Ruben Amorim admits Manchester United will have to “suffer” as they strive to master his favoured 3-4-3 formation.
United drew 1-1 with Ipswich Town at Portman Road in Amorim’s first match in charge and struggled to adjust to the Portuguese’s demands as Andre Onana was called upon to make three impressive saves.
Despite going 1-0 up through Marcus Rashford after 80 seconds, United failed to build on their advantage and Amorim admitted some United players got “stuck”.
“It’s hard to expect anything now,” Amorim said. “It’s not a surprise but you have to see it in game. That’s why I was a little bit anxious because you cannot understand what will happen in the game. I felt that.
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“They were trying, they were thinking too much during the game and that is normal. We start very well but then we should have more possession with the ball, kept the ball and sometimes we had the ball in defence and the rest of the guys were too stuck because they were thinking, ‘where should I be?’
“So this is the first point, when we make a new structure and you are so clear on that, they need time to have some fluidity in the game and I felt that. But it’s two games and I felt they did okay.
“What I understood today is they are trying, they are really trying, they stay in the positions, they receive the information and they try to use it in the game, that is very important. Even in the difficult moments I felt they were doing the things we wanted them to do.
“I know it’s frustrating for the fans but we are changing so much in this moment with a lot of games. We are going to suffer for a long period and we will try to win games, this will take time. We have to win games but we could lose if it was not for Onana. So I think we have to understand that and think and be pragmatic that these guys had two days to train to change so much.
“They are thinking too much because things are so different. Some details, they used to pass the ball and go forward. Even the centre backs. Now they have to go back. These type of things they start going forward and they have to think too much. Dalot used to do it, pass the ball to centre backs, go inside, play as a midfielder, now he has to stick to this position.
“It’s hard for the players in three days to cope with everything but we forget about the new idea. I think that’s why I was brought here in the middle of the season and we try to cope with the things they are used to doing.
“Next year, in the same stage we will be here with the same problems. Or we start now, we risk a little bit, we suffer a little bit and in the next year we will be better at this point so we have to risk it a little bit.
“They are thinking too much because we are changing too much with two trainings now without space to improve in training.”
