Jamie Carragher says he was mystified by Ruben Amorim calling his Manchester United team “maybe the worst” in the club’s history and believes it could backfire on the head coach.
The United boss gave his brutal assessment of his squad after the 3-1 defeat at home to Brighton, a result which leaves the Old Trafford side languishing in 13th place in the Premier League.
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“In 10 games in the Premier League, we won two,” said Amorim. “We are being the worst team maybe in the history of Manchester United. I know that you want headlines, but I’m saying that because we have to acknowledge that and to change that. Here you go, your headlines.”
Carragher says United’s struggles this season are clear to see and Amorim’s strong words only serve to draw further criticism to the club and players.
“I don’t know Man Utd’s history as well as Gary Neville but I must say it was one of the most bizarre and ridiculous things I’ve ever heard a manager say,” said Carragher
“Why you would make a comment like that… that’s the type of comment a pundit would make, someone in my position, and you’d have to defend that. I don’t know what he gains from that, what the benefit is.
“We all know it’s a poor Man Utd team. They’d lost another game at home to Brighton, they’d done that in the last couple of years anyway. We know it’s a tough season, we know it’s a poor team. He has just loosened it up. That will be a quote that follows him for the rest of the season.
“He said to the journalists there, ‘I’ll give you your headline’. Why you would like to do that as a manager, I’ll never know.”
Carragher reckons the comments are unlikely to go down well with the squad and could present Amorim with a problem when he tries to motivate them ahead of games this season.
“It doesn’t help you confidence-wise going forwards,” said Carragher when asked about the impact of Amorim’s words on the players.
“I’ve not got much sympathy for the players in the Man Utd dressing room, they’ve been a joke for a few years now. A few weeks ago, after they played Liverpool, where Lisandro Martinez was talking about the mentality that was different – I nearly couldn’t stop laughing when I saw that. The amount of times Man Utd have thrown the towel in with bad performances over the last four or five years.
“What I would say is how can the manager go into the dressing room between now and the end of the season and continually try to build them up and give them belief to beat the opposition, whoever they come up against, when he has said they’re one of the worst teams in Man Utd history? At no point can I see what he’ll gain from that.”
