Ruben Amorim contradicted himself in an interview following Manchester United’s draw against Fulham on Sunday afternoon.
Manchester United were held to a 1-1 draw by Fulham in a closely fought Premier League clash at Craven Cottage.
The visitors enjoyed the better of the early exchanges, with Matheus Cunha nearly finding the opener, while Fulham’s main opportunities came from set-piece situations.
Bruno Fernandes had the chance to put United in front from the penalty spot late in the first half but was unable to convert. Shortly after the interval, Leny Yoro broke the deadlock when he turned in from a corner.
Fulham responded well, gradually taking control and eventually equalising. The hosts continued to press and may feel they should have taken all three points.
Amorim makes ‘game-changing’ Fulham comment
It was frustrating to watch United get worse as the match went on at Craven Cottage, and Amorim addressed that after the game.
The United boss felt that the key moment in the game was the first goal which saw his team take the lead early in the second half.
He suggested that the Reds looked to hold onto the result afterwards rather than attempting to control possession and score a second goal.
“I think the moment that changed the game was our goal. We need to do better in that moment, that is the moment to have more possession, to think better the game,” he claimed.
“We want to win so bad that the lads just think about the result, and we need to think about the performance no matter what.”
Amorim contradicted himself with decisions
In isolation, those comments from Amorim are somewhat understandable but with the context of the game and the decisions he made during it, he is simply just contradicting himself.
He decided to swap Amad for Diogo Dalot early in the second half and then brought Manuel Ugarte on for Mason Mount soon afterwards.
Those were two changes which suggested that Amorim was the one encouraging his team to try and hold onto a result. It encouraged United’s poor second half display.
Dalot made a mistake for the Fulham goal and Ugarte failed to contribute to the game at all barring a couple of tackles. Amorim also decided to bring on two defenders afterwards.
Unfortunately for the United boss, that mindset from his players stemmed from the kind of substitutions he made in the game and it simply didn’t work.
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