Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has admitted he felt his side were too nervous heading into Sunday’s meeting with Bournemouth.
United were emphatically beaten 3-0 by the Cherries, who pounced on their weaknesses from set pieces to take a first-half lead and never looked back, with United failing to make the most of their dominance in possession.
Reflecting on the game, Amorim confessed his squad seemed more nervous than usual, with that energy also seeping into the Old Trafford crowd.
“This game was hard on us,” Amorim said. “We suffered again on set pieces and we were a little bit nervous – also the stadium at the beginning of the game, I felt it. It’s a lot of mental [nervousness]. You can feel it not just with the players, the fans too.
“I felt it from the first minute, there’s a lot of anxiety. That’s normal because of the context and it’s really disappointing. It’s a tough moment but we have to face it and prepare for the next game.”
Dead-ball situations were a problem for United once again as Dean Huijsen escaped Joshua Zirkzee to head home the opening goal, but Amorim was keen to deflect criticism away from set-piece coach Carlos Fernandes.
“It is my responsibility to coach them, not Carlos – it is all on me,” he said. “Of course we want to improve. In this moment, everything is so much harder – a club like Manchester United to lose 3-0 at home, it’s really tough for everybody. And of course the fans are really disappointed and tired.
“You can feel it in the stadium and I understand that, but we have to face it. We know what to do. We have to improve set pieces. I think we are not giving the ball away as much as we did. We control the game better, we don’t concede a lot of spaces, transitions, we control very well against one team who score 60% of their goals when the ball is in [the opponents’] half.”
