Rúben Amorim said Manchester United will have to “suffer for a long period” before his methods help the club enjoy success again after a 1-1 draw at Ipswich Town denied the new head coach a debut win in his first game in charge.
Marcus Rashford’s opening goal after 81 seconds had given United a dream start at Portman Road, but Omari Hutchinson’s equaliser sealed a point for Kieran McKenna’s team and the home side would have won but for two crucial saves by United goalkeeper André Onana.
Despite having less than a week to work with his new squad on the training ground, the former Sporting CP coach deployed his favoured 3-4-2-1 formation and said it led to his players overthinking their performance.
“I know it’s frustrating for the fans, but we are changing so much in this moment with a lot of games,” Amorim told reporters. “We are going to suffer for a long period and we will try to win games, but this will take time.
“We have to win games, but we could lose if it was not for Onana, so I think we have to understand that and think and be pragmatic that these guys had two days to train to change so much.
“It’s hard for the players in three days to cope with everything, but we forget about the new idea. I think that’s why I was brought here in the middle of the season and we try to cope with the things they are used to doing [under Erik ten Hag].
“This is like steps. We have to put in the heads, th
e structure. When they start thinking about the structure, they will play so much better.
“But we need time to do that and during this time we have to manage to win games. That is very important and I know that.”
