Ruben Amorim used his pre-match media appearance to set expectations ahead of Manchester United\u2019s Premier League opening fixture against Arsenal at Old Trafford. The manager gave a clear update on availability, discussed new signing Benjamin Sesko and addressed wider squad and season aims.<\/p>\n
On injuries he was concise. “No, Licha and Mazraoui are out, they cannot play this game. Josh and Andre are recovering and are options. We\u2019ll see,” he said.<\/p>\n
Amorim made his assessment of Sesko plain, signalling faith in the striker who arrived from RB Leipzig. “I can see Ben being a striker at this club for many years. That is why we paid a lot of money. He didn\u2019t have a lot of time , but physically he is ready. That is a big component in our league. He\u2019s ready to play and we\u2019ll see if he starts.” The head coach praised the 22 year old\u2019s attitude, noting he asks intelligent questions. “I really like that, especially when it\u2019s smart questions. He listens and he wants to perform, so that is very good.” Amorim added that the player is “obsessed” with football and remains at Old Trafford beyond training.<\/p>\n
On selection and competition up front the manager stressed depth. “first of all, we have more than three , so they are fighting for their places, but I\u2019m really happy.<\/p>\n
“I think he has great potential. In everything he does, he can play different types of football, he will feel the Premier League is very aggressive, he is going to learn and he has great potential.” When asked about Rasmus Hojlund\u2019s status he would not be drawn, describing the Dane as “one more option. We will see. We are focused on this game and Rasmus is still our player.”<\/p>\n
Looking at the season, Amorim tempered ambition with realism. “It\u2019s hard to know,” the boss replied. “We cannot change everything in four weeks, but we are better. We are training harder and are more prepared to cope with the demands of the game. I\u2019m really more confident, that is clear. Step by step, we will be a better team.<\/p>\n
“We want to return to Europe. We have to be realistic with our fans. We will have to fight a lot because there are more teams with time together than us. We have to focus game by game. We want to win against Arsenal.” He added: “I learned a lot last season. I don\u2019t need to focus on the future. That doesn\u2019t matter and I don\u2019t care. I need to live day by day. Everything that is noise to our team, I take out of the picture, so I just prepare my team against Arsenal.”<\/p>\n
Asked about Viktor Gyokeres and Sporting, Amorim said: “That is a question for Mikel ,” he said. “Viktor is in a different league. Sporting have good scouting because they live from the players they can buy and sell to survive. I think he\u2019s a very good player. It\u2019s not a surprise to see him with a big club in England.”<\/p>\n
On midfield options he suggested positional flexibility. “Maybe Mason Mount is a player who can play in that position if we want something different;” he replied. “But we have players to cope and win games in the Premier League.” Discussing Bruno Fernandes he added: “Even last season, when he played as a midfielder, he was the player who had more shots near the box.” Amorim replied. “So I think it\u2019s a good thing for Bruno to stay in one position during training.<\/p>\n
“I want Bruno near the ball, which is really important for our team. Now we have players with different characteristics who can cope with that, so we will try to manage that game by game, the players for the best positions.”<\/p>\n
United\u2019s match against the Gunners kicks off on Sunday at 4.30pm UK time (GMT+1).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amorim praises Benjamin Sesko, confirms two absences and outlines season and midfield plans. Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[317,342,242],"class_list":["post-1738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","tag-benjamin-sesko","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}