A relieved Ruben Amorim insisted Manchester United did not panic before Amad Diallo’s 12-minute hat-trick saved them against Southampton, having trailed against the Premier League’s bottom side until the 82nd minute at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
United were heading for a fourth straight home loss due to Manuel Ugarte’s own goal just before the break. But Diallo equalised eight minutes from time before remarkably scoring twice more to secure victory. It was put to the head coach that his side had been frantic towards the end. “It is not panic,” said Amorim. “In the first half we were too late to every ball and we tried to press too high and suffer for that.”
United’s manager had been eager to see how his players would perform here on the back of positive results in the previous matches at Arsenal and Liverpool. “I need to understand why we suffer in these kinds of games and not the big games,” he said. “This game was not a lack of effort – they tried but [Manuel] Ugarte was really tired, you feel it from the first minute.”
Diallo said it was “maybe one of the best weeks in my life” after his heroics days after having signed a new contract. “In Football you have to believe,” he said. “We believed until the end. We are very happy to win this game because we drew against Liverpool and beat Arsenal so the confidence was there. I am very happy.”
After the match Amorim spoke with Sir Jim Ratcliffe, United’s football policy chief. “I had five minutes with him to talk about different things, the game. The result helped the conversation,” he said.
“We continue doing our job. Today more important was the win – I know the fans want to see so much better football but we need to win games. We managed to win and we are going to prepare for the next game.”
Amorim was asked why an elite footballer like Ugarte was tired. “I don’t know,” he said. “I need to improve the training and recovery of the players. We are tired, not just the body but the mind. It is a different game [today]we have to press more. If we don’t manage the ball for so long, we suffer. Southampton left three against three at the back and we couldn’t use the space.”
-Ivan Juric was left disappointed. “There is a moment you have to be Italian,” Southampton’s manager said.
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“Some fouls. We are innocent, like kids, playing well and they score. I will show the situation when you do other things. We have to be more evil.”
