Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim refused to blame his players, instead taking responsibility after his team conceded their third consecutive set piece goal against Nottingham Forest, after giving two away against Arsenal.
All three of the goals came from corners and the first goal scored by Nottingham showcased the inertia of Manchester United players in their own box. Nikola Milenkovic’s second-minute goal happened after Lisandro Martinez and Mattias de Ligt didn’t head the ball away, while goalkeeper Onana remained stationary in goal as the ball came in.
“When this happens it is more my fault because I am responsible.
“We try to do it in the best way – we do a lot of work in this area and we saw it in Arsenal [too]. It is really hard in this context [to come back], we suffer in the first play, it is really hard to put energy back into the game, but we did it [by equalising]. It is really hard to transmit something, for them to continue to do their job. We managed to score one goal.”
Amorim once again asked for the score to be ignored and for the performances to be evaluated. The Portuguese manager has had an average start at United, winning two, losing two and drawing a game.
“I had this period at Sporting and if you are a little experienced in football this happens with a lot of clubs and we have to manage to continue to do the same things and improve the team because this will turn around. We need time and to continue to work in the same way every day.
“We already knew [it would be tough]. It will be a long journey but we want to win because this is a massive club. You feel it, when you lose one game it’s really hard for everybody. I can understand that. I can feel it in the stadium after the first goal. We understand the context but we have to keep doing the same things. The same words I have with Everton [after winning 4-0], I have today: focus on the performance. We need to improve in a lot of aspects of the game and continue to do the same things tomorrow in training.”
