Ruben Amorim has two weeks to prepare his Manchester United side to face Tottenham in the Europa League final.
While it has been a turbulent season for Manchester United on the pitch, Ruben Amorim’s side remains the only team unbeaten in the Europa League this season after reaching the final.
United boast an impressive record in the Europa League, winning nine of their 14 matches thus far, drawing five and losing none. Amorim will hope his side can continue that record when they take on Tottenham in Bilbao on May 21.
Many have raised their eyebrows at the fact that two teams, destined to finish in the bottom half of the Premier League this season, are set to face off in the final of Europe’s second-tier competition.
The Red Devils still have two Premier League matches to play before their eagerly anticipated final against Tottenham.
On Sunday, United host West Ham in a game against a side sitting lower in the table, but nothing can be taken for granted as Amorim could decide to rotate his squad after the Red Devils beat Athletic Club 3-1 on Thursday night.
Ruben Amorim admits Man Utd are still lacking ahead of Europa League final
Even though United are unbeaten in the Europa League, Amorim has not hidden away from the fact that the team’s European campaign has been far from perfect.
Amorim was again questioned about his comments after United beat Lyon 5-4 at Old Trafford in the quarter-finals, when he mentioned that the team has some weaknesses.
United’s head coach pointed out that his squad was lacking some important characteristics, but he was unwilling to go into further detail about that ahead of the final, while accepting there are many problems.
“No, I will not share too much. But you can understand the characteristics; when I say characteristics, it is players that play more inside than outside, those small things, even the foot.
“It’s really important in the position that Garna [Alejandro Garnacho] played today, as a right 10, to have a left foot. It can change the way you play. To have some wingers that are more offensive than defensive, that can change the way we play. So these kind of things that we are going to try to do in the future but it is going to take time.
“It’s not going to be one summer or whatever. So I was just talking about that and then the weaknesses, you can see the game. We have so many problems, even winning these kind of games. You can see during the game, we have a lot of things to improve.”
It’s no secret that United have many areas that need to improve next season. The current league position tells you that, but the Europa League has extra significance because winning it would grant the club more spending power in the summer as it would secure Champions League qualification.
United fans are demanding vast improvements next term, but there’s a feeling among the masses that it will take a few years before the team is ready to compete for Premier League titles.
Amorim taking entire Man squad on Asia tour
United will be travelling on their post-season tour to Asia at the end of the current campaign.
It’s an opportunity for Ineos to raise more funds ahead of the summer transfer window, and Amorim is fully behind the trip, even though it raises further questions about the amount of fixtures professional footballers are being asked to play each year.
Amorim confirmed that his full squad travelling to Asia as it’s a chance to connect with fans across the world.
He told reporters: “Yes, so I was consulted and, again, I already spoke about that. We cannot say nothing after this season, so we need to help the club because the club wins some more money. We are going to connect with our fans around the world and that is important, especially when we lose and we disappoint our supporters during this tough season.
“So I think it is the least we can do. And we are going to take all the team, the young kids also, and we’ll have the staff there. We had a lot of changes in the staff so we’re trying to build something as a family. I think it is also a good thing.”
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