The head coach of Manchester United, Ruben Amorim, brutally admitted that his current squad is “not ready” to be competitive in the Champions League and the Premier League.
Amorim’s characteristic openness came shortly after the last whistle of the 16th Premier League defeat of the United season. Never before had the record champion of the competition in a single campaign lost more than 14 games, with the 4: 3 backward gear on Sunday after Brentford extended this unwanted record.
The last time United recorded more than 16 defeats in the league was in 1973/74 when they stormed from the first division after 20 top light defeats.
Despite these series of unwanted sights, United could still end the campaign with a European trophy and a place in the Champions League of the next season. After a 3-0 victory in the first leg against Athletic Club in the semi-finals of the Europa League, Amorim’s team is a difficult favorite to reach the showpiece game, in which they will probably compete against the colleagues of the Premier League fighter Tottenham Hotspur.
The painfully pessimistic head coach described the prospect of securing this “short cut” into the continental elite as a “real dilemma”. “We are not ready to play in the Premier League, to be competitive and be in the Champions League” Sky Sport This weekend.
In 2025, United was only beaten in the league in front of the relegation zone (Fulham in January). 😬 pic.twitter.com/bdgwhf1ayk
– 90 minutes (@90min_football) May 4, 2025
“We know that, but we have to win and have to fight to win this competition, to give our fans something and go to the Champions League.
“Then we have time to prepare the team to deal with these two competitions. So it’s a dilemma, but of course we want to win.”
Amorim clearly prioritizes the European course of United. The 40-year-old boss appointed the youngest Premier League Start XI in club history against Brentford when he spotted his senior players outrageous for the decisive second leg on Thursday.
While the youngsters ultimately dismissed the second best against a Brentford street side, Amorim was full of praise for her efforts.
“I think they did it really well,” he insisted. “She [have] not [been] So much to play, but then you have to play 90 minutes because we have to change some other players to save them for Thursday. “
The 17-year-old striker Chido Obi was the junior of this embryonic bunch and was the youngest player who has ever started a Premier League game for Manchester United.
Amorim noticed that “Chido fought for the entire game” before pointing to some of the mistakes of the teenager: “But you can feel that he is sometimes as naive as he puts his body. He will understand what has the feeling of playing in these games. This is the best way.”
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