Ruben Amorim addresses Man Utd future after Man City loss - 'Not my decision'

Ruben Amorim has suggested that if Manchester United wish to change their playing style, they may need to consider changing their manager. United suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester City in the season's first derby, leaving them with a mere four points from their initial four Premier League matches. This marks their worst start to a season since the 1992-93 campaign.

Amorim, who was appointed on November 1 last year and is contracted to the club until 2027, has managed just eight victories in his 31 Premier League games in charge. Consequently, United find themselves languishing at the bottom of the table comprising the league's ever-present teams since his appointment. The recent defeat is likely to stoke further doubts about Amorim's future at the club.

"Guys, I understand that and I accept," said Amorim. "It is not a record you should have at Manchester United. There are a lot of things - you have no idea what happened during these months - but I accept that. I am not going to change."

"When I want to change my philosophy, I will change. If not, you have to change the man. We will talk about that every game that we lose. I don't believe in that, in the system, or whatever. I believe in my way and I am going to play my way until I want to change.

"My message is that I am going to give everything. I will do everything, always thinking about what is best for the club. That was always the same message.

"It is not my decision, the rest (on whether United change manager). Until I am here, I will do my best. I really want to win games. I am suffering more than them."

Amorim maintained his stance that United are performing better than last season, despite managing just one victory in five matches in league and cup. They have also netted merely one goal from open play across six hours of Premier League action.

"The results, again, I accept that," Amorim added. "I see that we are doing better but the results don't show that. I remember last year we played in the former club against City. We won 4-1 (with Sporting in the Champions League). It was not near the opportunities, the way we control the game compared to today.

"In certain moments we were not better than City. I understand that. It is hard and the record says everything. I understand."

United began encouragingly but Phil Foden headed beyond Altay Bayindir in the 18th minute and two second-half strikes from Erling Haaland sealed triumph.

Haaland powered past Luke Shaw for his opening goal and sprinted from within his own half for another one-on-one with Bayindir that he finished. Once again, Amorim believed United were lacking in intensity.

"If you look at the goals, we can avoid that kind of goal," he reflected. "We have almost everyone behind the ball and we could be more aggressive.

"The second goal, in the moment of the game that we are pressing City. We suffer a goal in the throw-in when we want to recover the ball instead of covering the space and then to win the ball. We let two players of City one against one. The approach that we had in that play we can avoid and we can close our goal.

"The third goal, Haaland has all the space. A confusion with our players and then he has all the space to play. In these moments I felt that if you look at the goals, there are moments we could avoid. That is the key of the game, it's to take advantage of these moments and they took it.

"In transitions, a great shot from Bryan (Mbeumo). In those moments they were better than us."