Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has admitted he feared introducing a new striker in search of a goal in Saturday’s game against Nottingham Forest would have actually harmed the team.
After a run of three straight victories and an opening goal from Casemiro, United were pegged back by two Forest goals in the space of three second-half minutes, leaving them chasing a goal which eventually came courtesy of an Amad Diallo volley with 10 minutes remaining.
Before Amad’s heroics, however, Amorim found himself facing the frustrations of a number of fans over the nature of his substitutions. With United needing a goal, he opted to introduce full backs Patrick Dorgu and Noussair Mazraoui, leaving the likes of Mason Mount and Joshua Zirkzee on the bench as he replaced the defensive duo of Diogo Dalot and Leny Yoro.
“Sometimes, if you put more strikers on, I don’t feel we are going to play better,” Amorim explained. “If you see Diogo Dalot, many times with space to make a cross but he has the right foot and is always coming inside, without space...
“With Patrick, we are going to do the same thing but, when you have the ball, got to the side and cross from the spaces there. Because, if you want to come inside, Matheus Cunha is always there to receive the ball.
“If you see the start of the second half, Leny is always the one with the space to run with the ball. Nous is a full back so I try to use the characteristics of the player. It’s not the quality because we have the quality on the bench.
“Also, if I stop the game all the time, I have the feeling I am going to break something. We were going to improve in the second half so the feeling was not to change anything.
“I know Amad can do much better, he is really dangerous one-on-one so, sometimes, we expect it just from that one guy. He was not doing a great game for us but managed to score. He has the potential to do so much better and we lost two points today.
“If [Kobbie] Mainoo and Mason Mount was there, also Josh [Zirkzee] and then you have to imagine the game. Josh is better like a little bit like Cunha, playing between the lines. If you see the game, we need a guy who needs to be inside the box. Ben [Šeško] is the best one to do that.
“Sometimes, it’s the characteristics of the game and they know that it’s just the moment. We try to do our best, it’s nothing to do with the quality on the bench. We have a lot of games where that happens.”
Amad: Total Confidence in Amorim
Amad’s spectacular volley ultimately salvaged a 2–2 draw for United, but the young winger was in no mood to celebrate after the final whistle as he instead voiced his frustrations towards the end of the team’s winning streak.
“I don’t know if it is Goal of the Season,” he said. “We are really disappointed to go home with one point.
“It’s always difficult to play Nottingham Forest. We wanted to win this game coming from three in a row. We are a bit disappointed because we go home with one point. But we will learn from this.
“I think we have confidence now. We believe in the manager and we believe in the system. We are training to do the best. Everyone is now focused. We had three wins in the row and we wanted to make it four and were unlucky.
“We are doing things step by step and we believe in the manager like he believes in us. Every game for us is like a final. We wanted to bring this team to the top level. We wanted to win this game and we are disappointed as a team.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ruben Amorim Defends Controversial Substitutions After Man Utd’s Winning Streak Ends.