Ruben Amorim has warned Manchester United fans that the rest of the season is going to be a “rollercoaster.”
United followed up positive performances against Liverpool and Arsenal with a lacklustre display against the Premier League’s bottom side Southampton on Thursday.
Amorim’s team were bailed out by a late hat trick from Amad Diallo and the Portuguese coach has admitted that there are going to be more ups and downs before the end of the campaign.
“I think it’s going to be hard until the end of the season,” Amorim said.
“It’s going to be a little bit, that rollercoaster. It depends on the time you have to train. We had seven trainings [sessions] together in 14, 15 games.
“It’s really hard, but we have to continue and try to win it. Sometimes playing good, sometimes playing bad. We will try to win games.”
Meanwhile, Amorim has defended striker Rasmus Højlund after a below-par performance against Southampton.
The 21-year-old — who has only scored two Premier League goals all season — was substituted in the second half and replaced with Joshua Zirkzee, who helped United come back from a goal down to win 3-1.
“I think it’s a team problem,” Amorim said.
“You can see it, it’s not just from now, it’s from the past. We have clearly a lack of goals and a lack of threat. All the players have moments in this season. I think when we started this journey together, Rasmus was the player that was always scoring.
“So he can come back in the next game, we will see. But I think it’s more a team problem than a Rasmus problem.”
Like Zirkzee, Antony also made an impact off the bench against Southampton. The Brazil international has been used sparingly by Amorim and has been linked with a January loan move to Real Betis.
Asked about the speculation surrounding Antony’s future, the United head coach left the door open with two weeks to go before the deadline.
“Like I said, I want to keep my players,” said Amorim.
“I’m focused on these players. I don’t know what is going to happen in this window, we’ll see. But he did a good job [against Southampton].”
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