Ruben Amorim more confident in Man Utd ahead of new season

RTÉ News​

5 days ago

Ruben Amorim says he feels "more confident" about Manchester United's qualities heading into Sunday's Premier League opener against Arsenal.
A sense of optimism has returned to Old Trafford, just three months on from their worst top-flight campaign in 51 years being compounded by a damaging defeat in the Europa League final.
Amorim has refreshed the squad, both in terms of personnel and mindset, since the end of a campaign in which the United head coach admitted he went into games knowing that they would struggle.
But being backed in the transfer window over incomings and outgoings has helped changed that heading into Sunday's hotly-anticipated Old Trafford opener against Arsenal.
"It is hard to know (what we will deliver) because we cannot change everything in four weeks, but we are better," Amorim said.
"I know that we are training harder, we are training better, so I know that we are more prepared to cope with the demands of the game.
"We have new players that we need to understand in the real game what they are capable to do in the moment.
"But I am really more confident. That is clear. I am more confident in this moment.
"But, again, we cannot change everything in four weeks but step by step we are going to be a better team, but of course I am more confident."
Benjamin Sesko is pushing to make his debut just a week on from joining the club from RB Leipzig, as are fellow summer acquisitions Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Diego Leon.
But there remains work to be done, with a number of players to shift out and a decision to be made on midfield after Brighton made clear they do not want to sell Carlos Baleba this summer.
United are a work in progress but Amorim believes they are far better heading into the new campaign than the side that stumbled home 15th last term.
"We want to return to Europe, but it is hard as a Manchester United coach to say one thing like that," he said.
"But we need to be realistic with our fans. We are going to have to fight a lot because there's a lot of good teams with more time than us together, but we are going to fight for it.
"We are going to improve. We want to focus game by game. If we are thinking now about how we are going to finish the season it is a problem.
"Let's focus on game by game. We want to win against Arsenal, that is the main focus."
The match against Mikel Arteta's Gunners pits Amorim against a striker he helped take to new heights.
Viktor Gyokeres joined Sporting Lisbon from Coventry in 2023 and became one of Europe's most talked about frontmen in Europe under the Portuguese.
There had been talk of a reunion with Amorim at Old Trafford but the Sweden international instead joined Arsenal and could make his debut against his former boss on Sunday.
"It's a different league," Amorim said of Gyokeres. "The physicality is different.
"In Sporting they have a very good group of scouting because they live from that, from the players they can buy and then sell to survive.
"I think he is a very good player. He is going to give different characteristics.
"It is going be different if we face in the beginning of the game Viktor or (Kai) Havertz, for example, so we need to be prepared for that but it's not a surprise to watch Viktor in a big club in England."