Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim has fired back at Cristiano Ronaldo and urged the club to look to the future, rather than focus on the mistakes made under his regime and those made by previous managers. The United manager has also highlighted the key problem "he cannot allow" to continue holding his team back this season.
Ronaldo wades in on United slump
In a recent interview with Piers Morgan, Ronaldo criticised Man Utd's continued struggles, stating the club "don't have a structure" and are "not on a good path". He expressed sadness over the team's decline, despite still loving the club. Ronaldo claimed that Amorim could not perform "miracles" with the current set-up and that some players don't have the right mentality for a club of United’s stature. The comments came nearly three years after his explosive 2022 interview with Morgan, which led to his departure.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner said: "You have to follow with the intelligent people, smart people, to create a base for the future as Manchester United have (done) so many years ago. Nicky Butt, Gary (Neville), Roy Keane, (David) Beckham, they became big players but they had youth. So Manchester United right now, they don't have a structure. I hope that changes in the future, present/future, because the potential of the club, it's amazing. It's one of the most important clubs of the century.
He added: He's (Amorim) doing his best. What are you going to do? Miracles? Miracles is impossible. We say in Portugal, 'miracles is only in Fatima', and he's not going to do miracles."
The Miracle of Fatima occurred in Portugal in 1917, where observers claimed to have seen the sun dance, spin, and appear to fall towards the earth.
AdvertisementGetty Images Sport'Let's continue and forget the past'
Amorim said: "Of course, he knows and he (Ronaldo) has a huge impact in everything he says. What we need to focus on is the future. We know that we as a club made a lot of mistakes in the past and we are trying to change that. Let's not focus on what happened, let's focus on what we are doing now and we are doing that. We are changing a lot of things in the structure, the way we do things and want the players to behave. We are doing that and we are improving, so let's continue and forget the past."
Amorim identifies key problem
Amorim added: "I think you can attack really well. Sometimes when you defend better, you attack better. I think it's not that, it's the way we defend the box, but the last game we struggled inside the box because we allowed the crosses into the box without any pressure.
"These small details that you watched during the last game, we have worked on that. In our last game, they had 17 shots and we cannot allow that. It's something we need to change. We can attack the same way, score even more goals, but we need to defend better."
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United face Tottenham this weekend, the first time the two teams have met since the Europa League final in May, which the Reds lost 1-0. Spurs have an excellent away record, but have been woeful at home and Amorim believes his side have improved since losing the final in Bilbao.
Amorim said: "The characteristics of the players, we have different characteristics in our team, but we also have a lot of players who played last year. We are a better team, we play better and we understand the game better. We are more confident. At this moment, we play with a different confidence. We manage better the moments of the game, but if you remember that game, they had that shot on the goal and won the game. I expect a different game. We can play better, but also have a little bit of luck to win the game."
He added: "I think we are more confident. We believe more that we can win any game and we prove already that we can win any game. The last game was tough on us because in some moments we weren’t the team we were supposed to be in every minute. And compare that against Brighton, it was a different thing.”