“Never, never”: Amorim says he never considered joining Manchester City, only ever wanted United

Ruben Amorim says he never had any discussions about joining City ahead of the Manchester derby on Sunday.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference ahead of the game, the United head coach said:

“Never. Never heard from them and this was my only option. When United talked to me I had no doubts. I had already something in my mind that could be a possibility. With Manchester City or Viana Nothing about that.

On whether he was looking forward to the game, he said:

“We will face a great opponent and I’m more focused on our problems. So we have a lot of issues here, so I’m more focused on what we should do on Sunday to win the game. So I’m really focused on my team.

“This should be two great teams fighting for the title, but it isn’t. Both teams are struggling in the moment, so I hope, in the future, I feel that real feeling of a derby. But I know that it’s really important for our fans. But my goal now is to improve the team, win games and I will try to win this game.”

Asked how he makes his side run, he said: “it’s transitions. So tell them to run and which kind of positions they must have when the ball is in our box, so try to make some targets during some games. Teach them to press.

“I think they are improving and if you see the transitions you can see that we are improving on the speed at which we move. And if you see the transitions, you see that I think we are improving on the speed. Sometimes, we cannot do it still, but we are trying and I can feel it in the team.”

“The great teams can respond at any moment. And I think they are in a better place than us in the type of understanding the game, the way they play, the confidence they have.

“Even in this kind of moments, we have a lot to focus on in our team. Our focus is totally… of course we have a strategy to try to win the game with the strategy like it should be. But we are focused just on our team.”

Amorim was asked if he was concerned about Andre Onana’s form after mistakes from the keeper in two consecutive matches.

“If you see the play we are trying to build up a lot with the goalkeeper making the bounce [pass] with Matta [De Ligt]. This time we have a disconnect a little bit during the play. And when we try this we suffered a goal. A difficult goal for us in the end of the second half.

“But we managed today, not like against Nottingham. We managed to help Onana. Like he did in the past for us.”

Amorim also confirmed that Jonny Evans was back in training and available for selection.

Featured image Alex Livesey via Getty Images

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