Ruben Amorim responds after Paul Scholes says he ‘is not the best man’ for Man Utd | Football

Ruben Amorim has brushed off the recent criticism he has faced from former Manchester United players, suggesting it’s unfair to check his side’s ‘standards’ to groups of the past that were ‘at all times winning’.

The Red Devils had appeared to have turned a corner after winning all three of their Premier League contests in October against Sunderland, reigning champions Liverpool and Brighton.

But United have claimed victory in only two of their last six matches within the English top flight, an immensely disappointing run that included the side’s dismal 1-0 defeat at home to ten-man Everton.

There have been encouraging signs in United’s comprehensive 4-1 win over lowly Wolves last outing, though, with Bruno Fernandes completing a brace and Bryan Mbeumo and Mason Mount also scoring at Molineux.

Amorim’s men will look to choose up where they left off after they return to motion against Bournemouth on Monday night, knowing maximum points would propel them as much as fifth within the table.

While the Portuguese managed to quieten a number of of his more outspoken critics with the convincing win at Wolves last weekend, Paul Scholes remains to be yet to be fully convinced.

Speaking on The Good, the Bad & The Football podcast with long-time team-mate Nicky Butt, Scholes took aim on the United boss, saying: ‘I don’t think the manager gets the club, full stop. I just don’t think he’s the best man.

‘Manchester United is about risk and entertainment, greater than anything. Having fans on the sting of their seat f***ing able to go.

‘Wingers who beat people. Shots on goal. Bits of skill. There’s nothing there.

‘That’s from the club. We discuss that is a unique club – they’ve got Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox who’re probably sensible at their job, sensible at what they do.

‘They’re not Man United. They don’t have a clue what it’s wish to buy a Manchester United player, to bring a Manchester United manager in.’

Afterward within the podcast, Scholes hit out at Amorim’s philosophy before questioning his handling of Kobbie Mainoo, who remains to be yet to make a single start within the Premier League this season.

‘In case you go to Sporting Lisbon and watch, they played three on the back. Straight away, that’s a no,’ the 11-time Premier League winner added.

And I’m talking about even before Sir Alex Ferguson, it was at all times 4-4-1-1 or 4-4-2. Entertaining people. He hasn’t got that in him.

‘He brought 4 defenders on against West Ham. If we go 1-0 up, the manager at all times said ‘two, three, 4.’

‘I remember once, I feel we were playing Chelsea. We went 1-0 up and we sat back just a little bit. Now, Chelsea were a great team.

‘The manager went absolutely nuts after the sport. That doesn’t occur here. While you rating one, you rating two. You go for the throat each time.

‘I just don’t think he gets it.’

On Mainoo fall down the pecking order, Scholes went on: ‘You would need to advise him to go. If he rang me and said, ‘I feel Chelsea are in for me what do you’re thinking that?’, I’d say ‘all day long’.

‘He’s a 20-year-old kid, he’s going to have to go away.

‘What’s going to occur now could be he’ll bring him right into a game and he won’t be great, because he needs five, six, seven, eight games.

‘He’ll throw him into the team and say “I told you so”.

‘Nobody [in the hierarchy] gets the club. You think that of the treatment of Kobbie Mainoo.

‘He’s not playing, fair enough, sometimes as a manager you don’t fancy a player.

‘Once they aren’t playing well and what he has done in the sport already as a young kid, winning goal within the FA Cup final, he’s played nearly every game on the Euros.

‘I bet he takes the p*** out of Casemiro each day in training.’

Amorim was asked in regards to the questions which have been raised by his high-profile doubters like Scholes as he faced the media ahead of United’s clash with Bournemouth.

In line with Amorim, such comments are ‘normal’ given the scale of the club and the very fact his side should not ‘at all times winning’ as they appeared to previously under Sir Alex Ferguson.

‘I feel it’s normal, I feel it’s a proven fact that me as a manager of Manchester United, I feel we’re underachieving,’ he said.

‘We must always have more points, especially this season, so I take that naturally.

‘Sometimes they don’t have all the knowledge and so they see Manchester United with the standards that they lived here, at all times winning, so it’s hard for them to see their club in this case.

‘About Kobbie, I can talk about Kobbie every press conference. Sometimes it’s harder for me to talk after the sport.

‘It’s at all times the identical situation. For me, all of them are the identical. I do know that for you guys there are some players that you just imagine in so much and I imagine so much but sometimes I actually have to make selections.

‘We play with two midfielders in these games, we could change in the long run, but to Kobbie Mainoo is playing in the identical position as Bruno Fernandes and sometimes it’s really hard to take Bruno Fernandes out of the team and that’s the one reason.’

Asked if pundits like Scholes are making his job tougher, Amorim replied: ‘No, not winning is the difficulty.

‘In fact, you’ll be able to point to loads of things and so they point to loads of things that we’d like to enhance.

‘But the massive issue shouldn’t be winning. If I’m winning, I can go to the games on a horse, arrive there twiddling with just two defenders and the whole lot might be high-quality.

‘The issue is that me as a manager, I’m not doing ok and that could be a fact also and I can accept that.

‘That’s the only problem: that Manchester United shouldn’t be winning and shouldn’t be within the position that it’s imagined to be.

Amorim ‘understands’ that the extent of scrutiny is much greater than what he previously experienced as head coach of Sporting.

‘No, here it is totally different,’ he explained.

‘We now have the most effective league on the planet and there’s loads of things across the game.

‘Every press conference, I leave here and I’m going to offer an interview so it’s a very different world.

‘In Sporting there was no issue because we were winning on a regular basis so in case you are winning winning then there isn’t a issue. I understand that and that’s okay.’

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