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Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has insisted that he was at fault for the club’s frailties in set-pieces, which were once again exposed during the 3-2 loss against Nottingham Forest on Sunday evening.
Nikola Milenkovic opened the scoring just 91 seconds into the match, rising above Lisandro Martinez to head in a goal from a corner kick. This marked the third time United have conceded from set-pieces, following the two corner-kick goals they allowed in the mid-week defeat to Arsenal.
Rasmus Hojlund restored parity later in the first half but the Red Devils conceded two goals within 10 minutes of the restart, to leave them trailing by a two-goal deficit. Bruno Fernandes halved Forest’s advantage but the visitors managed to hold on for all three points.
It’s the first time Forest have won at Old Trafford since 1994.
Asked about United’s weaknesses from set-pieces, Amorim replied, “When this happens it’s more my fault, because I’m responsible. We try to do it the best way, we did a lot of work in this area because we saw it in Arsenal and it was really hard in this context.”
“The beginning of the game, you suffer in the first play, it’s really hard then to put energy in the team but we managed to do it. We draw the game then the second half the same thing and you feel it in everybody, the fans, the players, it’s really hard to transmit something to continue to do your job.”
“We managed to score one more but then it was more like we wanted but with not a lot of quality.”
Amorim refused to criticise Andre Onana, who committed more than one goalkeeping errors that directly led to Forest goals.
“We lost the ball in one transition and then a lot of open space and in the end they score so all the team suffered that goal.”
“Onana already saved us a lot of times so we have to find a way when this happens to Onana or to Ty (Malacia). We have to turn around and to score goals to help our goalkeeper the same way that he saved us in Ipswich. We have to continue, we lose as a team, we have to improve in all aspects.”
In his post-match interview with Sky Sports, Amorim revealed that his decision to substitute Fernandes was due to the fact that the United skipper was tired.
Amorim emphasised this when he spoke to reporters in his press conference.
“I understand that Bruno is really dangerous near the box, he scores one goal but he was tired, with transition. We had one stop with two substitutions.”
“I could let Bruno Fernandes [stay out] there but I felt with Mason Mount he is good at set pieces, he can score also because he’s very technical and we need fresh legs. And if you see the game, transitions, we can lose the ball and if you suffer another goal, it was over.”
“I used all the substitutions. With a lot of games, I felt Bruno was a little tired., I have Mason Mount and tried to put Mason Mount and Josh near Rasmus to try something else.”
On his propensity to rotate players, Amorim stated, “This is like every game is a new history, you have to focus on the opposition, what you see in training and in games, every detail counts.”
“You want to use different players with different characteristics and you imagine what type of game, and that is the reason. Rasmus also scored two goals and then went to the bench. We try to find the best team to win matches.”
Up next for United is a Thursday Europa League clash against Czech First League outfit Viktoria Plzeň.
Featured image Clive Brunskill via Getty Images
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