Ruben Amorim says Manchester United must continue with humility and hunger as they head to Ruud van Nistelrooy’s relegation-threatened Leicester.
The Red Devils have enjoyed a rare positive week in what has been a challenging season, with the 1-1 league draw against Arsenal followed by the announcement of a new 100,000-seater stadium and Europa League progress.
United dealt with 11 absentees against the Gunners and both legs of the last-16 tie against Real Sociedad, where last week’s 1-1 draw was followed by a Bruno Fernandes hat-trick in an impressive 4-1 triumph on Thursday.
Exacting Amorim took heart from those performances and his side’s progress, but he says there can be no let up as they travel to Leicester on Sunday for the final match before the international break.
“Everything is important and we need to continue with this feeling that we can win games and games after games,” the United head coach said.
“It doesn’t matter the time of rest or the time to prepare the next game. We can do it, and we showed against Arsenal.
“We have to be humble and forget that, forget the table and face Leicester like we faced Real Sociedad. We just need to win to improve our position in the table.
“The most important thing is to continue with this feeling of winning and that we are improving as a team.”
United enter the weekend 14th in the Premier League and are out of both domestic cups, but they have managed to beat Leicester in all three competitions.
Current Foxes boss Van Nistelrooy oversaw United’s wins in the Carabao Cup and reverse league fixture when he was the Red Devils’ interim boss, before Amorim knocked them out of the FA Cup.
Thursday’s win against La Real was just United’s second victory in seven matches since that meeting with Leicester last month, but Amorim is seeing signs of development.
“I feel in the last game that we understand better the idea of what we want to do,” the Portuguese said.
“We are better understanding the plan for the games. We are giving more time to the team to win or draw games.
“We are not suffering one goal and then losing our minds and suffering another goal, so we are understanding the moments of the game, and also we are understanding better the way we want to play.”
United will again be without a string of absentees on Sunday, but Manuel Ugarte, Harry Maguire and Mason Mount could feature.
Chido Obi, 17, is available having been left out of the Red Devils’ Europa League squad, unlike fellow teenager Ayden Heaven, who followed the striker in making the move from Arsenal to Old Trafford.
Injuries have seen the defender fast-tracked into the side since joining last month, with the 18-year-old putting in an assured display against La Real as he made his first competitive start in senior football.
“I really like his confidence, I like his pace,” Amorim said of Heaven. “I think he’s good in defending the box. I think he’s quite complete, but he has a lot of work to do.”
