:04Hard work, and you have to believe in the new idea.
11:07And I felt that.
11:09Until they prove me wrong, I believe in the players.
11:16Is the average length for a manager here, since Sir Alex,
11:21has been about two and a half years.
11:24Is that long enough to really stamp your authority on a club
11:27and really get to where you want to be?
11:29Because Eric kept saying, he's brought young players through,
11:33and he kept saying have patience.
11:36Is two and a half years long enough?
11:38You've got to need more than that.
11:40I have two years and a half of contract.
11:44And you guys talk about that.
11:46I think two years, you can understand if I'm the right manager
11:50to go in this process.
11:53I think we will need more time.
11:57Because if you look to the other clubs that are winning this league,
12:04they are doing this process for a long time.
12:07But they are winning.
12:09That's why they have time to do this project.
12:14So I understand that we will need more than two and a half years.
12:18We have to win something, somewhere.
12:23But in two years, you can understand if you want to continue
12:26in this path, or you have to change.
12:29So we will see how long it will take.
12:35I know it might take time, Ruben,
12:37but players playing in different positions, potentially.
12:40Garnaccio, potential wing-back on number 10.
12:43Rashford up top, I think we saw in the footage.
12:45What have you made of the players, and do you think these players are open
12:48to actually playing in different positions in your system?
12:50I think they want to play.
12:52In this first moment, they just want to play.
12:55So it's easy.
12:57In the future, we will see.
12:59You can watch on TV, but you have to train with them
13:02to understand if he can cope with different positions.
13:05So we are in that phase.
13:07Everybody wants to play now.
13:09If they have the opportunity of playing as a goalkeeper,
13:13they will play in the moment.
13:14In the future, we will see.
13:16But they are open to change some positions.
13:20Rob?
13:21Hi, Ruben.
13:22A lot of players have said that one of your big qualities
13:25is the relationship that you have with them.
13:27You've already told us that you've got belief in these players.
13:30Do you think maybe the players have lost belief in themselves a little bit,
13:33given what's happened at the start of the season?
13:35That's for sure.
13:36But this is normal in every team.
13:38When you don't win games, you start being suspicious
13:46of the way of playing.
13:50I cannot control the ball with pressure.
13:53So these small things, you start feeling in the players.
13:56You can understand almost when they walk to the game or to the warm-up.
14:01You can feel if they are confident or not.
14:04So that is a normal thing.
14:07So I think I have to help them to feel that it will take time.
14:13But they are ready to cope with the demands of the games in the Premier League
14:17because they proved that.
14:21And you can see, even this year and last year,
14:24sometimes they have a bad first half.
14:27And then in the second half, without any tactical change,
14:32they will turn up and change things.
14:35So they have to find out that mindset to play this way throughout the game.
14:42Last question in this section.
14:44Andy Kerr.
14:45Hi, Ruben.
14:47Initially, is it possible to ask this group of players
14:51to play your style of football, your formation?
14:54Or do you perhaps need to pick a style of football,
14:57a philosophy that suits the players you already have here?
15:01As a coach, you have to choose one way or another.
15:06I choose always 100% our way.
15:10I prefer to risk a little bit, but to push in the first moment.
15:15If they feel that since first day,
15:18I believe so much in our way of playing,
15:21they will believe too.
15:23So there is no second doubt.
15:25No second way.
15:26It's one way and we are going to do it.
15:29We will adapt some players because you don't have the right profile.
15:33This team was built for a different system.
15:36But like I told you guys already,
15:39it's the same thing playing with five or four.
15:42The principles are the same.
15:43The positioning is a little bit different.
15:45But maybe on Sunday, you will see the list of players,
15:50the starting 11.
15:51You don't feel a lot of change,
15:53but you will feel it in the game during the positioning,
15:57in the way they receive the ball or to cover the ball.
16:01You will see some changes.
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