Ruben Amorim has joked that Manchester United have improved their set-pieces by “stealing” ideals from their Premier League rivals. The Red Devils came from behind to beat Crystal Palace on Sunday, with Jean-Philippe Mateta opening the scoring in the 32nd minute. After a lackluster first half, United returned to strong form after the break with Joshua Zirkzee equalizing and Mason Mount sealing the win with another set-piece goal.
The Reds are level with Arsenal for the most set-piece goals in the Premier League this season, having scored from such scenarios 10 times in just 13 games into the season. Asked if United were putting more emphasis on set-pieces during training, Amorim replied: “No, we work a lot. In England we have more time to work, we work a lot and we learn a lot.”
“I think you’re used to that, but when you come to the Premier League you often learn how to do it from other teams and we steal a lot to score goals.”
Regarding the halftime talk, Amorim revealed: “To understand the game, we all need to understand. With 10 minutes left in the first half, we felt they were struggling and they were going to struggle in the second half.”
“We felt we needed to do something to change the way we played, and rightly so. We tried to change little things in the game.
“But the intensity and quality of our connections, especially Josh’s connections, was outstanding and it really improved our game.”
Asked if he believed United could turn the game around, he said: “I felt that way because if you look at the last play of the game, they struggled very hard to get the ball out of the box and you could feel it in the way they moved.”
“They were getting tired towards the second half so we talked about that. Also, the pace, the intensity in the first half, you can’t play like that in the Premier League.”
“So we increased it and we had the feeling that if we scored one goal it would completely change the situation. I also really liked the way we controlled the game with the ball and won the game.”
“We were in front, but we weren’t afraid to go for the next goal and control the ball in our own half.”
Amorim suggested that the lack of impact of the first 45 minutes was due to “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 faster.
“Mateta is a man who has had time to think and you have to understand that if you look at the second half, it was he who started the play.
“I think we’ve improved in all those little things. And when we get down to one play, two plays, our rhythm flows better and everything improves mentally and physically.”
