Ruben Amorim has provided an early hint about Manchester United’s starting XI to face Burnley on Saturday afternoon.
Manchester United began the campaign with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Arsenal, but their performance offered encouragement and highlighted several positives.
Their next outing at Fulham ended in a 1-1 draw, yet despite picking up a point, the display was unconvincing and sparked new concerns.
Matters then took a turn for the worse in the Carabao Cup, as United suffered a humiliating penalty shootout exit at the hands of League Two side Grimsby Town. Having trailed 2-0, they were fortunate to even force the contest beyond 90 minutes.
Attention now shifts to Old Trafford, where Ruben Amorim’s men face Burnley in a must-win fixture as they look to secure their first victory of the season.
Amorim provides early United XI hint vs Burnley
United have to bounce back in this Old Trafford clash and it is clear that Amorim will make some changes in his team.
The Portuguese head coach has hinted that he has had to make ‘hard choices’ in terms of the team selection, which suggests there may be some surprises.
He also reiterated the importance the players on the bench will have in this game.
“[The squad is looking] really well. I had some choices to make, it was hard,” the United boss told club media when asked about the team.
“I tried to choose the best starting eleven, knowing that sometimes it is not the starting eleven that is going to finish or going to close the game, everyone is really important.”
The full United team news will be available from 13:45 BST this afternoon ahead of United’s first 15:00 BST Saturday afternoon kick-off of the season.
Amorim must improve in-game decisions
Amorim has been speaking about the importance of the substitutes for several weeks now and it is something that many managers do.
But the United boss has to improve his decision-making when it comes to in-game changes, otherwise the actual belief that his substitutes are important will diminish.
Centre-backs coming on in the latter stages of a game that you still need to win just doesn’t make sense in relation to his comments.
United have some talented attacking players who will undoubtably be on the bench against Burnley and they won’t be wanting to see defensive-minded players coming on before them unless the team is comfortably winning.
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