One of the enduring images of Ruben Amorim’s troublesome reign at Manchester United so far came in the penalty shootout loss to Grimsby in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
Amorim has created the wrong type of history with the club’s first-ever loss to a fourth-tier team in the competition’s 65-year history and questioned his own players afterwards.
But the huge upset at Blundell Park came with more scrutiny surrounding the Portuguese’s role during the shootout, which saw him sat in the dugout, instead of observing in close proximity to his players on the pitch.
Amorim was seen staring at the ground with some accusing him of hiding during one of United’s most painful moments over the last decade.
There have even been comparisons on social media to Steve McClaren’s “wally with a brolly” moment, as his time in charge of England unravelled against Croatia in the pouring rain at Wembley Stadium to dash hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008.
But Amorim remained defiant after being questioned over his decision to not watch the shootout, with new signings Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo missing in the 12-11 loss.
“The penalty shootout was not important,” Amorim replied when asked by ITV why he didn’t watch it. He went on to explain: “If I’m there trying to see if we win the game, it doesn’t matter. The beginning of the game, during the game that’s what mattered.
“If we win this game, it’s so unfair on these guys, the opponents. So today, the football was fair, congratulations to them. We move on to the next game and then we have time to decide things.”
Amorim also mentioned needing ‘time to think’ and ‘decide things’ about where he can take the team from this low point and hinted that the international break cannot come soon enough for his players.
“In the penalties, I was not thinking about the penalties, to go to the next stage,” Amorim said, “I think the players spoke really loud about what they want today. It’s really clear, I think it’s really clear to everybody what happened today.
“I just want to apologise to our fans, we’ll have a game now [against Burnley in the Premier League] and then time to think.”
