Amorim admits there is a long hard journey ahead after Utd hold City

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Amorim admits there is a long hard journey ahead after Utd hold City  06/04/2025  Old Trafford, Manchester, UK

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00:00Can I ask you something?

00:16Ruben, was that a little bit like Nottingham Forest in that you played really well in patches,

00:25you didn't concede a goal this time, you still didn't look like scoring a goal.

00:30Yeah, I think again we create some chances, the game was completely different from Nottingham of course,

00:36against a different opponent, but we had the same lack of goal.

00:42We create situations, sometimes we did it well and Ederson was there,

00:47so it's really important to score goals to win football matches.

00:53You didn't want to come in midway through the season,

00:58because you did come in midway through the season,

01:01are we now seeing the benefits of you working these players for long?

01:05Do you think there will be a benefit for next season because of that, even if not ideal in the moment?

01:10In the moment it's still really hard, every day,

01:14but of course you can imagine that next season is going to be so much different.

01:20That's why I'm always saying that I'm in the rush,

01:23because we are suffering a lot, everybody here is suffering a lot with all these changes,

01:30and we have to show something in the next year, so right away.

01:34If not, I have the feeling that all that is happening in this moment,

01:40we are not taking advantage, so I think that is an important thing.

01:44In the good days you think like that, it was important to come in the middle of the season,

01:50to work with the players, to improve the players as soon as possible,

01:53to start the next season with a better idea of what we want,

01:58and today was that day that we played well.

02:01Of course you can feel it in the game, it's not there in the top level,

02:07the intensity, but you can also understand the context of both teams in this moment.

02:14In the last two home games in the league against Arsenal and Manchester City,

02:17it felt like the teams improved as the game has gone on.

02:21Does that show that maybe you're a better team than the league table is showing this year?

02:26And does it help with that belief that maybe when you get things right,

02:30you can compete with these teams, and the players are learning that during the game,

02:34and by the second half they're like, yeah, we can do this.

02:37Sometimes every game has its story.

02:42We need to sometimes give time to the team to understand the game,

02:46and then to face the game.

02:49If you remember the first games at home, we suffered a goal in the first ten minutes,

02:54and that can change the momentum, can change the way we face the game.

02:58The strategy is we have to forget the strategy because we are one nil down in the first minutes.

03:07I think these players proved, not just this season, but in the seasons before,

03:13that when they are like this, really focused, they can win any game.

03:19Casemiro wasn't in your team for a period before, but now he seems to be a pretty major feature of it.

03:25What does that show for next season?

03:27Obviously he's got one year left on his contract, he's saving lots of money on his wages.

03:31How has he come back into your thinking?

03:34The important thing is that Casemiro won everything with Real Madrid.

03:39He wasn't playing because I understood in the moment that he was not the best option to the way we want to play,

03:47but he continued to work.

03:49I look at my players in the same way.

03:52If you improve what we ask of them, they have the opportunity.

03:59If they play well, they continue to play.

04:01That was the situation of Casemiro.

04:06The credit is all the player.

04:09He's our player and continues to be our player.

04:13Carey Neville was critical in his analysis after the game,

04:18saying that both sets of players look too happy with the point.

04:22If there wasn't enough passion, they should be more disappointed and not willing.

04:25He called it a love-it between both sides.

04:28Can you understand that perspective, that Derby games should have more passion and more blood and thunder?

04:36I understand everything.

04:39Carey Neville is critical about everything, so I understand that part.

04:43We are in the moment that we are doing the worst season in history.

04:50Manchester City won everything in the past.

04:54This season is struggling.

04:56We are not in the best moments to give the best spectacle to every fan.

05:03We are not fighting for the big things.

05:06Of course, it's different.

05:09But you have to look at the context of the game.

05:12I understand the critical aspect of the players that played in this game in a different way.

05:18Because they were fighting every time for the titles.

05:22It's a different context.

05:24Last question.

05:27I know that you said before that you don't want to be a team that plays on transitions.

05:31What do you feel is the most comfortable playing in that way right now?

05:35Pep has said that the last nine years he was here that United have always been a transitional team.

05:40They've always played the best way.

05:42Does that show how tough it is going to be for you to turn around?

05:45Do you not just talk turning around, but an idea from one or two seasons?

05:48You're talking about a decade of playing like that.

05:50Are you not going to turn it around and play more in comfort?

05:53I can say that we want to be competitive in the short space of time.

05:59But to do that, to be really dominant against any opponent, is going to take a lot of time.

06:06That I can say.

06:08So we have to use different weapons of playing a different style when we face different opponents.

06:19In that way of playing, City is maybe the best team in the world.

06:24And they are doing, like you said, for a while.

06:27But the important thing is that if you compare this game against Arsenal,

06:32we had some moments that we did the same a little bit to City.

06:36And against Arsenal, we didn't do.

06:39It was clearly transitions.

06:41Today was a little bit different.

06:44So we are improving.

06:46But to play in this way that they play for many years, is going to take a long time.

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