Man Utd drew 2-2 with Nottingham Forest in the Premier League and Ruben Amorim explained the changes he made after the game.
Ruben Amorim made no attacking substitutions against Nottingham Forest because he believed Manchester United had the right players on the pitch to come back in the game.
United were leading 1-0 at half-time, but Morgan Gibbs-White and Nicolo Savona both scored in the space of a few minutes at the start of the second half to turn the game on its head.
Amorim eventually reacted by introducing Patrick Dorgu for Diogo Dalot in the 68th minute. Noussair Mazraoui was the next player to come on from the bench to replace Leny Yoro.
The United boss refused to freshen his attack in pursuit of a way back into the contest, but Amad scored a stunning volley with nine minutes remaining to salvage a point.
Speaking during his press conference, Amorim explained the changes, saying: “Sometimes it’s not if you put on more strikers, I don’t feel we are going to play better. If you see Dalot, many times he has the ball with the space to make the cross, but he is a right foot and is always inside with that space.
“The only thing is Patrick [Dorgu] we are going to do the same thing. When you have the ball, go to the side, cross because the space is there. If you want to come inside, Cunha is always there to receive the ball.
“Nous [Mazraoui], if you see the end of the second half, Leny [Yoro] was always the guy with space to run with the ball, and Nous is a full-back, so we try to use the characteristics of the players.
“And then it’s not the quality because we have a lot of quality on the bench, but sometimes I have the feeling if I stop the game all the time I’m going to break something.”
He continued: “I think we were improving during the second half, so my feeling was I didn’t change anything with the guys in front because we have the talent there. And I know Amad can do so much better.
“I know Amad is really dangerous one-against-one. So sometimes we expect a guy who is not having a great game can change the game for us. He managed to score. But we have the potential to do so much better and lost two points today.”
Kobbie Mainoo and Joshua Zirkzee were left on the bench again. Amorim said: “I could do the same thing with Kobbie Mainoo, Mason Mount… Mount was there also. Mainoo and Josh. Then you have to imagine the game. Josh is a little bit like Cunha playing between the lines.
“And if you see the game, we had a guy that needs to be inside the box and Ben is the best one to do that. It’s just a moment, we try to do our best and it’s nothing to do with the quality on the bench.”
He added about the result: “I understand the momentum of our team. Nothing has changed radically from last week. It’s just the confidence and the results. The way you see our team is different, but the way I see the moment of our team doesn’t change, so it’s my job to try maintain the team’s balance.
“If you see the first [Forest] goal, it’s a gamble. I want Amad playing in that position, but he is not the best one to defend crosses. I think we are better to press high, if you have more guys in front to control the games.
“If you play at Old Trafford, you can feel the vibe and that can help us in certain moments. We need to regain that feeling of a big team when it does matter the environment.
“We can control everything, but we are not there. But also, if you see the big teams in our league, they are more comfortable playing at home, so that is normal. We need to push ourselves that energy because our team needs to play with full energy [home and away] to be really good.”
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2025-11-02 04:00:00
