Amorim welcomes the pressure to perform as United look to bounce back

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Will Amorim's Man United struggle to break down Southampton?

Mark Donaldson and Janusz Michallik look ahead to Manchester United vs. Southampton on Thursday night in the Premier League.

Updated: Jan 15, 2025, 02:58 pm

Jan 15 (Reuters) - The pressure to deliver can be the key to turning Manchester United's season around, coach Ruben Amorim said on Wednesday as his team looks to end a four-match winless run in the Premier League when they face bottom side Southampton.

Two months into Amorim's tenure, United sit 14th in the league, and despite flashes of brilliance in a 2-1 win at Manchester City, a 2-2 draw with Liverpool and Sunday's FA Cup penalty shootout win over Arsenal with 10 men, a lack of consistency has the coach worried.

"Yeah, I'm always concerned because we didn't have, during these games, the consistency in performances, in results. So always worried," Amorim told reporters on Wednesday.

"This next game will teach me more about my players than the last two... fans will expect more tomorrow. We have to deliver."

Amorim said he welcomed the pressure to perform.

"In the last years we haven't won the league. In the past here, if you didn't win the league one year you would have to win it the next. I don't feel that pressure," the Portuguese added.

"When you have the pressure to win that is the pressure we want. Sometimes it's hard. Against Arsenal and Liverpool, nobody was expecting us to beat those teams but now we have to be prepared for that pressure, we need that pressure as a team and face the game the right way."

However, the 39-year-old admitted it was going to take time to get the team to play the way he wants them to.

"We don't spend a lot of time during games in the last third with the ball," he said.

"I understand in this moment it is ok to play like that against Liverpool and Arsenal... but in the future you cannot play like that, and I know that. But we need time to build a different way of playing. In the future we are going to focus a lot on that."

Amorim, however, refused to answer any question about the future of forward Marcus Rashford, who has not played since Dec. 12 amid rumours of an exit.

"I just want to win tomorrow. My focus is to win tomorrow, I will choose the players that I think are best to win the game tomorrow. I am just focused on that," the coach said. (Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)