Ruben Amorim saw Manchester United keep their FA Cup hopes alive but the new manager is not viewing cup success as the saviour of their season given their struggles
Ruben Amorim insists winning the FA Cup wouldn’t make up for Manchester United’s shortcomings this year.
The Portuguese coach saw his team avoid an upset on Friday night as they came from behind to see off Leicester City. The Foxes led at half-time but Harry Maguire headed home the team’s winner in stoppage time, despite being in an offside position.
Joshua Zirkzee had come up with United’s equaliser as they continue to eye a second successive FA Cup success. Rarely over the last two decades have teams defended the FA Cup but Amorim insists a cup triumph come May wouldn’t paper over their failings this year.
Amorim has overseen some poor Premier League results since arriving in late November. He’s already lost seven times in the league and is not banking on an FA Cup to make the season appear more impressive than it is.
He told ITV: “I don’t see thing like that. I cannot focus just on saving the season with a cup, its not the way I see football, not the way I see Manchester United.
“Everything is results and performance. I’m not thinking about the end of the season, or the final at the end of the season, I don’t care about that. At the moment it is not good enough, we move forward to the next stage, but today was not good enough.”
Last term United produced their worst Premier League season to date, finishing eighth, although there are on course to surpass that this term. Erik ten Hag managed to mastermind a shock victory over Manchester City in the FA Cup final and saw that as a major advertisement of his credentials as a manager.
Off the back of that he was handed a new deal and appeared to challenge the United hierarchy to sack him after his Wembley success, claiming: “If they don’t want me, then I go somewhere else to win trophies because that is what I do.”
He lasted just a matter of months before he was axed as the Old Trafford board copped criticism for not seeing the bigger picture despite their FA Cup success.
Amorim is yet to get a tune out of his side since replacing Ten Hag and said after their Friday night win: “We managed to turn things around so it was a good result not a good performance. The coach is the first responsible, when one team doesn’t perform, doesn’t improve, it is the coach but we are here to do things and to see the game, to study the game and try to improve for the next game.”
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