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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Robbie Hanratty

Ruben Amorim doubles down on 'really anxious' Man Utd, first goal crucial vs Rangers

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has stressed the importance of his side scoring the first goal against Rangers on Thursday night.

The former Sporting Lisbon coach revealed that there's an anxiousness from his players every time they step out on the Old Trafford pitch, with United losing four of their last five home matches while continually giving away cheap goals.

The Europa League clash provides both British clubs the opportunity to cement their place in the top eight spots of the league-phase, which would guarantee automatic qualification to the knockout stage.


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"You have to look really hard to find a team of Manchester United players in ten games that lose seven games, and that is on me," Amorim stated.

"It's the same players doing worse with a new coach, that's my only concern in the moment. But I'm not taking anything from the players. What I'm saying is that we have to improve in the details and I've explained that. 

"We are too nervous with the ball, really anxious, and then it's really hard to recover, especially when you are at a massive club. 

"We are more nervous playing at home, I think that is clear. I could say different things and say 'no, no, we have the support of the fans'. No, we are more nervous playing at home than away because we lost a lot of games, like four games in five, so it's getting harder. 

"But we can improve. I think if we don't suffer the first goal like in the fourth minute, and I remember, it's four minute, ten minute, 15 minutes, and then it's really hard to calm down the team.

"The first thing in my mind is they cannot score. We need to score the first one. If we score the first one then I think that will change and we will play better at home in the beginning.

"So, that's it. I think it's really clear for everybody that it's getting harder to play at Old Trafford."


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Manchester United defender Harry Maguire was then asked how it felt to hear his boss call the team nervous and what they can do as a collective to transition away from that accusation.

"We spoke about the first goal at Old Trafford. It's not teams coming to Old Trafford and opening us up and tactically breaking us down," the England centre-back explained. 

"Anyone that was at the game against Brighton - it was a 50/50 game and could have gone either way and we gave them a goal early on which we knew we had to stop. We spoke about it in the pre-match.

(Image: Martin Rickett - PA) "We have to stop giving away the first goal. The first goal against Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth were set-plays, the first goal against Southampton was from a set-play. 

"These aren't things that are tactically a problem - these are things that you have to go into a game focused on and mentally ready to win a football match. 

"Football matches are sometimes defined on small margins and at the moment we aren't getting those because we aren't mentally focused enough to make them go our away."

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