Amorim and his staff at Carrington
Amorim and his staff at Carrington
Manchester United have doubts over three unnamed players' fitness ahead of the Premier League fixture at Tottenham on Sunday.
Head coach Ruben Amorim refused to specify which players have an issue but said one player is unwell and indicated some of the "problems" were incurred during training.
"No, was a good week until two days ago," Amorim said. "We had some problems also. So we don’t have players back, maybe we have one or two issues but we are waiting.
"We have one player also who is sick so we will see the team at the weekend. But was good to work with the team, to feel the players and to try to improve our performance."
Long-term absentees Jonny Evans, Mason Mount and Luke Shaw remain sidelined while Lisandro Martinez is out until later in the year with an anterior cruciate ligament.
The United academy team thrashed Chelsea 5-1 in the FA Youth Cup fifth round on Wednesday, with striker Chido Obi plundering a hat-trick. Amorim indicated some academy players were in line to be promoted to the first team squad for the Spurs match but was reluctant to give names.
"I don't want to say names because we have to be careful with that," Amorim stressed. "They are working with us. We had some problems this week, we called some young players to be in our training so we will have the data and evaluation and he (Obi) is one of them."
Amorim expressed symapthy with under-fire Tottenham coach Ange Postecoglou, who remains in charge despite the club's limp eliminations from the League Cup and the FA Cup last week.
Spurs finished fifth last season but have plummeted to 14th in the Premier League and are two points behind 13th-placed United.
"I’m a huge fan of Ange Postecoglou," Amorim stressed. "Of course, I’m from a different culture, I’m Portuguese and all the Portuguese coaches can adapt. The simple thing is I use one system in the moment because I believe if you work on that system you can play in different systems at the same time, so that is the idea.
"But we are not winning games and I can understand the connection between me and Ange. We have the same problems. In my opinion, with all due respect, I am in a bigger club with bigger pressure so I understand the pressure and I think it’s important for the coach to follow all of these principles."