Ruben Amorim admits Liverpool are better than Manchester United but maintains the belief his team can “win every game”.
United make the daunting trip to Anfield on Sunday having lost their last three Premier League games, slipping to 14th in the table. They are just seven points above the relegation zone, with Amorim recently admitting the club may be in “one of its lowest moments”.
The last team they want to face now is Liverpool – their age-old rivals, who sit at the top of the table and have won their last three league games, scoring 14 goals.
Add to that some shocking recent defeats against the Merseysiders – including a 7-0 defeat in 2023 – and it’s hard to find reasons for optimism for anyone confident in United.
Asked what made him think United could pull off a big surprise on Sunday, Amorim said: “Because in football anything can happen in a game. When you talk about the season, the best team wins almost every time. They are better than us at the moment, but we can win every game. We need to focus not on context but on performance. We need to improve the simple things.”
Training ground the best place to troubleshoot problems – Amorim
Amorim has struggled to implement his preferred 3-4-3 formation that brought him success at previous club Sporting CP, but is hoping time at the training ground at the weekend will result in a more cohesive performance.
“We had more time to train, two days in a row, I think that can help us. Of course it’s a difficult moment because we’re losing too many games and we’ll be playing against the best team this year. We want to improve the performance compared to the last game (0-2 defeat against Newcastle on Monday evening). We can’t change the past, we want to change what’s coming.
“You can see the lack of possession in the last game in the first half, everyone was so worried, so nervous. The crosses, everything was so important, it’s hard to say anything other than the possession, the way we controlled the tempo and understood how we should play.”
A heavy defeat will increase the pressure on Amorim, even though he has only been in office since November.
However, the Portuguese fears no potential consequences as he looks to lead United to a first win at Anfield in nine years.
“I’m just focused on performance,” he said. “I wasn’t focused on losing or what might happen. We had some defeats, we prepared this game to win and we know what to expect.
“My focus is on preparing the team not to suffer the difficult moment that they experienced in the first 15 minutes against Newcastle. I want to improve that.”
“We know it will be a tough moment, in a really different context for both teams. They’ve had this strong base for years, but this week we’re working to win the game, that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
Maguire remains a Red
Amorim confirmed United would trigger the option to keep Harry Maguire for another 12 months after admitting the team was lacking leaders.
“I think it’s not just our team, but all teams,” he said. “If you want to be a top team you have to have leadership qualities and we have that in the locker room, but they have to step up.”
“We also have a lot of small children and this moment is really hard. We can look at the table but you are still Manchester United.”
