Ruben Amorim wants fans to focus on performances rather than get carried away by results after his promising start to life in the Manchester United hot-seat continued with a comprehensive victory over Everton.
The 39-year-old Portuguese has brought a much-needed dose of hope and excitement back to Old Trafford after a rotten start to Erik ten Hag’s third season in charge led to a change in the dugout.
Amorim’s name was chanted during last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Ipswich and Thursday’s 3-2 comeback win against Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League, with the volume of those songs reaching new levels on Sunday.
Marcus Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee scored a brace apiece in a 4-0 thumping of Everton as the United head coach secured his first Premier League triumph in style.
Asked whether challenging for Champions League qualification was a ridiculous aim for United after moving up to ninth and within four points of the top four, Amorim said: “I understand that.
“It’s hard for me. If I say no, you will say that I cannot be a Manchester United coach. I want to be honest with our fans, so let’s focus on the performance, not the results. So, we’ll see in the end.
“In the end, I said this many times, I will be judged about the place that we finish. I know that. But let’s focus just on the next game and look at the performance.
“Sometimes we play like Thursday, which was 3-2 but I think we deserve more. Today was a 4-0. I think everything deserved more also.
“So, let’s focus on the performance, congratulations to the lads. Let’s rest, recover and think about Arsenal (on Wednesday).”
Amorim praised goalscorers Rashford and Zirkzee for their performances on a day when Amad Diallo shone the brightest.
The 22-year-old’s pressing led him to outstrip Everton defenders before for the second and fourth goals on a day that also saw him slip in Rashford for the third 20 seconds after half-time.
“He was really good again,” Amorim said of Diallo. “He’s in a great moment, but that moment starts with Ruud (van Nistelrooy, the former assistant and interim manager). I just take advantage of Ruud’s work with Amad.
“He was really good defending and really good attacking, so he has to continue to play like that.
“You could feel at the end of the game that he was really, really tired, so we have also to manage that as he increases his physical ability.”
United’s attention switches to their Premier League trip to Arsenal on Wednesday, when Everton will host fellow strugglers Wolves.
Sean Dyche is under the spotlight having won just two of their 13 top-flight matches this term, but the manager was in defiant mood after Sunday’s loss.
“We’re still finding key moments, but we’ve got to take them,” the Everton boss said. “I mean, they took theirs today from mistakes, they still found the last pass, the last finish.
“It’s been a challenge here. I looked at the last five seasons and it’s not a team that has been scoring loads of goals for a long time.
“It’s how effective you can be, but you’ve got to keep the back door shut, quite obviously, and we’ve been doing that.
“But how can you find other ways of scoring? And today, I thought we got into really good areas, the final finish, the final moment, slide pass, a shot, these sort of things are vital in the game, and we haven’t got on the right side of that again.”
Asked if he feels able to turn this around, Dyche said: “I’ve turned around many things in my career, and certainly here.
“Goodness me, it’s been up, down, up, down, up, down, ever since I’ve been here, since the first day I walked in.
“That’s the ongoing challenge and I think the consistency of a group here has been hard to find for me, for the last manager, the one before that…
“So, it’s not like a given that you find that consistency, but I think we’ve got a group of players who are very honest, I think they’re up for the challenge – they have shown that for the last couple of seasons.
“That’s the challenge right in front of our eyes again.”
