Fernandes, Amorim and Maguire at San Mames
Fernandes, Amorim and Maguire at San Mames
If it was strategic of Manchester United to allow Tottenham Hotspur to hold their pre-match duties first, it had the desired effect.
Ange Postecoglou rounded on a reporter who suggested he could be remembered as a "clown". He dismissed concerns over his future, urging another reporter not to lose any sleep over it. He also reminded his audience he had lifted a trophy and exited stage left at his previous clubs.
Sub-editors could design their back-page splashes hours before deadline. United's timekeeping for press conferences on the continent can be tardy but even if they were late Ruben Amorim was never going to be as quotable as his opposite number.
Postecoglou entered the endgame some time ago. Sources have said he has known for months that he will not be managing Tottenham next season.
Then there is Amorim, seemingly safe whatever the outcome in San Mames. Amorim is partial to a zinger but he was so relaxed that he joked Bruno Fernandes, sitting to his right, was after his job.
That job is not in jeopardy. Amorim will be judged sooner than the two years he suggested it was fair to assess him at United. He has to oversee demonstrable improvement ahead of the trio of international breaks in September, October and November next season.
He sounded borderline bewildered he was not as certain to be summoned to the guillotine as Postecoglou is. "It's strange because you have some coaches that are here that lose some games and they are sacked. It's hard to explain," he shrugged.
Not really. Ineos sought out every Tom, Dick and Harry to replace Erik ten Hag, watched United punch above their weight in the FA Cup final, had a leadership vacuum, lost their nerve and pandered to fickle fans.
Once decision-makers were in the building and this season was becoming an extension of last season, they left emotion at the door. Ten Hag was never their man but Amorim is.
Ten Hag was out in October
In The Thick of It, Malcolm Tucker spells it out for the gaffe-prone minister Nicola Murray: "The PM is not going to sack you after a week. Sacked after 12 months - looks live you've f****d up. Sacked after a week - looks like he's f****d up." The timeframes are different for the United brains trust and Amorim but the same logic applies.
To dismiss Amorim after six months would be their f**k-up. Amorim has inherited an inadequate squad teeming with expensive errors and United have to purge it in the summer.
He has reiterated that winning the Europa League this season cannot mask United's problems. Quite so. United have to be measured by their Premier League form: 16th, 18 defeats, -12 goal difference, no back-to-back wins. That would be relegation form in other seasons. Under Amorim, it is six wins out of 26 and 18 defeats. That is sackable form.
Amorim was in a chipper mood
But context is key. United assembled a Dutch-centric squad over three summers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe's cabal inexplicably backed Ten Hag to the hilt despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary.
"We need to be excited and confident but we already know the problems," Amorim explained. "There's a lot of things that we need to change in our club. The way we do everything during the week in Carrington, the recruitment, the academy, I think we need to improve.
"So it's hard to point one thing and that will not be solved by winning a cup."
This was a prosaic pre-match gathering, even with the majority of questions asked by the dedicated correspondents accustomed to Amorim's stock answers. He has been on repeat for several months as United's domestic form has remained consistently dire and, without any jeopardy surrounding Amorim's role, apathy has developed.
United fans in Bilbao (Image: Gari Garaialde/Getty Images.)
He could afford to be chipper with Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt the only senior players absent from the travelling squad. De Ligt strolled around the San Mames pitch with teammates at 7pm but Amorim confirmed he is out.
Leny Yoro, Diogo Dalot and Joshua Zirkzee will only be able to get "limited" playing time. Zirkzee last played 38 days ago, Dalot has been sidelined for a month but Yoro's foot injury was only ten days ago.
Zirkzee's presence was a major surprise. Rasmus Hojlund has been hapless this calendar year, scoring three goals in 33 games. Amorim convinced Zirkzee, ruled out for the season with a hamstring injury five weeks ago, to make himself available as the only alternative striker, with Chido Obi ineligible and also not ready.
"They recovered quite well," Amorim remarked. "They pushed. Of course, we respect the feeling of the player, but we pushed a little bit because they wanted to be part of the team and that is a very, very good sign.
Zirkzee has travelled to Bilbao (Image: Juanma - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images.)
"And it's very good for us. Of course they are limited in the minutes for the game, but they can help us to win the game."
The notion that Zirkzee could start ahead of Hojlund is unrealistic. United salvaged last season in the FA Cup final by dropping Hojlund in favour of a strikerless starting XI but that was in a 4-2-3-1, not the 3-4-2-1 Amorim swears by.
"Our system is the normal system that can change the characteristics," Amorim added. "It's not about playing as a striker or without a striker. It's a system like any other that you can change the characteristics.
"But it doesn't matter what happened in the last final because it was a different team, different competition, different context, so everything was different. I just focused on the way we play, the way Tottenham play, what we can do to be better than the last two games.
"So that was my focus and not the last time that we won a cup."
There was more levity when Maguire's dribble-and-cross against Athletic Bilbao was raised. Amorim and Fernandes were both giggling. "The manager has me dribbling down the wing every day in training," Maguire quipped. He stressed that he hoped he would not have to go up front on Wednesday evening.
A European final is no occasion to be clowning around.