Man Utd play Real Sociedad in the Europa League on Thursday night and Ruben Amorim spoke ahead of kick-off.
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Amorim spoke ahead of the match.(Image: MUTV)
Ruben Amorim has urged Manchester United to have the majority of the possession against Real Sociedad in the Europa League Round of 16 first leg clash tonight.
Patrick Dorgu, Casemiro and Alejandro Garnacho have come into Amorim's starting team to face Real Sociedad, replacing Harry Maguire, Manuel Ugarte and Christian Eriksen respectively.
Maguire and Ugarte were absent from training at Carrington on Wednesday. Both players picked up minor knocks in the FA Cup defeat to Fulham last weekend and Amorim admitted he couldn't risk including them in the squad to face Sociedad in his pre-match press conference.
Sociedad manager Imanol Alguacil played down his side's chances when he spoke to journalists ahead of tonight's game, but the Spanish club are the bookmakers' favourites to win.
United are looking to bounce back from the disappointment of crashing out of the FA Cup and the Europa League is their only hope of lifting a trophy to salvage the campaign.
Speaking ahead of kick-off, Amorim told TNT Sports: “Possession of the ball [will be important]. I think I am talking about that all the time. If we have the ball it’s impossible to score against us.
"We need to be careful when we have the ball. If we lose the ball in the build-up, they are really strong and really fast to go to the goal. So we are prepared for that, we know that but we need to improve the way we have possession and create situations. That is the main focus to this game.”
Amorim added about the 'freshness' of his players: "It's really important. We don't have a lot of options, but they are ready. We try to manage the load these three days. I know that in the second half we will feel it a little bit, but we are excited to be here and we can deal with the physicality of the game.
"We need to be really strong, especially in the beginning of the game. It’s going to be really intense so we choose the team thinking about that also."
Amorim has chosen not fill his bench for a third successive game and two young goalkeepers, Elyh Harrison and Dermot Mee, are among the options from the bench.
UEFA rules allow 23-man squads for European fixtures, but Amorim named an 18-man travelling squad and opted against picking five youngsters who might have benefitted from the experience.