Man United lost 4-3 to Tottenham in the League Cup quarter-final, having gone 3-0 down in the 54th minute.
Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim refused to criticise goalkeeper Altay Bayindir after his costly errors in their 4-3 League Cup quarter-final defeat to Tottenham.
Bayindir, on only his fourth appearance for United, palmed Pedro Porro’s shot out to Dominic Solanke to give Spurs a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute and he was beaten direct from a Son Heung-min corner for the winning goal.
The Turkey international claimed he was fouled by Tottenham substitute Lucas Bergvall yet there was minimal contact.
When asked if Bayindir had held his hands up and acknowledged his errors, Amorim replied: “He doesn’t have to do that. He has to focus and we will see the game and we will improve every player of this team.
“We win together, we lose together, you already know it’s not the individual it’s the team, we could win even with all these goals in the game, so let’s focus on that.”
Amorim felt United suffered a “disconnect” at the start of the second half when Spurs scored 47 seconds after the restart to go 2-0 up. Solanke then claimed his second goal in the 54th minute to make it 3-0 before United threatened a comeback, pegging Spurs back to 3-2.
“We controlled the possession,” Amorim added. “I think we were not the best team in all of the game, but most of the parts I think we were the best team.
“We had the same situation in the first half that are similar with the second and third goal of Tottenham and that made a difference. We disconnect for eight minutes and was really hard to recover from that. But then the lads did a great job to recover.
“We were so near the draw, so near, and that could make the difference because we still have time to win the game but then the fourth goal was really hard for us. We managed to respond but in the end is not enough and we are out of the cup.
“If you look at the game, if you forget the long balls from Tottenham, it’s really hard to have a lot of pictures with five in the back. We are pressing high, it’s impossible to press high with five in the back. I know you used to look at the system and say five at the back but it’s three defenders in my view.
“The disconnect is simple as [to] suffer a goal and then we manage to have long possession to calm down the game. You felt that we suffer the goal, then the ball goes to the middle, we continue to play our way but we lose a lot of balls near our box with the team all open and were really nervous in that moment.
“One long ball, we suffer the third goal and then we manage to calm down, push again and score three goals. Of course, we suffered the goal but when you suffer [a] goal you have to have long possession to calm down and to stay in the game and we couldn’t do it.”
2024-12-19 23:04:32
