Viktoria Plzen vs Man Utd LIVE: Europa League team news and line-ups as Red Devils try to get back on track | OneFootball

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I almost know my best XI - Amorim

Manchester United travel to the Czech Republic to face Viktoria Plzen in tonight’s Europa League action hoping to respond to two consecutive defeats under Ruben Amorim.

After a promising start to his tenure, the Red Devils suffered back-to-back Premier League defeats to Arsenal and Nottingham Forest leaving the Portuguese boss facing his first dip in form. But Amorim will be confident, especially about improving United’s standing in the Europa League despite the clube being embroiled in off-field drama.

Consecutive wins over PAOK and Bodo/Glimt have sent the team up to 12th in the league table and they are only two points away from fourth with a realistic chance of securing automatic promotion.

Their opponents tonight have an identical record to United with two wins and three draws from their first five games and sit one place below Amorim’s side meaning they would jump ahead of United should they triumph.

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Rio Ferdinand wants Man Utd to be as ‘brutal’ with players as Dan Ashworth exits

Rio Ferdinand has questioned Manchester United’s decision to part company with sporting director Dan Ashworth after just five months and called on club co-owners Ineos to be just as “brutal” with their under-performing playing squad.

Ashworth left the club over the weekend, with his exit seen as part of a mass restructuring at Old Trafford, which has seen around 250 staff members made redundant since the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

Rio Ferdinand wants Man Utd to be as ‘brutal’ with players as Dan Ashworth exits

Ashworth left the club over the weekend after just five months at Old Trafford.

Mike Jones12 December 2024 16:55

Malacia on Amorim

“There’s a lot of changing. But I like [it] and what I know about this manager is he’s very clear, for all of us,” Tyrell Malacia explained during his pre-match press conference. “That’s the most important thing, we know what we have to do in the game.”

(REUTERS)

Mike Jones12 December 2024 16:50

Malacia feels he is improving

Tyrell Malacia feels he is improving game-by-game after his return from injury and hopes to impress Ruben Amorim by understanding the manager’s system.

Speaking before tonight’s game he said: “[By] training every day, I have to improve week by week by playing games of course. “I could already see a difference between my first game against Bodo/Glimt and Arsenal. Other than that, as a team, we are improving and trying to adapt to the playing style of the manager. I’m happy.”

Mike Jones12 December 2024 16:45

Amorim focused on improving United’s players

Ruben Amorim rejected the notion that Man Utd need to sell players in their squad and replace them with ones more suited to the manager’s style of play.

Instead he says he is focused on improving those that are already at Old Trafford. Amorim said: “No, I’m really focused on to see my players and to understand my players. I think that is one of the problems of the clubs.

“We have to focus on what we have. We have to focus on the academy and also to have a clear profile when you get the players. So, it’s a lot of details you have to manage. You can see at set-pieces, sometimes you look at our team and we are a small team compared to others.

“Every detail counts and we have to be very clear first in the profiles, arrange all the process and then go to that phase of buying and selling players.

“But we have, like Ty (Malacia), international players, good players and we need time to teach them our ideas and then we will see because this is a massive club. If we don’t win, the coach goes, the player goes, so you have to know that.

“We have to improve as a team, we have to arrange a lot of things in our club before thinking just in buying or selling players. There’s a lot to do, so let’s focus on improving our players, improving our academy and then see.”

Mike Jones12 December 2024 16:40

Amorim explains Nottingham Forest defeat

The Manchester United boss was quick to explain where he feels his team can improve after losing to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.

He said: “It is really simple. I think against Nottingham [Forest] we should pass the ball a little bit quicker, so it is with safety but a little bit more quicker when everything is blocked.

“For me the most important point is that every player should be in the good position to start when we play. We were controlling the game and we started the second half very well and if you remember one play, Leny Yoro makes a one-two, jumps and then makes a bad pass. He [gives them] a counter attack and then, a goal.

“We have to continue to play in the same way but with a low block. It is this kind of details and you have to play the ball by preparing to lose the ball sometimes. These kind of points are really important in our team because in the past, and still, in this moment you can see a lot of moments like this.

“I can remember just from the top of my head, the game against Liverpool, all the goals were mostly like that and we are doing work on that. You see the same thing last week so we are trying to improve with the ball but also the way when you can lose the ball, you are covering our own goal.”

Mike Jones12 December 2024 16:24

Man Utd discover a painful lesson as Ruben Amorim’s honeymoon period abruptly ended

A historic victory for a catalytic Portuguese manager at Old Trafford. Just what Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the powerbrokers who headhunted Ruben Amorim imagined, but for one minor detail. The winner was not their glamorous newcomer but the unfashionable figure of Nuno Espirito Santo, who has steered Nottingham Forest to heights few dared to think they could touch. As for Amorim, his honeymoon period seems fleeting. The problems at Manchester United, it appears, could only be concealed for three matches.

Since then, Amorim has suffered back-to-back defeats. If losing at Arsenal had a logic, being beaten by Forest at Old Trafford was the sort of chastening setback that happened all too often in Erik ten Hag’s final 14 months in charge. Amorim’s United displayed familiar flaws and new shortcomings, contributing to their own downfall with individual errors, slow starts and set-piece failings. Much as in Ten Hag’s unravelling, United were too open, too liable to be counterattacked and left the midfield too empty. Some of this was Ten Hag-style chaos.

Man Utd discover a painful lesson as Amorim’s honeymoon period ends

Manchester United 2-3 Nottingham Forest: Nuno Espirito Santo’s side capitalised on two blunders from Andre Onana and Lisandro Martinez to condemn the Red Devils to back-to-back defeats

Mike Jones12 December 2024 16:17

Ruben Amorim makes frank admission over Dan Ashworth’s Manchester United exit

Ruben Amorim admits sporting director Dan Ashworth’s shock exit is “not the best situation” but the Manchester United head coach believes the club’s vision remains clear and unaffected.

Sunday morning brought the stunning announcement that the 53-year-old was leaving Old Trafford just 159 days after an agreement was finally struck to bring him from Newcastle.

Ashworth’s departure was met by surprise from afar as well as inside United, where the PA news agency understands there was shock from many staff despite a sense that things had not been going smoothly within the hierarchy.

Mike Jones