Ruben Amorim
Ruben Amorim and his staff overseen a training session at Carrington this week
Ruben Amorim accepts he is at risk of getting the sack at Manchester United if results don't improve but is willing to take the gamble of sticking by his methods, despite the lack of patience shown to previous Old Trafford bosses.
Amorim is 20 games into his tenure as United head coach but eight of those matches have ended in defeat and his team sit 13th in the Premier League ahead of Sunday's trip to Tottenham Hotspur.
The 40-year-old has been insistent that he won't abandon his 3-4-2-1 system despite the difficulties he has experienced in getting those methods across to a squad that look ill-suited to his demands. United flirted with a relegation battle over the festive period and have endured some wretched Old Trafford defeats under Amorim.
By refusing to compromise those principles Amorim is aware he is taking a risk by relying on the patience of his bosses, with the Portuguese the sixth permanent manager since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013, but he claimed that the biggest fear in his job wasn't getting the sack, but failing to win games.
"I accept that [risk]," he said. "It’s a choice you make when you’re a coach but I truly believe in the way I do things. I know in this kind of club with this kind of pressure you are always at risk.
"I am aware of that but it is not my biggest concern. I will say it again – losing games is the hardest part of my job, not being sacked. I just want to win games."
Amorim has often had to put square pegs into round holes during his first few months at United, with the squad not built to fill either his positional requirements or the physical demands of his system.
But there was criticism when he fielded left-footer Patrick Dorgu on the right against Leicester City last weekend, when it was envisaged he had been signed to play as a left wing-back.
Amorim again defended that decision and said playing inverted wing-backs was key when teams were man marking against United, and having played this system throughout his coaching career in Portugal, he insists he knows exactly what is required to make it work.
"I have the experience of playing that way against a 4-3-3 or a 5-4-1 and I know what kind of characteristics I need for it," he said.
"But we also need time to work on everything if I have an idea, and if the connection is not yet there, I have to find that connection. So I am trying everything to win the games and that’s why at times I am changing so many things – I just want to win games."
Amorim has stuck by his 3-4-2-1 system for all 20 games so far and hasn't deviated from that shape during matches either, and while he admits sticking so doggedly to your principles can be a weakness, he is sure he is on the right track at Old Trafford.
"I think it can be a weakness in the moment but then you believe one thing, or another and you have to stick with that," he said.
"Again, I feel we focus a lot on the system but the way we want to play this system is completely different that we are doing at the moment but we are trying to improve so, to be direct with your question, is that yes sometimes it is a strength, sometimes it is a weakness. I think everybody knows that."