Manchester United travel to fierce rivals Liverpool on Sunday having not won since 2016 at Anfield, where they have been on the end of some humiliating beatings in recent times
Ruben Amorim admits Manchester United are ‘starved’ of leaders, as their shambolic season drifts into the wilderness.
And if ever Amorim needed some of his senior stars to step up to the plate it will be Sunday afternoon at Anfield. United will head to the home of their biggest rivals knowing the gulf between them and Liverpool has rarely been as big.
Arne Slot’s side sit on top of the table, while United find themselves languishing down in 14th place and in a relegation scrap, following four straight defeats and six in the last eight games. Amorim might have backed his team to pull off what would be a shock win, but he knows this will be impossible unless his players find some character from somewhere.
Amorim, who will be without an injured Marcus Rashford, said: “When you look at our team, we are starving for leaders on the pitch. It is not one thing of our team, it is all the teams.
“If you want to be a top, top team, you have to be leaders and we have that in the dressing room. But they have to step up. Because we have a lot of young kids, also and this moment is really, really hard.
“You can look at the table, but you are still Manchester United. This gap and this pressure on a big club in a really low moment is really hard to cope with, so we need the guys who are more experienced to help the others.”
One player Amorim is looking to for some leadership is Harry Maguire who, along with Amad Diallo, is poised to sign a new deal with United. Amorim said: “I spoke with him and I told him that he has to improve his game on the pitch, because we need him a lot.
“He also has to improve as a leader, because we all know the situation that he had here, but we need him a lot in this moment so we are going to happily trigger the (contract) option for Harry.”
United’s record at Anfield is woeful, with Amorim’s side having not won there since 2016. Few are predicting this run to end this weekend, but Amorim wants United to forget about the past and focus on the present.
He added: “We know that it is going to be a tough moment. They’ve had that strong base for a lot of years and they are a strong team. But I am just focused on the performance. I have not focused on losing, or what could happen.
“We had some losses (at Anfield), but we prepared for this game to win, and we know what we are going to face. So my focus is to prepare the team to not suffer that difficult moment. You saw it in the first 15 minutes against Newcastle.
“I want to improve that, to have more control of the ball, prepare the players for each situation and our focus is not thinking about any bad result.”