Ruben Amorim hinted at frustration behind the scenes as the Manchester United head coach refused to clarify his recent comments about the club’s transfer plans.<\/p>\n
The 20-time league champions are in the midst of a rebuild as they seek to go from last season\u2019s embarrassing 15th-place finish to marking their 150th anniversary with Premier League glory in 2028.<\/p>\n
United spent big in the summer bringing in Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Sesko and Senne Lammens and had looked at a January swoop for Bournemouth star Antoine Semenyo.<\/p>\n
But the winger\u2019s decision to join Manchester City has altered plans, with Amorim saying on Friday there had been no transfer conversations just a fortnight on from revealing activity was possible.<\/p>\n
Some potentially illuminating Christmas Eve comments came in between those statements when the United head coach said: “I have the feeling that if we have to play a perfect 3-4-3, we need to spend a lot of money and we need time.<\/p>\n
“So, I\u2019m starting to understand that that is not going to happen. So, maybe I have to adapt.”<\/p>\n
Amorim moved away from his favoured back three to a four-man backline in the next game as United edged out Newcastle 1-0 on Boxing Day.<\/p>\n
A return to a 3-4-3 followed for Tuesday\u2019s disappointing 1-1 draw against rock-bottom Wolves, which raised further questions about the squad ahead of Sunday\u2019s crunch clash at rivals Leeds and saw him pulled up on his Christmas Eve observations.<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t want to talk about that,” the United boss said when asked to clarify what he had meant. “I just focus on the Leeds game.”<\/p>\n
Put to Amorim that he is normally more open and perhaps regrets those remarks, he said: “No, no, no. But I (don\u2019t) want to talk about that.”<\/p>\n
Asked whether something had changed \u2013 be it budget or being told something by director of football Jason Wilcox or others \u2013 to come to that conclusion a year in, the United boss replied: “I don\u2019t want to talk about that, but you are very smart, so\u2026”<\/p>\n
It was an unusual exchange with the normally avuncular Amorim, who is better known for eye-catching quotes than keeping quiet in press conferences.<\/p>\n
The United coach\u2019s mood seemed lower than usual as he previewed Sunday\u2019s match at Elland Road, where he could be without eight players due to injuries and international duty.<\/p>\n
Kobbie Mainoo is among those who have been out as he deals with a calf complaint, extending his wait for a first Premier League start of the season with main rival Bruno Fernandes also absent.<\/p>\n
The homegrown midfielder has been linked with a January move along with Joshua Zirkzee, but Amorim says nobody has knocked on his door requesting an exit.<\/p>\n
Asked if he would expect a replacement if a player left, the United boss said: “We already spoke about that.<\/p>\n
“If you look at our squad, I think it\u2019s impossible for someone to leave. But they need to talk with Jason.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ruben Amorim hinted at frustration behind the scenes as the Manchester United head coach refused to clarify his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-226787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}