Amorim warns Manchester United ‘rollercoaster’ will continue after win
Ruben Amorim believes Manchester United’s season will continue to be a rollercoaster and defended Rasmus Højlund’s failure to score for eight games.
United trailed 1-0 until the 82nd minute against Southampton on Thursday at Old Trafford, before Amad Diallo’s 12-minute hat-trick secured a first league win in a month and avoided a fourth consecutive home defeat in the competition. United moved up 12th but the head coach admits their campaign will continue to contain ups and downs.
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“It’s going to be hard until the end of the season,” Amorim said. “A little bit of a rollercoaster. It will depend [too] on the time you have to train. We are still in the [FA] Cup and we have [two] games left in the Europa League [group stage].”
United host Rangers next week, then travel to Steaua Bucharest the following Thursday. Amorim’s side are seventh on 12 points, one point and place ahead of Rangers, who are in the final automatic qualification berth. The 39-year-old pointed to the need to finish in the top eight to avoid a playoff.
“In that way you can take two games from the schedule and have a full week [to train],” he said. “We have had seven training sessions together and 15 games. It’s really hard, but we have to continue and try to win it. Sometimes playing good, sometimes playing bad. We will try to win games.”
Højlund has scored five times under Amorim but not since a double against Viktoria Plzen on 12 December. “It’s a team problem,” Amorim said. “You can see it – not just from now, it’s from the past. We have clearly a lack of goals and a lack of threat. When you threaten the opponents, the opponents maybe don’t press you so high. So everything is connected. All the players have moments in this season. When we started this journey together, Rasmus was the player that was always scoring. So he can come back in the next game – we will see.”
Amorim brought on Antony at half-time against Southampton but said the Brazilian, who cost £80m in summer 2022, could depart in this window. He said: “I want to keep my players – I’m focused on these players – [but] I don’t know what is going to happen this window. We’ll see.”
Alejandro Garnacho, who made a first league start since 7 November, is a target for Napoli. Marcus Rashford was again left out of the match-day squad and may also leave this month.