‘They are fighting’ – Ruben Amorim warns nobody in Manchester United’s dressing room is safe

Ruben Amorim was in good form when speaking at his press conference ahead of facing Arsenal in the FA Cup.

Ruben Amorim has admitted every Manchester United player is “fighting” for their place in the team.

Amorim was appointed from Sporting Lisbon in November and there have glimmers of progress on the pitch as the team shifts to his philosophy, despite results continuing to be poor.

United delivered an impressive performance against the Premier League leaders Liverpool last weekend and each player involved emerged with credit, although the display did make supporters wonder why United can’t perform to that level consistently every week in the topflight.

There was a chance Amorim would pick an unchanged team for the first time of his tenure against Arsenal in the FA Cup third round on Sunday to reward those who started at Anfield.

Amorim confirmed Altay Bayindir would start against Arsenal, though. Nonetheless, United’s head coach seems closer to settling on his strongest starting line up and he was asked whether he finally knows his best team in the embargoed section of his press conference on Friday.

“The best team depends on them,” said Amorim. “The rotation is different now, for example Manu [Ugarte] is playing more than Casemiro to give you an example. So you can see it by the selection that some of the guys are winning the position more. But for me the position is always open.

“It depends how they train and play. We are closer, we have games, we have the evaluation of the games and with the small training we have, you can get to understand the players better and how you want to play. Sometimes it is not the best player in the team but the player who can best do the position in the way I see it. We are closer to that now.”

Amorim continued and agreed the players are fighting for their futures as much as medals this season. “Yes – they have to do it and prove it not just with me,” he said. “The path with this team that in big games they cope and they can show a different way of competing.

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“But sometimes we drop a lot how we compete with our aggression during the game, our defensive recovery and in some matches we see a different thing. We show this a lot with images because you can talk for hours but if you show a picture it is so much easier for them to understand.

“So they are fighting for their place in that team, all the players. That’s part of our journey together. We are getting to know each other, not so much with a lot of time to train but with a lot of games and a lot of losses – and that can change things. So we have to try to improve and especially to find these points.”