Ruben Amorim conducted his final press conference of the season this afternoon for some weird reason (probably to still get over that awful performance on Wednesday) ahead of United's unimportant (for us) clash against Aston Villa. Unai Emery's side are chasing Champions League football and need a victory to help strengthen their chances. They will probably get that because we're shite but Amorim wants his side to focus on Sunday's end of season game.
Not sure whether they can focus on anything to be honest.
The United manager says that he regularly talks to his players when asked about Bruno Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho who's future are highly uncertain. Amorim reiterated that there is a plan even without Champions League.
A good question was asked if whether the Portuguese regrets joining United mid-way through the season.
He replied that he's "really glad" he came in six months ago as it meant that "we avoided a lot of mistakes that would have happened next season."
"We have avoided a lot of suffering"
Amorim still feels the pain of defeat against Spurs in the Europa League final but believes his side "were the better team" and that "they try everything in the second half."
The MUFC boss wants focus to be on Sunday's final match against Aston Villa as a way to pick themselves up after a "tough season." While he's always said that winning the Europa League won't make a massive difference to the campaign overall, Amorim does believe that it would've been a great help to "finish the season in a different way."
"We will start with new ambitions and try to do better."
The 40 year old looks at Aston villa as a club who has stability and is something that United could look at as an example. However, considering the tough predicament he and United find themselves in, "you feel it will take time" before things start to change although he admittedly doesn't know how long it will take before improvement comes.
Despite the harsh end to the season, Ruben Amorim remains defiant on the fact that they know how they want to play and that the mistakes have made things clearer for him to see what needs to be done.
"Now is the exciting moment that we can change something."
He also knows what changes need to be made in the summer but wants focus on this final game.
Amorim believes that no European football "means you can manage the squad in a different way." He is also unsure of how many windows it will take for change to be seen but again says that things will take time to reach the level they want.
Final Thoughts
Nobody knows what's happening with anyone's future. Bruno and Garnacho are more out than in when looking at the news and does anyone even care anymore? With the way they all played on Wednesday, I don't think many fans would be too upset if all players were sold.
We need to move whoever on, valuable or not, in order to make the money necessary to stay afloat.
Wait, we've avoided a lot of suffering this season?! Amorim has been right with so many things since he came six months ago and if he's right again, imagine what could've happened if he did join now.
It reminds me of what he said earlier in that if he changed his style now to get results, in a year's time, we'll be having the same problems so we may as well sort it out now. Perhaps that's the same with taking the job when he did?
Surely though, a part of him does think that I should've stayed at Sporting? He has spoken a lot about storms but this is a category 5 hurricane. I don't think he thought it would be this bad, the same as us all.
Nobody deserved to win that final. It should've been Bodo/Glimt v Bilbao because they would've actually tried. Spurs had a basic game plan, played as a team, and scored a goal which we didn't.
That final won't go down in the history books as one of the best but perhaps one of the most significant in our recent history.
United didn't deserve to win. We were not the better team in both halfs. We created nothing and never put Spurs under any pressure. He as a coach was outclassed by simple Big Sam ball from Ange and Spurs didn't even do that properly.
The lack of effort from the team as well as Amorim's poor selection, tactics and substitutions were the most disappointing things for us fans to witness. If you're going to lose, at least leave it all on the pitch.
We didn't even show up.
That is unacceptable and an indication of where we are as a club.
Honestly, I feel like literally any club that is run relatively well is an example. We are so unstable at United that even the relegated teams are an example of what we can do to improve.
Villa's January transfer business which includes Rashford, was seen as a masterstroke in terms of bringing in quality and experienced players to help them have all the chances of getting to where they want to be.
They are fighting for Champions League whereas we aren't even in the top half. Hell, we're just above relegation, 27 points behind Villa! We neglected January and look where we've ended up.
We suck.
The only way we will see change is if the owners leave or start to give a shit. Them not caring is a true reflection of what we see whenever those players show no effort. It's honestly perfect when you think about it.
As long as they remain, I don't think anyone is filled with any confidence that they will do what is necessary to improve. Why would we? Look at us for the last 12 years and it was probably the same since the Glazers took over in 2005 but thanks to the genius of Sir Alex Ferguson, we were a brilliant side in spite of the owners.
If they don't back Amorim, then all he's saying here is for naught. The same can be said of all of the sackings. It really is all on the club now because I don't know what more the manager can do. Even Sir Jim Ratcliffe said in one of his interviews that Amorim has done the best he can with what he has.
Even he knows these players are shite. Make the changes Jim. You wanted to join the Glazers knowing what they're like as owners of United. It's all on you now.
Ruben Amorim's final press conference of his first season at Man Utd was one of a man dejected | Ruben Amorim: Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)