Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has called on people to “forget” the past after Cristiano Ronaldo’s scathing criticism of the club.
Ronaldo has given a harsh verdict on United’s current squad, suggesting Amorim cannot pull off a “miracle” at Old Trafford.
In a separate interview with Piers Morgan Uncensored, after his second spell at United ended prematurely with his resignation in 2022, Ronaldo said: “He (Amorim) is doing his best. What will he do? A miracle? Miracles are impossible. In Portugal they say miracles only happen in Fatima.”
“We’re not going to do miracles, and neither are the players. Manchester United have good players, but some of them don’t understand what Manchester United is.”
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Cristiano Ronaldo gave his honest thoughts on Manchester United in an interview with Piers Morgan. Credit: Piers Morgan Uncensored on YouTube
Asked about Ronaldo’s comments, Amorim suggested that although Ronaldo was well aware of the impact of his words and his past mistakes, improvements were being made at Old Trafford.
“He knows that everything he says has a huge impact,” Amorim told a news conference.
“What we have to do is focus on the future. We know we have made a lot of mistakes in the past as a club, but we are trying to change that. So let’s not focus on what happened.”
“Let’s focus on what we’re doing now. And we’re doing it. We’re changing a lot of things in terms of structure, the way we do things, we want our players to behave. We’re doing it and we’re getting better.”
“So let’s focus on how we’re doing. We’re making progress. Let’s keep going and forget about the past a little bit.”
“We have become a better team since losing in the Europa League final.”
Manchester United lost 1-0 to Tottenham in the Europa League final in May.
Amorim appeared before the media at lunchtime on Saturday ahead of United’s game against Tottenham. It will be United’s first match against Spurs since they lost 1-0 in the Europa League final in May.
If Amorim’s team, who are currently undefeated in four matches and are showing an improvement in their form, wins, they will move up to second place in the Premier League. Amorim believes he can take a better United team to Tottenham than the one that lost to Spurs in Bilbao. Asked about the differences with the current team, Amorim said:
“First of all, the characteristics of the players. Our team has different characteristics. We also have a lot of players who played last year, so we are a better team. We play better. We understand the game better.”
“I think we have more confidence. We had performed well in Europe, so we went into the final with confidence that we could win. But in this moment, we are playing with a different confidence.”
“We’re in good control of the moments of the game. But you remember that game, they got a shot on goal and won the game. So I’m expecting another game. We can play better, but I’m hoping that a little bit of luck will also help us win the game.”
“We believe we can win any game and we have already proven that we can win any game. The last game (at Nottingham Forest) was a tough game for us because we were not the team we should have been at every moment.”
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Watch for free: Premier League highlights from Nottingham Forest vs. Manchester United
“And if you compare it to Brighton, we conceded two goals against Brighton and it was different, so we know we have to remember there’s a lot to improve on.
“Whatever happens in the game, we are more prepared, so that is also a good thing. So we are in a better moment, but we also know that there is a lot of work to do, a lot of things to improve in order to win more games of this kind and be able to have a consistent winning streak.”
“So we know we’re capable, we’re confident, but we also know that sometimes we struggle in games where we need to be better.”
Brennan Johnson scored with Tottenham’s only shot on target of the game.
United missed out on qualifying for this season’s Champions League after losing in May and finished 15th, but Spurs qualified after finishing 17th.
Despite missing out on European football for the second time in Premier League history, Amorim insisted he was looking at the final defeat as a positive.
“Looking at the positive doesn’t mean taking advantage of the positive. So whatever situation you find yourself in in life, you can look at it positively or look at it in a bad way. If you ask me, you want to be here in the Champions League with a cup.”
“Champions League, more money, more players? Probably, of course I would say yes, but you have the other side. You have more time to train, get to know the players, arrange everything, put in place the connections between the staff and prepare for the future.
“There will also be European competitions in the future. So we just tried to take advantage of the positives of not playing all the games in that week. So, yes, I understand the positives.”
