Some interesting team news (most of it negative tbh 😬) as well as what the United boss expects when Bournemouth come to Old Trafford.
Not the best update in terms of availability for United as Amorim says that De Ligt and Maguire are still injured while Sesko has food poisoning. He will be assessed before Monday night.
On the trio of Mazraoui, Amad and Mbeumo, the MUFC boss is still in doubt whether he will have them available for this match or not given that they have to meet up with their countries soon ahead of that tournament in Morocco. Amorim will find out in the next 48 hours.
Amorim spoke highly about the no 7 saying that Mount is a "very, very smart player. He can balance our team quite well."
On Bournemouth, the Portuguese said that the Cherries play "like a big team" and that what Andoni Iraola is doing for his side is that he is improving some of their players. Amorim believes that Bournemouth have "several players that can play at a high level."
He believes the Cherries are a very direct team but with multiple players in the attack, it gives them different options to work with. Despite what he feels will be a tough test, the United manager is desperate for a victory saying that "we need to win."
Final Thoughts
It will be a HUGE loss to not have that African trio. They've been so good for us with Amad and Mbeumo in particular striking up such a strong partnership. Mbeumo is also our top scorer with 7.
We do have others who can come in but no doubt they will be big misses.
It does however, give Amorim the opportunity to use the wider squad and also try something different. This will also give us the chance to see whether United can play without them considering how important they've been to us this season.
Mount has become like 'the man' in recent weeks given his good performances and goal at Wolves.
I agree with the manager in that Mount provides that balance and is really smart. I think beyond that, the no 7 has played this system before under Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea making him one of just a few players to have done so in this United side giving him more of an advantage in terms of that understanding of the 3-4-3.
I think Amorim values that.
I don't really understand why people are surprised at how good he is because Mount was always a good player. He won Chelsea's player of the season for two years in a row before moving to Old Trafford. I feel like people almost forget that because he has been so injury prone, he hardly plays.
And therein lies the issue with him. If Mount is regularly available, I think Amorim would start him most games. I would go so far as to say that if he knew Mount wasn't going to get injured, he wouldn't have signed one of Cunha or Mbeumo 👀.
Spoke more about Mount here.
The win percentage with him is also around the 70% mark compared to without. Yes you have to take into account who he's played against and how many minutes he's actually played, but one cannot deny that these are impressive numbers all the same.
Interesting he should say that Bournemouth have players who can play at the top level as we are linked to Antoine Semenyo and Tyler Adams.
One can see the talent they possess and it wouldn't be surprising if they were to move to a bigger club in time. Whether that is United or not, we'll have to wait and see.
When Amorim mentioned that Iraola has improved some players, I almost feel like asking the question of whether Amorim has improved players at United?
I don't really see much improvement with anything tbh. No player has gotten better in his year at the club, the style of football is atrocious and nor has he promoted any academy player.
Amorim not so long ago said that he watches and learns from other managers. Well, this is one of those times where he should be picking up something from the Bournemouth boss.
Ruben Amorim | Creator: Ash Donelon | Credit: Manchester United via Getty Images - SuperSport