Ruben Amorim reveals Man Utd’s goal for the season and it’s not going well

Ruben Amorim has set out Manchester United’s target for this season and his team will have to significantly improve if the club is to hit it.

It has been a very disappointing start to the campaign for the Red Devils after an encouraging summer in the transfer market.

An entirely new forward line arrived thanks to the signings of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko, but the goals have not been flowing.

Amorim’s men have won just two of their six Premier League outings so far, with a 3-1 defeat at Brentford their latest effort.

A Carabao Cup exit at the hands of League Two side Grimsby Town has also done nothing to boost morale or ease pressure on the beleaguered manager.

Currently sitting 14th in the Premier League table, Amorim says the goal for the season is to return to European competition, having missed out on qualification for this campaign.

It seems quite a distant prospect at this stage, but the manager insists his team are improving.

‘I think we need to return to Europe,’ Amorim told Owen Hargreaves for TNT Sports. ‘The funny thing is…and its hard for our fans to understand…that I don’t know what is going to happen.

‘We are going to play better, that is my feeling. With data and if you see the games you feel that we can win the games.’

He added that he sees his players preforming more naturally in training than in games and is trying to get them to show that more during matches.

‘What I see in training is more freedom,’ he said. ‘That is the key point. It’s not the great play, it’s the freedom of the players. They have so much more to show.

‘I think we are improving, but there’s potential to do more.’

Amorim’s next assignment is at home against Sunderland on Saturday, which is a game he must surely win to stave off calls for him to be sacked.

Club legend Wayne Rooney said on his BBC podcast The Wayne Rooney Show, he has no faith in Amorim turning the current situation around.

‘I just don’t know what’s going on,’ he said. ‘I have tried my hand in management and it didn’t work out too well, I get it. Ruben Amorim is my age, he is still a young manager and I’m sure he still has a massive future, but what’s going on at Man Utd, this is not Man Utd.

‘I honestly hope he can turn it round and he does. But if you’re saying to me, “do you believe he will?”, then, after everything I’ve seen, honestly, I’ve got no faith in it.’

Former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher feels Amorim has been a ‘disaster’ for the Red Devils and is only still in a job because his bosses do not want to admit they have made a mistake.

‘I think he’s still in a job because I think the powers-that-be at Manchester United have made that many mistakes so far, on and off the pitch, that they almost don’t want to admit right now that they’ve made another,’ Carragher told Sky Sports.

‘This has been a disaster for Manchester United, but also Ruben Amorim. What he did at Sporting Lisbon was fantastic, he looked like the next big thing as a manager. But bringing in a manager like that, in terms of the system that he plays, I don’t think every really suited the club and the traditions of Manchester United.

‘The quicker Manchester United make the decision on the manager, I think it’s better for everybody because it’s been a disaster for club but also the manager and we’re only waiting for the inevitable, I think.

‘You don’t want to see people lose their jobs but this has to end as quickly as possible.’