Man Utd boss Amorim lays down the law with ‘first place’ message: ‘I will talk to the player’

Ruben Amorim is looking forward to Ineos director Sir David Brailsford creating a ‘culture’ at Manchester United and has explained his own non-negotiables.

Amorim replaced Erik ten Hag as Man Utd head coach earlier this month and takes charge of his first match against Ipswich on Sunday.

He is the first managerial appointment of the Ineos era -which is being led by Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

Amorim discussed the hierarchy at Old Trafford in an interview with Gary Neville.

He said: “Dave Brailsford is known to create cultures. Of course, it’s different sports, but he can prove that he can create cultures that win and strong cultures. We need that in the club. We don’t need to hide that.

“Then we have Dan Ashworth. Dan is well known here in England. He has the same position of Sporting’s Hugo Viana (future Manchester City director of football).

“One of the things to be practical to explain is that it’s important when a coach says something, you have someone like Dan that says the same thing to the players. This connection is so important in the club.

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“Then the player is going to talk with an agent, and the agent will talk with Dan and he will hear the same thing. This is so important because the players will feel that there is no place to run or there is no place to hide. So we have to be on the same page.

“Then you have Jason Wilcox, he’s the technical director. It’s so important because for me, we need to improve Carrington with the youth teams. So we need to create a profile for the type of players that you want in the first team. We have to improve. We have good players but we should be better from what I saw.”

Asked what his non-negotiables are, Amorim said: “You can say the pretty things like hard work, be professional. You should be. This is Manchester United. In every club [you should be] but here, of course, you cannot run from that.

“The aim is to think first in the team. So I know that some guys will sometimes play in a different position, but they have to understand the position and they have to fight for the team. As a former player, I know every trick.

“I can understand the players. I can understand what they are doing, why they are doing it. If they are doing it for the team, I will defend them until the end.

“I can lose my job before throwing a player under the bus. But if he doesn’t put the team in first place, I will be the first one to talk with the player.”

Amorim continued: “I know that at this moment our fans are with mixed feelings – ‘I want to be excited, but I have been here so I’m a little bit afraid. It’s the same story all the time. I can be disappointed.’

“So what I can say is that I’m really excited. I’m not afraid to show it. But I have a clear idea that this will take time.

“Don’t confuse my happiness with naivety. It’s not the same thing. I’m really happy.

“I know what to do. But I have an idea that we are going to suffer a little bit before improving in the way that you should improve.”