Ruben Amorim fires message to “naive” Chido Obi after difficult outing in Man United’s 4-3 loss to Brentford | OneFootball

Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim has insisted that while he’s happy with the youngsters, they must learn from the difficult game against Brentford, particularly singling out Chido Obi.

Obi was given the nod to start ahead of Rasmus Hojlund in United’s 4-3 defeat to the Bees. It was the 17-year-old’s first start for the club.

He played all 90 minutes and mostly endured a tough outing. His most promising moment came near the end of the game, when he produced some silky footwork and fired a shot, but it was blocked. Obi wasn’t the only United youngster who had a baptism of fire against Thomas Frank’s men. Tyler Fredricson and Harry Amass also found it hard to cope with the physicality of Brentford’s attackers.

However, Amorim has revealed that there were still plenty of positives to take from the trio’s performances.

Speaking about the game in his post-match presser, Amorim noted, “I think it’s a little bit of a reflection of our season. We started quite well, controlling the game – not creating big chances – but controlling the game. We suffered a lot from throw-ins and set-pieces but we already knew that our team would struggle against this team. We didn’t have the height that would be necessary for this kind of game.”

“They scored twice in these kinds of moments, even with Matta [De Ligt] on the floor. Then in the second half, I felt that we were near the draw, and then we suffered a goal and like some other times, we disconnect, and then another goal three minutes or five minutes later.”

“And then we pushed forward, tried to score and we scored twice but we didn’t have time to do better.”

Asked whether his half-time changes were tactical or pre-planned, Amorim answered, “No, it was just Luke Shaw…with Matta we don’t know what will happen on Thursday, if we don’t have Luke Shaw available, we can have a problem and then we don’t have enough defenders for the game.

Amorim clarified that Shaw is not injured and he was only withdrawn as a precaution, and with the Athletic Club game in mind.

Asked to give his thoughts on Brentford’s failure to stop play when De Ligt was down, Amorim remarked, “I will not comment about that. The important thing is to have Matta. I’m not thinking about Thursday, not a big issue. It’s the only thing I ask…not to have him available for this game or whatever is going to happen in the future. I just don’t want a big issue because we had a problem with Licha [Martinez] and with Matta. But I don’t know. I’m just talking. I have no idea. He could be training in three days, I don’t know.”

Amorim emphasised that it’s crucial that the young players learn from the difficult experience at the Gtech Community Stadium.

He pointed out, “It’s really important. They have to understand that we cannot do this anymore [be so poor again]. Of course, we know the context but this kind of season, we need to change that. They need to understand what is to play for Manchester United.”

“I think they did really well. They are not playing so much, but then they have to play 90 minutes because we have to change some other players to save them for Thursday. We can help the young kids even more, especially Tyler [Fredricson], did well in the third goal. He needs more help from Amad.”

“So these small things we can help them more but I’m really happy with the performance of the young kids.”

Amorim stressed the importance of Mason Mount.

“It’s not just the finish. It’s the position that he has on the pitch. He’s like a third midfielder that can reach the box.”

“He’s really intelligent, so he’s getting there and he trains really hard. Sometimes I have to push him back and to take him out of the pitch because he wants to do so much more. We are taking care of him. He wants to play more minutes but the minutes were controlled. I’m really happy with him.”

Amorim added about the youngsters, “You can train a lot with the first team but to have that feeling, playing with the players, feeling the players and the speed of the game, I think it’s the best thing, so again, I think they did quite well.”

“Chido [Obi] fought all game but you can feel that he is naive sometimes in the way he uses his body, but he’s going to understand that is the feeling of playing in these kinds of games and that’s the best way. So, we can take that as a positive. The rest, we lost and we didn’t win three points, so just that.”

United remain in 15th place in the table. The Red Devils have yet to hit 40 points, with just three top-flight games left to play.

Featured image Richard Heathcote via Getty Images

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