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Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has said that he approached games last season with anxiety about his team’s prospects.
In a conversation with reporters accompanying United on their pre-season tour in the United States, Amorim shared for the first time just how deeply troubled he felt overseeing the club’s most disappointing season since the relegation in 1973-74.
United wrapped up the last season in 15th place in the Premier League, marking their lowest finish since the 1989-90 season.
“To tell you the truth, it’s not how I returned to my house after the games, it was how I left to go to the games, because I felt that sometimes we will struggle,” he said.
Amorim, who took over from Erik ten Hag in November 2024, managed only seven victories out of 27 league matches and experienced a crushing Europa League final loss against Tottenham in Bilbao.
When asked about his feelings upon returning to his wife and young family after a series of defeats, during which his team lost four consecutive games and later achieved just three wins in 11 matches, Amorim expressed that the pre-match period was the most stressful.
Throughout the difficult period of last season, Amorim was frequently criticised for his unwillingness to modify his tactical strategy.
“Sometimes, when you are losing, you might think let’s change the standards a little bit for them [the players] to be with me,” he said.
He has established a leadership group of six players—Bruno Fernandes, Harry Maguire, Tom Heaton, Diogo Dalot, Lisandro Martinez, and Noussair Mazraoui to maintain standards in the dressing room and address various “small issues.”
He confessed that there were moments last season when he doubted whether he made the right choice leaving his previous club, Sporting, where he was celebrated as a hero, mid-season.
The team is set to resume training at Carrington on Wednesday. The group of players deemed surplus—Alejandro Garnacho, Jadon Sancho, Antony, and Tyrrell Malacia will continue to train separately from the rest of the squad.
