Ruben Amorim has welcomed Bruno Fernandes' frank assessment after the Manchester United captain labelled their pre-season performance against Everton as "lazy" and called for an injection of "more quality" in the transfer market. United ended up drawing 2-2 with Everton in their final Premier League Summer Series fixture in the US, and despite the draw clinching the tournament title for the Red Devils, Fernandes was far from pleased with their display.
At Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, United let their lead slip twice, with Fernandes himself and Mason Mount scoring, only for Iliman Ndiaye and an Ayden Heaven own goal to level the scores. "It's improving, but it's not where we want it to be," Fernandes said after the match. "It's a game of football, there's always passion there. Whatever happens, happens.
"There was nothing spicy there, it's normal, it is part of the game. It's been positive [the US tour] and it's good to create a bond with the players. We looked a bit lazy today and we need to change that."
"We needed more quality to get everyone to step up a bit more and to have more to do to get into the starting line-up. I think that's what the club and the manager are trying to do and hopefully we can get one or two players more to help with that."
When quizzed on Fernandes' critique, Amorim said: "I'm happy for the players to have that feeling. It's saying that they understand the situation. So it's a good feeling.
"It's understanding that in this club, everything is ups and downs. We understand that, but I prefer that feeling [the ups] than the other side."
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Looking back on the stalemate with Everton, Amorim continued: "You can perform, I don't like to say bad, but we can struggle a little bit in the game, but if you create chances you can win even that kind of game.
"If you play well, they will say that we play really well, something on the opposite side. It's the same thing, so we need to be really consistent. We already knew that we had two weeks, this will not change in two weeks, but we are better.
"Even in this game we create chances and that is really important. But of course, I think it's the perfect feeling to go back to Carrington. I think the momentum of the tour was perfect.
"So we had the weeks to work with a good environment, good feeling, and then we go back to Carrington and we are near to start the season. We are going with the feeling that we need to do a lot of things."