Ruben Amorim heaped praise on one Manchester United star following their 4-3 loss at Brentford – but says the player is training a bit too much at the moment.
United suffered yet another defeat in the Premier League on Sunday, though their main focus is on the Europa League semi-final clash with Athletic Bilbao.
They did very nearly salvage a point however, with Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo scoring late on to make the scoreline more respectful, and Amorim was able to take positives from the match.
The head coach was especially proud of Mason Mount’s performance, with the midfielder opening the scoring at the G-tech Community Stadium – his first goal of the season.
‘It’s not just the finish, it’s the position he has on the pitch,’ Amorim said of the England international in his post-match press conference.
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‘He’s like a third midfielder that can reach the box. He’s really intelligent, he’s getting there.’
Mount has made little impact at Old Trafford since his £55million transfer from Chelsea two years ago, missing a whopping 60 games through injury.
As a result, Amorim, who usually demands intensity and hard-work in his training session, has urged the 26-year-old not to over exert himself at Carrington.
‘He trains really hard. Sometimes I have to push him back and take him out of the pitch because he wants to do so much more,’ the Portuguese added.
‘We are taking care of him, he wants to play more minutes but I’m really happy with him.’
Sunday’s result leaves United 15th in the Premier League but, as mentioned, their priority is winning the Europa League, which will qualify them for the Champions League.
‘We need to do better. We need to win this game,’ Mount told Premier League Productions.
‘We started well but that second half and end of the first half conceding goals where we knew what was coming. We knew they put crosses in box and we need to defend that better. We can perform better in the game.
‘We have a big game on Thursday. It doesn’t matter the scoreline [United are 3-0 up from the first-leg]. We attack it like it’s 0-0. We know what we need to do.
‘We can get into the Champions League next season and that’s the most important thing. The season we’ve had in the Premier League is something we need to look at massively but if we can get into final and win that it’s a positive end to the season.’
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