The reason broadcasters insist managers speak directly after the match is for predicaments like Ruben Amorim found himself in following Manchester United’s chastening League Cup exit at Grimsby.
Being knocked out by a fourth-tier side on penalties was always going to hurt – prime time for ITV to get their broadcast rights money’s worth.
By admitting his players “spoke loudly” with their performance in Cleethorpes, Amorim opened the door to questions over his own future. It came just three games into a season that promised so much, after a positive summer in which the winds of change had seemingly swept through Carrington.
Most managers could easily put the negativity put to bed when next speaking to the media, having had time to reflect and meditate. Not Amorim.
“To be really honest with you guys, every time that we have or have in the future one defeat like that, I’m going to be like that,” he said ahead of what is now a crucial clash with Burnley on Saturday.
“Sometimes I want to quit, sometimes I want to be here for 20 years, sometimes I love to be with my players, sometimes I don’t want to be with them.
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United’s humiliation at Grimsby has piled the pressure on Amorim (Photo: Reuters)
“And I know, again, that you have a lot of experienced people talking about the way I should perform with the media, to be more constant, to be more calm. I’m not going to be like that.
“I don’t know what is going to happen. I am not going to promise you nothing [about whether he would resign or not], what is going to be the future. But I’m the manager of Manchester United and I think that is not going to change.”
United figures rushed to qualify what Amorim was trying to say after the press conference, insisting the Portuguese saying he “wants to quit” does not mean that he does, it is tongue in cheek, his way of explaining how emotional he gets in games.
Context is important in these situations. Amorim said similar after United’s Europa League final loss to Tottenham. He is right, broadcasters pay millions to get quick manager reactions like Amorim’s on the Blundell Park pitch for this very reason.
Doubling down two days later, whether jovially or not, tells a different story. Conversations with the hierarchy have taken place since the Grimsby debacle. There can’t have been too many reassurances from the powers that be that Amorim’s position is overly safe.
His demeanour suggests something isn’t quite right. His programme notes for the Burnley match are an astonishingly brief 95 words, not even enough to fill one column.
Such a woeful start to the season will be difficult to take. At the opening of the club’s shiny, positive-vibes-only training facility ahead of the new campaign, the improved mood among the players was palpable as they playfully teased each other like kids on a school trip whenever the teacher was not looking.
A new £200m strikeforce only added to the feeling of optimism among supporters desperate to forget last year’s season from hell.
Zero wins from three, with goals remaining in short supply still, has left Amorim scratching his head.
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Doubts over his methodology persist as he sticks, unsuccessfully, with his 3-4-3 system. He has often been keen to reiterate he is not for turning, and again insisted the Amorim way can be successful. Time for the naysayers to see something, anything, to back that up. If he does stick around, that is.
“If I feel that it’s best to change, then I will,” Amorim added. “I played all my life in the 4-4-2, 4-3-3. The only system that I didn’t play one minute, 3-4-3.
“I just have one idea that we need to be so good in this way of playing, then we are going to adapt. What I’m thinking is that we have one system that is going to adapt to different systems, and then when everyone is doing this with his eyes shut, I’m going to change a lot of things.
“I will do my system no matter what. And then in the future, I could change. I could wake up one morning and say ‘I understand that for my idea of football, it’s better to change right away’.
“I just want to win. We didn’t lose against Grimsby because of the system. In the first half, I didn’t know the system. It’s not the system.”