Amorim made a triple substitution early in the second half
Amorim made a triple substitution early in the second half
Ruben Amorim defended the changes he made to the Manchester United side after he suffered his first defeat as the club's head coach at Arsenal.
Amorim made six changes for the third match running after United thrashed Everton 4-0 in the Premier League on Sunday. All five scorers under Amorim have been dropped for the next game.
Tyrell Malacia made his first start in 556 days but was substituted at half-time, seemingly in a pre-planned change. The Dutchman was also booked towards the end of the first half.
Amorim claimed the rotation is enforced due to the fitness levels of certain players who have recently returned from injury. "It’s not because I like to change all the time but we have to have all the squad fit," he explained.
READ MORE: Four 4/10s - United player ratings
READ MORE: United's two preparation changes for Arsenal corners failed
"So, for example, Harry Maguire has a time limit, Tyrell Malacia has a time limit, Mason Mount has a time limit, Leny Yoro has a really time limit. So we have to manage winning games, different methodology, different way of playing, more metres to press and tomorrow we have to assess and the guys that are a little bit at risk to some injury will not play.
"So we have to have everybody to work, to play and to improve the squad."
United have slid back down to the bottom half of the Premier League following the 2-0 reverse at the Emirates Stadium, where they are now winless in their last seven matches. Both of Arsenal's goals came from corners on a night the hosts had 13 corner kicks.
The defeat also extended United's run without a victory away at one of the old 'big six' clubs to 15. Amorim cut a frustrated figure at United's regular failure to probe Arsenal in the final third.
"We didn’t have the time," he said. "We work a lot on building up. You can see the structure, you can see the idea, you can see the bounce when the centre backs go to the midfielders, you can see that.
"But in the last part or last third you can see we need to improve, be more aggressive, more ideas but that part is more difficult to improve without a lot of training.
"I make the evaluation of the game regardless of the result. Like I said, the 4-0 (against Everton) you can take positive things, but we have to improve and you already knew that.
"But you can feel it in the stadium (at Arsenal), especially in the end of the first half you can feel they were not comfortable, you can feel it in the stadium. So you can take that.
"We had one day to put a strategy and they can cope with that, they broke - especially the right side of Arsenal with - a lot of players there, we manage to control very well. The difference today was the set pieces.
"You see a goal and then the momentum changes and it’s really hard for us to take full control of the game but we try it and was that: the set pieces."