Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has thanked co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe for his public display of support towards manager Ruben Amorim.
Amorim has spent the entirety of his first year as United boss under intense scrutiny amid an extended run of mixed results which saw them finish 15th in the Premier League standings last season and land in mid-table after the first seven games of the current campaign.
There have been widespread suggestions that Amorim could soon be sacked if results do not improve, but Ratcliffe went public with his desire to give the boss three full seasons to oversee the sort of improvement enjoyed by Mikel Arteta at Arsenal.
Amorim was grateful for the support, and now Fernandes has admitted the dressing room are all backing the manager to turn things around.
“It’s good for the club to give some stability,” he told Sky Sports.
“We all know, and I think the manager has spoken about it, results make a manager stay or not. The manager is very aware of that. The players are very aware that we need to improve and to win games to help the manager be more stable and be more confident in what we can do in the moment and in the future.
“I think the club needs some stability, that’s the main thing from Sir Jim that he wants to pass through everyone. We’ve always spoken about giving them time. I think sometimes you need to look at the bigger picture, and from the club side, they need to do that.
“As a player and as a group of players, we believe the manager can help this club get back to where it belongs.”
Fernandes continued: “I don't know what the aim of Sir Jim is to say that. I think [maybe] to pass some confidence on to the squad, to the staff, to make it look like we are on a good path, not the one we want, but on a good path.
“We want to improve that. If Sir Jim sees that—the same as the players—that the manager is the right one for the job, it makes it better. We have got two groups looking in the same way.”
De Ligt: Amorim’s System Attracting Unfair Blame
Among the vocal supporters of Amorim in the United dressing room has been centre back Matthijs de Ligt, who has previously defended the boss from what he felt was unfair scrutiny.
The Dutch international has challenged critics of Amorim’s divisive 3-4-2-1 formation to look at the wider issues in the squad and, in a recent interview with The Telegraph, doubled down on his belief that the system is not the problem.
“We’re improving as a team,” De Ligt said. “In modern football even if you play a back four almost all teams play by building with three defenders. And we do often defend with four defenders.
“It’s always easy to say ‘system this, system that.’ But, in the end, it’s always adaptable in the game. There’s no situation where the system is always the same in the game. In that way of being flexible and in the structure we have to find a way to get everything right and make everything happen.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Bruno Fernandes Reveals Man Utd Squad Reaction to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ruben Amorim Comments.