The Football Faithful
·26 December 2024
The Football Faithful
·26 December 2024
Ruben Amorim admitted that the sending off of Bruno Fernandes was “really hard” for Manchester United as they lost to Wolves on Boxing Day.
The Portuguese playmaker was shown a second yellow card for a late and high challenge on Nelson Semedo shortly after the second half kicked off.
Matheus Cunha went on to break the deadlock in the 58th minute, netting for the third successive game and his 10th in the Premier League this season.
Man Utd chased an equaliser but were punished on the counter deep into stoppage as Cunha teed up Hwang Hee-Chan for a tap-in to seal all three points.
Amorim felt Fernandes was making an honest effort to win the ball when he fouled Semedo, but the manager was ultimately more concerned with his side’s fifth defeat in his first seven games in charge.
“I think he cannot go to the ball. He’s trying to reach the ball and some guys are not even looking at the ball but I don’t want to focus on that.
“I think the good thing is we were near the goal, even with 10 men. That is a good thing, but we lost.”
“It’s so tough to win games in this league with 11 men. With 10 men, it’s more difficult. We have to focus on that.”
Amorim admitted that Man Utd didn’t have enough quality in attack before they were reduced to ten men, which he puts down to a lack of work on the training ground.
“We have to improve the relationships, but we have some moments. We lack a little bit of aggression, but we don’t train. We just play and try to find a better way to win games and that’s it.
“We can’t control the games like the other ones that we lost. I think we were always in control of the game, not always dominating, but in control of some things, some set-pieces. The sending off was really hard for us.”