Ruben Amorim admits Man Utd have been ‘stealing’ from Premier League rivals | Football | Sport

Ruben Amorim has joked that Manchester United have improved at set-pieces by ‘stealing’ ideal from their Premier League rivals. The Red Devils came from behind to beat Crystal Palace on Sunday, with Jean-Philippe Mateta scoring the opening goal for the hosts in the 32nd minute. Despite a lacklustre first half, United came back strong after the break with Joshua Zirkzee equalising and Mason Mount securing the win with another set-piece goal.

The Reds are now tied with Arsenal for the most set-piece goals in the Premier League this season, having netted 10 times from such scenarios just 13 games into the campaign. When questioned if United had been focusing more on set-pieces during training, Amorim responded: “No, we work a lot. We have more time to work, we work a lot and we learn a lot in England.

“I think you are used to seeing that, but when you come for the Premier League you learn a lot with other teams how to do it and we are stealing a lot of things to score goals.”

Discussing his half-time talk, Amorim revealed: “It’s just to understand for everyone to understand the game. I felt in the last ten minutes of the first half, I felt that the opponent was struggling and they would struggle in the second half.

“We had that feeling that we needed to do something to change the way we were playing. And it was that, of course. We tried to change little things in the game.

“But the intensity and the quality in the way we connect, especially Josh in our connection, was better and that improves a lot the way we play.”

When asked whether he believed United could turn the game around, he said: “I felt that because I had the feeling that if you see the last plays of the game, they were struggling so much to take the ball out of the box and you can feel it the way they move.

“They were getting tired for the second half and we talked about that. And again, our pace in the first half, intensity, we cannot play like that in the Premier League.

“So we increased that and I had the feeling that if we score one goal this is going to change completely. I really like also the way we controlled the game with the ball, winning the game.

“We were in front but we were not afraid of trying to score the next one and to control the ball in their half.”

Amorim suggested the lack of intensity in the opening 45 minutes stemmed from ‘minor details’.

“Sometimes it’s a lot of things,” he added. “Sometimes you don’t need to move but the pace of the ball can be better.

“You need to understand that Mateta was the man that had the time to think and if you see in the second half, sometimes it was him that starts the play.

“All these small details I think we improved. And when you have one play, two plays, the rhythm flows better and you increase everything mentally and physically.”