Viktoria Plzen vs Man Utd LIVE: Europa League team news and line-ups as Red Devils seek to get back to winning ways

The Manchester United boss was quick to explain where he feels his team can improve after losing to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.

He said: “It is really simple. I think against Nottingham [Forest] we should pass the ball a little bit quicker, so it is with safety but a little bit more quicker when everything is blocked.

“For me the most important point is that every player should be in the good position to start when we play. We were controlling the game and we started the second half very well and if you remember one play, Leny Yoro makes a one-two, jumps and then makes a bad pass. He [gives them] a counter attack and then, a goal.

“We have to continue to play in the same way but with a low block. It is this kind of details and you have to play the ball by preparing to lose the ball sometimes. These kind of points are really important in our team because in the past, and still, in this moment you can see a lot of moments like this.

“I can remember just from the top of my head, the game against Liverpool, all the goals were mostly like that and we are doing work on that. You see the same thing last week so we are trying to improve with the ball but also the way when you can lose the ball, you are covering our own goal.”

A historic victory for a catalytic Portuguese manager at Old Trafford. Just what Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the powerbrokers who headhunted Ruben Amorim imagined, but for one minor detail. The winner was not their glamorous newcomer but the unfashionable figure of Nuno Espirito Santo, who has steered Nottingham Forest to heights few dared to think they could touch. As for Amorim, his honeymoon period seems fleeting. The problems at Manchester United, it appears, could only be concealed for three matches.

Since then, Amorim has suffered back-to-back defeats. If losing at Arsenal had a logic, being beaten by Forest at Old Trafford was the sort of chastening setback that happened all too often in Erik ten Hag’s final 14 months in charge. Amorim’s United displayed familiar flaws and new shortcomings, contributing to their own downfall with individual errors, slow starts and set-piece failings. Much as in Ten Hag’s unravelling, United were too open, too liable to be counterattacked and left the midfield too empty. Some of this was Ten Hag-style chaos.

Goalkeepers: Altay Bayindir, Tom Heaton, Andre Onana.

Defenders: Diogo Dalot, Matthijs De Ligt, Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire, Tyrell Malacia, Lisandro Martinez, Noussair Mazraoui, Leny Yoro.

Midfielders: Casemiro, Toby Collyer, Christian Eriksen, Bruno Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo, Mason Mount, Manuel Ugarte.

Forwards: Amad, Antony, Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund, Marcus Rashford, Joshua Zirkzee.

As team news approaches here’s a few pics on Man Utd preparing for tonight’s game:

Sunday morning brought the stunning announcement that the 53-year-old was leaving Old Trafford just 159 days after an agreement was finally struck to bring him from Newcastle.

Ashworth’s departure was met by surprise from afar as well as inside United, where the PA news agency understands there was shock from many staff despite a sense that things had not been going smoothly within the hierarchy.

“I have felt, since day one, the support from everybody so one person leaving doesn’t change nothing,” Ruben Amorim added.

“Of course it is a bad situation like I said because you are talking about a human being, a professional that supports us as a team. I think the most important thing is that the vision is really clear and that vision does not change only because one person leaves.”

As head coach of Manchester United, Ruben Amorim is discovering that he cannot just stick to football when it comes to speaking to the media.

So much is happening off the pitch, such as the exit of sporting director Dan Ashworth, that the manager will always have to have his say on things.

Amorim was asked about Ashworth’s departure this week and he said: “The first thing that I want to say is since the first day I have felt great support from the ownership.

“From Omar [Berrada] and then also from Jason [Wilcox], and Dan [Ashworth] was part of that. Really, really, really felt the support from them also.

“But this is football and sometimes these things happen with players and with coaches. I know it is not the best situation but the important thing is we continue in our way. The path is really clear for everybody. I think this can happen in football.”

The big question at Old Trafford is whether that same seriousness will now extend to United’s leadership structure, given that things look increasingly farcical.

Personality clashes have contributed to Ashworth’s departure. He wasn’t really fitting into the structure either, although that was partly due to a case of “too many cooks”. Alongside these reasons was also doubt about some of Ashworth’s judgement.

With a Manchester derby looming at the weekend and United also in need of performing well in the Europa League, Ruben Amorim seems somewhat stuck with how best to utilise his squad.

The manager has been vocal about drilling each of his players with his 3-4-3 system so expect a fairly strong team to head onto the pitch tonight.

Man Utd XI: Onana; Mazraoui, Maguire, Martinez; Dalot, Eriksen, Casemiro, Malacia; Rashford, Mount; Zirkzee