Lisandro Martinez has offered a different take to Ruben Amorim when it comes to Manchester United following his winning goal in the Red Devils’ 1-0 win over Fulham on Sunday
Lisandro Martinez has offered a different perspective to Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim’s recent bleak assessment of the team.
Following their 10th Premier League loss of the season to Brighton earlier this month – a result which left United 13th in the table – Amorim had labelled his squad “the worst team maybe” in the club’s history. He later admitted to “failing” his players, but Martinez’s recent remarks tell a different story.
After netting the decisive goal in United’s 1-0 triumph over Fulham on Sunday, the defender insisted that Amorim had been a source of confidence for the team since his November arrival, noting an improvement in their teamwork. “I feel very confident. The coach gives us that confidence,” Martinez told Telemundo Deportes.
“The connection we have… at the back, they [the players] know that if you are attacking, if you are in front, you know they are covering you. So when you already know and when you go back a little bit and your colleagues are there, covering, you go with more confidence.”
Despite less than stellar results under Amorim, United’s performances have seen a general uptick since Erik ten Hag left. They’ve secured victories over Manchester City and Arsenal (albeit via penalties) and held Liverpool to a draw in the past six weeks, and after consecutive wins against Rangers and Fulham, United are now looking up both domestically and in Europe, rather than down.
Amorim, who reportedly lost his cool and smashed a TV in the dressing room after United’s 3-1 loss to Brighton, will have no doubt found some solace in recent results. After the Brighton game, the Portuguese coach sounded desperate as he spoke of the urgent need to “survive”.
“In 10 Premier League games we’ve won two,” he fumed post-match. “I know that. Imagine what this is for a Manchester United fan and for me. You’re getting a new coach who is losing more than the last coach. I have full knowledge of that. But I’m not going to change [the system], no matter what.
“We need to survive this moment because I’m not naive. We are being the worst team – maybe – in the history of Manchester United. “You want headlines. I am saying that because we have to acknowledge that and to change that, too.”
Days later, Amorim attributed his outburst to “passion”, and admitted to TNT Sports the challenges he faced. “I am feeling that I am failing my players,” he confessed. “That feeling is really hard to deal [with].
“It is more about me than the other people because I have a clear idea that tomorrow nobody is going to remember me, so it’s not about me or what other people think about me – that will pass in two weeks. I am just focused on my feelings and the way I need to do my job.
“I need to feel like I am not disappointing people. It is more about that than the pressure from outside. For me, believe it or not, it is always the same because I don’t read anything. It is more about the pressure that I have inside; I don’t like to lose, and to lose so many times is really hard to cope [with].”
Amorim, along with United’s supporters, can breathe a sigh of relief thanks to the promising results against Rangers and Fulham. Moreover, they’ll be favourites to land a third successive win for the first time this season when they face FCSB in the Europa League on Thursday, where victory would guarantee automatic passage into the knockout rounds.
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