Ruben Amorim has so far mastered the media game at Manchester United, even if he has had to do a little too much of it at times!
From deftly handling the Marcus Rashford situation to laying down challenges for his team, he has perfectly balanced the carrot-and-stick approach.
However, his latest comments about the dressing room seem to have gotten a reaction out of his player which could well be intentional but was fiery nonetheless.
Amorim recently claimed while talking about Harry Maguire’s extension that the dressing room was “starving” for leaders and that’s something his player hasn’t taken kindly to.
Diogo Dalot fights back against Ruben Amorim claim
It is clear to see that United’s performances vs Liverpool confused Amorim as he had long thought that the group of players was having trouble taking his instructions, something that would improve with time.
However, the fact that they turned up for that game out of nowhere was a surprise for him. The inconsistency in the team has been put down to one thing – a lack of strong characters in the dressing room.
Amorim’s insistence that the United dressing room is starving for leaders was a damning judgment on the state of affairs in the Man Utd squad.
He effectively admitted that the squad doesn’t have strong enough characters that enabled them to keep their standards maintained regardless of the opposition.
Now, Diogo Dalot has come out in an interview and reiterated that Amorim’s comments “pinched” him, disagreeing that the United dressing room lacks leaders.
He said: “It obviously pinched my, that statement from him and it’s something that I’ve been trying to take out of myself a little bit more.
“We have great leaders inside the dressing room. Sometimes, people don’t see it but we are trying to help out teammates. We feel that we have to look at it and look at ourselves as well.
“It pinched me but at the same time I can say that we have great leaders inside the dressing room who can be up to that level.”
Ruben Amorim gets desired reaction
Amorim’s intention when he made that statement might have been exactly this, to get a reaction out of players and shock them awake from their slumber.
In any good dressing room, that assertion from the manager should hurt the players and drive them to prove the manager wrong.
Therefore, in that sense, Dalot’s comments show Amorim has got the desired reaction from his player and now the challenge is for the rest of the side to follow.
Ultimately, actions are stronger than words so as long as United remain inconsistent, these words remain just lip service, something which Man Utd fans have had a lot of in the last decade from multiple batches of players.
To his credit, Dalot has been one of the players who has turned his career around completely by being a thorough professional and always turning up.
Becoming a leader as one of the longer serving players is the natural next step, especially after these comments where he accepts he’s making a conscious effort to do that.
Amorim would be a happy man.
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