PRESSURE ON: RUBEN AMORIM WARNS MAN UTD STARS OVER CURRENT SQUAD STATUS
Man Utd boss Ruben Amorim warns his squad they are "far from perfection" despite a five-game unbeaten run. Ahead of his one-year anniversary, he demands more from his players to compete at the top of the Premier League.
Even though Manchester United is unbeaten in its last five games, Ruben Amorim cautioned his players that they still have plenty of room to improve.
Amorim is observing the anniversary of his first game as United's head coach on Monday, which was a 1-1 tie with Ipswich Town.
Ahead of their match against Everton at Old Trafford, Amorim knows that United still has work to do to get back to the top of the Premier League.
Amorim stated, I believe we are better and in a better moment.
I believe we train with better intensity, and I believe we are doing things better, but we are not where we need to be. When I watch practices and games, we are far from it.
We can be where we need to be in terms of position and intensity. We need to work on that in training.
Ruben Amorim has cautioned his Manchester United players that they are 'far from where they need to be.'
Manchester United players are practising before their Premier League match against Everton on Monday.
Amorim's first game as United's manager was a 1-1 draw at Ipswich, which was a year ago on Monday.
So, to be honest, we are better but not where we need to be, and especially to win in this league, we need a little bit of luck to get to the top of the table, so we are far from the perfect environment.
Since their 2-2 draw away to Tottenham Hotspur before the international break, Amorim and his players have not been defeated since September 27 away to Brentford.
On the other hand, they have only earned two points out of a possible six in their last two games.
"We have to think about being unbeaten for six games, but being unbeaten is not enough, he continued.
I was very frustrated coming from these last two games, especially the last one. So it's not enough for us; being unbeaten doesn't matter at this club right now. Not everything is unbeaten.
EX-CAPTAIN NEVILLE CLAIMS SUBSTITUTIONS MADE MANCHESTER UNITED "WORSE" AGAINST WOLVES
Gary Neville slams Ruben Amorim’s "weird" substitutions and tactical shifts after Manchester United's 1-1 draw with bottom-side Wolves.
Gary Neville said that the performance of Manchester United in their match against winless Wolves was ‘the baddest of the bad.’
United would have moved fourth in the league with a win at Old Trafford last night, although Wolves, who had two points in 18 games before kickoff, ended their record of 11 straight losses with a 1-1 draw.
Amorim’s team had been knocked out of the Carabao Cup by a League Two team, Grimsby, in August, but Neville was convinced that United had hit rock bottom in a game that could have been even more one-sided were it not for two important saves by Senne Lammens.
“That was the baddest of the bad," the former United captain declared on the Gary Neville podcast.
“They weren’t just booed off at the final whistle. The fans waited in the stadium to continue to boo them. They’ve gone backwards.”
United had won at Newcastle 1-0 on Boxing Day, despite being plagued by an injury list that already lacked skipper Bruno Fernandes, Harry Maguire, and Matthijs de Ligt, as well as three players on African Cup of Nations duty.
But they remained flat right from the first whistle, and the header by Ladislav Krejci just before the half bottled Joshua Zirkzee's deflected shot.
Amorim’s formation choice of 3-4-3 was brought into focus once more as the Portuguese opted to go back to his preferred tactic of four at the back against Newcastle.
“This isn’t right. I’ve watched enough of United over the last five or six weeks to know what looks right and what isn’t right,” Neville had declared 20 minutes into his commentary on Sky Sports.
“Because, when I see that we go back (to three at the back) after five minutes tonight, I’m thinking, no, Ruben, why have you done that?
"The manager has to look at that and think, I got that wrong. I complicated it."
However, Amorim decided to substitute Zirkzee at halftime and brought on an 18-year-old Jack Fletcher, who made his third appearance at the senior level.
Regarding substitutions made by Amorim, Neville further added, “They made Manchester United worse. Every single substitution was ridiculous.”
‘If Zirkzee was injured, and it was a tactical substitution, that was a very poor one.’ But Zirkzee isn't Eric Cantona, not by a long shot, and he had to get out there for physicality, for presence, for experience.”
SEE LISANDRO MARTINEZ’S FURIOUS REACTION AFTER MAN UTD’S SHOCK WOLVES DRAW
Lisandro Martinez demands more after Man Utd’s 1-1 draw with bottom-placed Wolves. United ended 2025 sixth in the Premier League.
Stand-in captain Lisandro Martinez was mad that Manchester United dropped points against Wolves, who are at the bottom of the league.
United came into the last game of 2025 after a good win against Newcastle on Boxing Day and were expected to easily beat Wolves.
Joshua Zirkzee scored first for United, but they didn't take their chances. Ladislav Krejci's header tied the game for Wolves, 1-1.
It was only their third point in 19 games, and it stopped their 11-game losing streak. United fans booed at the end of the game.
When Martinez was asked if it felt like a disappointing point, he said, 100 percent.
We are very disappointed. We can't keep drawing or losing points at home. We have to win.
We want to be at the top, competing with the best.
We can't drop points in games like this. We just have to accept it and be hungry for the next game.
Martinez was captain again because Bruno Fernandes is still recovering from an injury.
When United coach Ruben Amorim was asked about injured players for the game against Leeds on Sunday, he didn't give much away. Leeds are really wanting to beat United for the first time since 2010.
Martinez said to MUTV, You can either make excuses, or you can be strong and say, 'We're dropping points, so we need to go for the next one and show what we can do.'
We need to work together and do the easy things to get the three points.
United is in sixth place in the league at the end of 2025, only two points behind Liverpool for the last Champions League spot. Liverpool has a game in hand.
They could be in a better position if they had been better in both boxes. Leeds has been playing well lately, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin doing great up front.
Martinez added, It's about us. I don't like to think about other teams.
I'm thinking about what we can do to get better as a team every day, and we have to learn from this game.