‘I need to calm down’ – Ruben Amorim explains his ‘worst-ever team’ Man United comments
Today at 12:02 PM
Known as a master of communication during his early career, Ruben Amorim admits he has gone too far this time.
The new Manchester United head coach was roundly panned after saying his team were the worst in club history, and he's now had to backtrack.
Amorim has lost seven out of 15 games since arriving at Old Trafford from Sporting and the latest came in humiliating fashion with a dire performance in a 3-1 defeat to Brighton.
Post-match he said: "We are being maybe the worst team in the history of Manchester United," and those comments went down terribly.
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher called it 'one of the most bizarre and ridiculous things I’ve ever heard a manager say', and in the days since it's dominated the news cycle.
Now, responding ahead of hosting Rangers in the Europa League, Amorim explained: "I know what I said, I know that it's hard for people to listen to what I said.
"I've tried to explain that I was talking more about me because we've played ten games with me as a coach in the Premier League and lost seven, and this is really hard.
"If you tried to look at the history of Manchester United for a team that had that number of losses in that number of games, especially at home, so I was talking not about my players, more about me.
"That statement followed a question about how the feeling was of the Manchester United fans.
"I was trying to show that we know what we are doing wrong and that is really hard for the fans and we are trying to fix it."
The interviewer then alluded to a story about a TV that got broken in the dressing room afterwards, asking if he was angry behind the scenes.
Amorim did little to dismiss the story, and admitted that he needs to change his approach.
"Everything I said there I said in the dressing room, maybe that was the problem," he began.
"I need to calm down, always I do but in that I was really hard, maybe because of frustration and sometimes it's really hard for me to hide this frustration
"But that's it, I will try not to focus a lot on that. I’m happy I said those things in a different way in the dressing room so it was not that I spoke publicly and not to the players, I did it before with the players and let’s move on."
He was finally asked if he regrets what he said, and made an admission.
"The way [I said it], clearly, I have a responsibility and I need to think sometimes about the way I say things," Amorim added. "I do it all the time but in that time it was really hard for me.
"I think I have good things in the way I deal with everything, but sometimes I make some mistakes, it's really hard for me to hide the frustration in some moments and it's really hard to lose and sometimes you cannot control yourself."
