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Amorim enjoys ‘special’ first Man Utd win despite ‘anxiety’
The scream of relief the 39-year-old let out as Rasmus Hojlund scored the first of his two goals to level the contest at half-time underlined the strain Amorim is under.
The Portuguese has moved clubs – a third of the way through the season – with a determination to implement a wing-back formation United have no recent history of using. And this at a point in the campaign when fixture congestion is at its greatest.
Amorim had two full training sessions with his entire squad before his first game at Ipswich on Sunday, and two more in the build-up to this European success.
He has already revealed his only way around the situation is to push those who do not start matches through full training sessions the day after. And Amorim is not sure how it will work.
“I get anxious because I don’t know what will happen,” he told TNT Sports. “We don’t control anything at the moment.
“I don’t know the players and we have not worked a lot together.
“We go to the game excited, but at the same time you are nervous because you don’t know how the game will go.”
Although the lengthy injury list that blighted Erik ten Hag’s last weeks at Old Trafford is starting to ease, the lingering issues created by lengthy absences continue.
In his first game for 18 months, Tyrell Malacia lasted just 45 minutes in the left wing-back role that places huge physical demands on the player picked to fill it.
Luke Shaw made a second substitute appearance, coming on for Lisandro Martinez, who was playing his first game since getting injured before this month’s international break.
It was a relief for Amorim, therefore, that his team came out on top, having profited from Alejandro Garnacho’s 48-second opener, then recovering – courtesy of Hojlund’s double – after falling behind to two first-half goals in seven minutes.
“We improved different things since the last game,” he said. “We controlled more of the tempo, pushed the team a bit higher (up the pitch) and created more chances.”
Amorim’s complaint was that “we should kill the game before the end”, as he lamented two wasted opportunities for Garnacho and another that substitute Marcus Rashford flashed across goal, all in the second half.
“I like the way the players tried to play our game,” he added.
“Sometimes we won the ball and have had problems in the past giving the ball away too much – the mindset is keeping the ball.
“They are really trying and I think we deserved the win.”