MANCHESTER, England — Ruben Amorim said he will learn more about his players when they face bottom-of-the-table Southampton than during the positive performances against Liverpool and Arsenal.
Manchester United defied the odds to claim a 2-2 draw at Anfield and then beat Arsenal on penalties in the FA Cup despite being reduced to 10 men.
Amorim’s team face Southampton at Old Trafford on Thursday and he warned his players that he will be closely watching how they perform when the pressure is on to win the game.
“I think this next game will teach me more from my players than the last two,” Armorim told a news conference on Wednesday.
“I’m focused to see what kind of game we will play [against Southampton]. We will know [on Thursday]. There was no expectation for us in the last two games. Nobody expected, but now they are expecting us to win and play well. So we will learn more.”
United have secured positive results against Liverpool and Arsenal away from Old Trafford, but haven’t won a home game since beating Everton on Dec. 1.
They have lost their last three games at Old Trafford and haven’t lost more consecutive top-flight home matches since 1930.
Amorim was asked whether he could recall Marcus Rashford against Southampton, but the 39-year-old refused to be drawn.
“I just want to win,” he said. “My focus is to win tomorrow. I will choose the players I think are best to win tomorrow.”
Amorim is omitting Rashford, who is available to leave the club this month, at a time when his team are struggling to score goals. They have only scored 23 in the league this season — the same number as Leicester who are 19th in the table.
“The most difficult thing to train in one team is the way you build with the ball and in the final third the way we play,” Amorim said. “That is what a big team should do very well. We have for a long time had a lack of goals. We need to improve in that part of the game.”
