Ruben Amorim fielded questions on a variety of topics during the embargoed section of his pre-Tottenham press conference.

The Manchester United head coach was quizzed on his system, utilising players in positions they are comfortable in, pressure, staff morale at the club and Jadon Sancho, who is on loan at Chelsea.

You mentioned sticking to your beliefs, system and principles and you and Ange Postecoglou have a shared belief and see it as a strength. Can it also be a weakness, particularly when results are not going your way, as you’ve explained?

“Yeah it can be. It can be a weakness, in the moment, but then you believe one thing or another and have to stick with that. Again, I feel like we focus on the system a lot but the way we want to play this system is completely different to what we are doing at the moment. But we are trying to improve. To be direct with your question, yes, sometimes a strength, sometimes it is a weakness, I think everybody knows that.”

Even though results are not going well, you still don’t doubt this is the right way?

“Yeah, of course. You have one idea. You try to adapt the way you play, in the same system, you can play in different styles. I change the profile of two players and it changes the way the team plays. For me, it’s more important than the system. You start with the players.”

It’s going to need changes and they can only come over time, you can’t make all the changes you need in one go. There are a lot of people struggling to understand why players are used in positions they’re not used to or comfortable with. Is it because you’re using it to find which of your players are capable of adapting. The players you want by proving they should be part of it in the position so you don’t necessarily need to change, so they should be part of what’s going on or do you know which ones you need?

“The first thing, I just want to win the games. Believe it not, my only focus in the moment is to win the games. And then maybe you’re talking about [Patrick] Dorgu playing on the right. He was playing on the right also in Lecce. Sometimes in the way we play with a left foot on the right side, it is so important, especially when teams mark as one against one and man-marking. That is really important I have that and explaining against that system, against a 4-3-3 or 5-4-1, I have that experience so I know what kind of foot and characteristics I need there. Then we need to have time to work on everything. If I have an idea but the connection is not there, I’m trying to find that connection, trying everything to win games. Maybe it’s why I’m changing, a lot of times, everything. I just want to win games.”

The other thing, when sticking to your methods, is there hasn’t been a great deal of patience shown to managers. I know they keep talking about patience and show it but is there a risk they might not show patience. It is something you accept comes with risk?

“Yeah, I accept that. It’s a choice you make when you are a coach. I truly believe in the way I do things. I know in this kind of club, this kind of pressure, you are always in risk. So I’m aware of that. It’s not my biggest concern. I say it again – losing games is the hardest part of my job. Being sacked maybe sometimes it is like a liberation. I just want to win games.”

We know Manchester United paid big fees for players and some of them are on loan – Antony is one but another is Jadon Sancho. Is it your understanding Sancho doesn’t want to play for Manchester United anymore, whoever the manager is, because of what happened before?

“I don’t know. I’m just focused on my players and my problems. Sancho is not my problem. I’m really focused on beating Tottenham and using all the players we have to achieve that.”

You haven’t thought about next season and whether you want to bring him back or not?

“No, no. I’m really focused on this season. We have a lot to do and a lot to improve. We need to win games and then we will see next season.”