Ruben Amorim described ManchesterUnited’s 3-0 win at San Mamésas the best result secured during his time in charge of the club but warned his players that their passage into the final of the Europa League is still not secure.
The Portuguese coach said that proof of that was provided by the opening spell in which they had been under pressure and urged his players to focus on that. Asked if that was United’s best performance since taking charge in November, the United head coach said: “No, I think it is the best result because nobody expected this result.”
Amorim also admitted that it was “hard to explain” the difference in performance level between the Premier League, where United are 14th, and Europe, where the final is within touching distance. He told Harry Maguire and the rest of his teammates to remember that things can always change, after the centre-back emerged as an unexpected hero with the winning goal in the quarter-final and an extraordinary and unlikely dribble and pass which led to the opening goal.
“The players have to think about the second leg, and more about the first 20 minutes than the rest of the game,” Amorim said. “The game is going to be really tough. There is no away goals so anything can change: that is my message to the players.”
Amorim added: “You saw two games: the first 25 minutes, before the goal and then after the sending-off the game changed. The most important thing is that after that the opponent didn’t get many shots. In the first 30 minutes they had some chances to score and didn’t.”
After the game Bruno Fernandes joked “what a winger, I didn’t know he had it in him” after Maguire’s dribble had set up the move that led to the penalty, and the coach saw that as motivation for all his struggling players.
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“It is a good lesson for all the players that sometimes you have some moments that you think I will never recover from this or that,” Amorim said. “It is not just Harry; the history of this game can tell you that. It looks like you are struggling a lot and then everything change. We have to understand some players have moments in their life that everything can change.”
“I think this was the best game that [Rasmus Højlund] had with me as a coach. He helped the team a lot, he secured the ball and then he made the runs. It is a good moment for him but like Harry he needs to understand everything can change.”