Man Utd coach Amorim sees progress but more work to be done

Manchester United's ability to keep their cool after conceding goals in their past two games shows the club has made progress, coach Ruben Amorim said ahead of a Premier League meeting with Leicester City on Sunday.

United held off second-placed Arsenal to claim a point in a 1-1 league draw last week, before fighting back from a goal down and beating Real Sociedad 4-1 on Thursday to reach the Europa League quarterfinals.

“I feel that in the last games that we can understand better the idea of what we want to do. We are better understanding the plan for the games,” Amorim told reporters.

“We are giving the team more time to win and to draw the games. We are not suffering one goal and then losing our minds by suffering another goal. We are understanding the moments of the game and also we are understanding better the way we want to play ...

“I know that in football, especially in our moment, we can have a really good moment and then drop really fast, so our focus is to continue and don't be too happy or too depressed. My idea is to continue, we have to survive.”

United are 14th with 34 points from 28 matches and will be looking to climb up the standings with a win at 19th-placed Leicester, who have lost their last five league games.

“Everything is important and we need to continue with this feeling that we can win games. It doesn't matter the time of rest or the time after to prepare for the next game,” Amorim said.

“We can do it. We showed against Arsenal that we have to be humble and we (often) forget that. Forget the table and face Leicester like we did against Real Sociedad.

“We just need to win and improve our position in the table and the most important thing is to continue this feeling of winning and that we are improving as a team.”

The Portuguese manager also praised 18-year-old defender Ayden Heaven, who was signed from Arsenal in February and has impressed in recent appearances.

“If he continues like that he is going to play. Of course he is young and he didn't play much this season, maybe only 45 minutes for the under-21s, then a few minutes here and now a full game,” Amorim said.

“I really like his confidence. I like his pace, I think he is good in defending the box and I think he is quite complete. But he has a lot of work to do in the Premier League.”

Reuters