Ruben Amorim shuts down transfer question as ‘awful’ stat emerges from Man Utd draw

Ruben Amorim shut down the suggestion that Manchester United may need to spend more money on overhauling their defence following his side’s breathless 4-4 draw with Bournemouth.

The Red Devils surrendered the lead three times in an eight-goal thriller at Old Trafford and had to rely on a pair of late saves from Senne Lammens to come away with a point.

In a pulsating first half, the hosts started much the better team, but Antoine Semenyo continued his excellent run of form to cancel out Amad Diallo’s earlier header and make it 1-1 in the 40th minute.

After Casemiro had restored United’s advantage, the visitors again fought back, with Evanilson and Marcus Tavernier both netting for Bournemouth in the space of six second-half minutes.

Two quickfire goals from Bruno Fernandes and Matheus Cunha swung the match back in United’s favour with 11 minutes remaining of normal time to take the roof off the Theatre of Dreams – with Amorim’s men seemingly on course for a second successive win.

But Eli Junior Kroupi had other ideas, finishing cooly past Lammens to make it four goals apiece, which is how it ended as referee Simon Hooper blew his whistle to call time on an unforgettable Premier League contest.

The result meant that United’s 2-0 victory over Sunderland in October remains their one and only clean sheet of the season.

Going back further, to the very start of Amorim’s reign, the club have managed only six clean sheets in 43 Premier League matches – a startling statistic which Jamie Carragher branded as ‘awful’ in the Sky Sports studio.

The ex-Liverpool and England defender added: ‘It’s a big problem for them.

‘They had problems at both ends of the pitch last season and we highlighted before the game that they’re improving in attack. We saw that again tonight.

‘Some of the attacking players from Manchester United were fantastic. They had a lot of young defenders out there as well tonight, which didn’t help.’

But while United have registered just one clean sheet in their first 16 games of the league season, Amorim refused to accept that simply making more signings in January was the answer.

‘No, I think we have talent at the back, we have quality players at the back,’ Amorim replied when a reporter asked if United needed to invest in their defence like they had done on their attack in the summer.

‘We just need to be better as a team defending.

‘But that is a good point, that we at last took care of the offensive side [in the summer].

‘We are improving, but I think it’s not the same situation.

‘We just need to work together and to improve our players because they have the quality to defender better.’

Though Amorim said there was no quick fix for United’s defensive frailties, he stressed that he would be ‘addressing’ the problems he witnessed ahead of the side’s clash with Aston Villa.

‘I think we are pressing better, we are controlling the game better,’ the Portuguese explained.

‘Far from our goal, we are lacking in quality when we defend our goal. It’s something we need to address, of course.

‘It’s different when you suffer so many goals and the opponent doesn’t have the same amount of [chances], it’s really frustrating, but we need to work a lot in the way we defend the box.’

For Amorim, there was a feeling of deja vu that took him back to United’s trip to Nottingham Forest last month, when his side threw away an early lead to draw 2-2 at the City Ground.

‘It was a fun game for everyone at home,’ Amorim said of the 4-4 draw.

‘If you look at the game, you can think that we lost the two points in the second half. I think we lost the two points in the first half.

‘We should have more goals, it should be a different result at half-time.

‘Similar to the Nottingham Forest game, we suffered two goals really fast but we managed to get back to take the advantage again and then we needed to close the game.

‘Again, it was a fun game to watch but, of course, there is the feeling of scoring four goals and not winning the game.’

Amorim will now be unable to call upon Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo, and Noussair Mazraoui, with the trio set to jet off to Morocco for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.

Casemiro will also be unavailable to face Villa on Sunday after picking up a booking against the Cherries.

‘It’s an opportunity for everyone, we’ll be ready for the challenge,’ Amorim said of the challenge that awaits his squad over the winter period.

‘We already knew that could happen to any team. A lot of teams are going to lose players, a lot of teams have injuries and we need to just go into the next game with the responsibility to win the game, to fight.

‘We will try to find different ways of creating chances and scoring goals.’

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