Ruben Amorim: Man Utd head coach admits he questioned his future at the club during his ‘difficult’ first year | Football news

Ruben Amorim has admitted to questioning his future at Manchester United during his first year at the club.

Amorim will mark his first anniversary since agreeing to become the club’s head coach on Saturday as United travel to Nottingham Forest to strengthen their fight for a place in the Premier League’s top four.

The Portuguese coach has endured a difficult 12 months since arriving from Sporting, finishing 15th, losing in the Europa League final and winning just one of the first five games this season – which left him wondering if he would make it through a year in charge.

“It’s hard to say. Sometimes, at certain times,” he said. “There were difficult moments to deal with, losing so many games. It was very difficult for me because it’s Manchester United.

“The position we had last year, putting all the attention on the Europa League and not winning. It was huge. I had times where I struggled a lot and thought maybe it wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Today it’s the opposite. So you can write this one. Today I think and I know it was the best decision of my life. I want to be here but for that I have to win against Nottingham Forest.”

Amorim is enjoying his best period at the club, with United having won five of their last seven league matches, including wins over Chelsea and Liverpool, to qualify for Europe.

However, he is not ready to declare that the difficult times are now behind them.

“It’s difficult to say. We have to think positively, but we also have to be ready for football to be [up and down]. And we’re not that team that I can tell you no, no, no.

“Now we can lose here or there, but we will maintain. I trust my players more. I think they trust me more. That will come with wins. And you can feel it because everyone says it now, how connected they are and they believe in the coach.

“It’s about winning games. It hasn’t changed much because against Arsenal I saw the same team, so I don’t know.

“I think we’re in a better place, but it’s also really good to always be with that feeling and be prepared that something might change. If we have that feeling, we’ll pay attention to the details and we’ll stay that way on our path.

“I can say we are a better team right now, and we feel it and we know it, and that can help us get through the bad times better.”

Amorim and Dyche on who would do better at Man Utd

Amorim also responded to comments made by Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche ahead of his appointment at the City Ground.

While out of work in August, Dyche said: “I might get hammered for this, but I bet I could win more games with this team playing 4-4-2.”

The former Everton boss also said Amorim should be given time to continue his work at the club.

On Thursday, Amorim said: “First of all, maybe it’s true that if we play 4-4-2 we win more games. But I always say that I have a way of playing that will take some time and in the future it will be better.

“We don’t know. I can look at Sean Dyche as a manager and an expert. If you’re an expert and you don’t say very strong things, I don’t want to look at you. I’m the same.

“I can totally understand it’s a different job. I know Sean Dyche is intelligent and he knows how to play.

“He understands that it’s one thing to watch the game and talk about it. It’s another thing to coach a team.”

Dyche, also speaking on Thursday, said he was not questioning Amorim as a person and that “clickbait kills everything, it changes the whole story.”

He added: “They asked, ‘What would be a fair timetable?’ » and I said: “Half a season to continue the work he was doing” but unfortunately that doesn’t make the story, we all know that.

“For the scoring, I was suggesting that maybe the basics would have worked better. They changed their style, fair play to him, his coaching staff, the players. They changed their style, not necessarily their beliefs, but just their style.

“They’re a little quicker to play forward and longer, a little tighter and get back into shape. That’s management, that’s coaching.

“That doesn’t mean he’s changed his whole philosophy, it just means he’s adapting it to the challenge ahead. Fair play to him.”