Frustrated Amorim: 'I came here to be manager of Man Utd, not coach'
LOUD AND CLEAR: Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim during the Premier League match at Elland Road.
The warmest place to be at Elland Road on Sunday was in the media room post-match. The heat of frustration coming from Ruben Amorim could have melted frost.
Manchester United’s head coach wants to be the manager. He is not happy about the club’s transfer strategy, and the tensions behind the scenes are becoming ever more visible. What that means for Amorim’s future at Old Trafford might be clearer soon.
His mix-and-match team had just come from behind to earn a point at Leeds. He had started the game with eight defensively minded outfield players, utilising Patrick Dorgu, a left-wing back, as a right-sided support forward. The draw had been salvaged by a smartly taken equaliser from Matheus Cunha, set up by a perfectly weighted through pass from substitute Joshua Zirkzee.
Amorim flat-batted questions afterwards about the likelihood of Zirkzee’s expected move to Roma, initially on loan, going through shortly. But asked for his general thoughts on United’s transfer strategy, the head coach was far more forthcoming.
He does not feel he has the squad to play in his preferred 3-4-3 set-up – something most United observers could have told him before he walked through the door at Old Trafford 14 months ago. He thinks it can be sorted out with money. But he has indicated that he does not expect that money to be spent. And as United’s first head coach – rather than manager, the title held by each of his predecessors – he does not have the clout to demand that level of spending.
Which was why, in the media room underneath the John Charles Stand at Elland Road, he began to discuss his job title.
“I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not to be the coach of Manchester United. That is clear,” he said.
“I know that my name is not Tuchel, is not Conte, is not Mourinho, but I’m the manager of Manchester United. It’s going to be like this for 18 months or when the board decide to change.
“I’m not going to quit. I will do my job until another guy is coming here to replace me.
“Every department, the scouting department, the sport director, needs to do their job. I will do mine for 18 months and then we move on.”
As a dig at chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox, it could hardly have been clearer. Amorim’s contract, as he indicated, runs out in the summer of 2027, but whether he will be allowed to see it through in the wake of such public criticism of those above him must be open to question.
In the short term, it might help United to get some of their key players back. Amorim has indicated that captain Bruno Fernandes and fellow midfielder Mason Mount might be fit to return for Wednesday’s Premier League visit to Burnley. The head coach’s mood – and his attacking options – will be helped significantly too once he gets Cameroon’s Bryan Mbeumo and Ivory Coast’s Amad Diallo back from the Africa Cup of Nations.
Fernandes, Mbeumo and Amad were all missed at Elland Road, in a strange United display, in which every positive was counter-balanced with a negative. Amorim’s team had the better of the first half, but were also the closest to conceding, as Dominic Calvert-Lewin glanced an Anton Stach cross against the post.
The youthful Leny Yoro and Ayden Heaven were generally solid in a back three. Yoro was only denied a first-half goal by a brilliant Lucas Perri save, but it was an error by Heaven that allowed Leeds the lead just after the hour mark. The 19-year-old was slow to see Brenden Aaronson haring on to Pascal Struijk’s hopeful through ball, and the American nipped in to steer home the opener.
Amorim’s side were behind for only two minutes and 54 seconds, as Zirkzee set up Cunha to roll in only his fourth United goal since his £62.5million move from Wolves in June, and they probably should have won the game from there – the Brazilian hit the post inside the final 10 minutes. But Benjamin Sesko, signed at even greater expense that Cunha, has not yet adjusted to Premier League life. Two second-half misses from close range – the first compounded by the fact that he had strayed offside – suggest a player unlikely to solve United’s attacking issues any time soon.
Yet the visitors deserve credit for durability in a hostile atmosphere against hosts pulling away from relegation danger, and who are now unbeaten in seven matches, a run in which they have beaten Chelsea and drawn with Liverpool twice.
Leeds had their own chances, besides the in-form Calvert-Lewin’s first-half near miss: Wing-back Gabriel Gudmundsson tested Senne Lammens at his near post, the goalkeeper saved athletically from Noah Okafor’s overhead kick, and substitute Joel Piroe steered just over late on.
Daniel Farke, the Leeds manager, could be proud of such an energetic performance from a team who had earned an impressive 0-0 draw at Liverpool two and a half days earlier.
“It’s a good point at the end,” Farke said. “Yes, I am not over the moon with this result but I am over the moon with the mentality of my lads.”
): Perri 7; Bornauw 7 (Gnonto 80, 6), Bijol 7, Struijk 7; Justin 7, Stach 8, Gruev 7 (Tanaka 80, 6), Aaronson 8 (Piroe 87, 7), Gudmundsson 7; Calvert-Lewin 7, Okafor 7 (Nmecha 75, 6). Booked: None
: Lammens 6; Yoro 7 (Zirkzee 63, 7), Heaven 7, Martinez 7; Dalot 7, Ugarte 7, Casemiro 7, Shaw 7; Dorgu 6, Cunha 8; Sesko 5. Booked: Dorgu
: Jarred Gillett
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
