Ruben Amorim’s unexpected change rewarded as Man Utd manager explains move

Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United will need to complete the job at Old Trafford next week after failing to hold onto their lead against Real Sociedad in the Europa League

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim explained the thinking behind the tactical tweak which helped his team take the lead against Real Sociedad on Thursday night.

Alejandro Garnacho has mostle been used from the left under Amorim, just as he was under previous boss Erik ten Hag. In San Sebastian, though, he regularly swapped sides with fellow number 10 Joshua Zirkzee.

The switch paid off for United, with Garnacho finding space down the right and rolling the ball across for Zirkzee to fire low beyond La Real goalkeeper Alex Remiro. It wasn’t quite enough for victory, though, with Mikel Oyarzabal equalising from the penalty spot.

Amorim wasn’t delighted with the result, given how quiet the hosts were before his leveller. However, he went into further detail about his team’s preparations for the game and how they bore fruit.

“We look at the opponents, the way they try to press, where is the space, which player is going to follow the run, and we try to imagine the right characteristics for that game,” Amorim told TNT Sports. “So we try to change different things, to try to expose the opponent to different things.”

He suggested some better decision-making in the final third might have produced a different outcome, with Diogo Dalot failing to feed Rasmus Hojlund during one promising break. “He has the advantage and rasmus did the sprint to win the position, but that can happen,” he said. “They cannot focus on that, they have to move on to the next play and we move on to the next game.”

United travelled with a depleted squad, with Amorim only naming five outfield substitutes. Manuel Ugarte and Harry Maguire added their names to the injury list in the lead-up to the encounter, and Amorim recognised his side wasn’t as strong in the final 30 minutes as in the first 60.

Was a draw a fair result? Have your say in the comments section

“I felt until the penalty, we had the control of the game, and then i think the penalty changed a little bit the momentum,” Amorim said. “I felt our team in the last 30 minutes were really, really tired, and you can feel it in the game.

“So we take this stage to Old Trafford – it’s going to be a different game, the pressure is going to be on us in that stadium and we have to be ready. I think the key will be surviving physically to Sunday [when United face Arsenal in the Premier League] and to be ready and fresh to Thursday

When asked what changed during the final half-hour, he continued: “The momentum changed, but I think it was clearly fatigue. We were late on the balls, even in transitions you feel that the pace was different, and they [Real Sociedad] were a bit stronger in that 30 minutes.”

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