“Frustrated, angry, that’s all.”
Ruben Amorim summed up his own feelings in his first response at the post-match press conference following Manchester United’s 1-1 draw against West Ham on Thursday.
But he could have been speaking for all United fans, including those who booed his team at Old Trafford.
He was certainly speaking for former captain Roy Keane, who used similar terminology to sum up his feelings about the current United team.
“The word everyone will use is frustration,” Keane told Sky Sports at the end of another match United were leading with a significant jump in the Premier League looming, only to concede late and finish with a point.
“I wouldn’t trust or believe in this team. There are more goals [in them] But defensively and in the midfield there are still big questions.”
Amorim seemed unusually agitated as he spoke his words, although he insisted he was calm.
He said there would be no repeat of his tirade after the home defeat to Brighton in January, when he cut his hand and smashed a television in the dressing room.
Instead, he will wait and address the situation at Carrington on Friday, believing it is counterproductive to speak to his players when emotions around a match are still high.
However, Amorim knew what had gone wrong.
He knew why his team had failed to maintain the second-half lead given to them by Diogo Dalot.
And he knew why Soungoutou Magassa responded quicker to Noussair Mazraoui’s goal-line clearance from Jarrod Bowen’s header from a corner to score his first goal in English football in the 83rd minute.
West Ham manager Nuno Espirito Santo said it was a “deserved” draw for the team who sit third in the table, with just two points away from home since their only away win, at Nottingham Forest, in August.
“It happened with a long ball,” Amorim said. “They won the second ball against three guys.
“The second balls are sometimes tactical things. We try to adapt to the players we have.
“In the final minutes the ball was far from the rival. We cannot let a team that is much taller than us have a corner.”
The problem for Amorim is that a pattern is developing.
Keane highlighted this, saying: “At one point you think they’re making progress, they could move up to fifth place, but they’re not doing the job. They seem scared to finish the job.”
At Nottingham Forest on November 1, victory would have left United second. They were winning and ended up needing a draw to tie it up. A week later, they had the same goal at Tottenham and the result was identical: the tie came in added time.
Immediately after the international break, a place in the Champions League was offered if victory against Everton was achieved. Lost at home against 10 men.
Now this, seven minutes from fifth place. They return to eighth place, among 11 clubs separated by four points. Nobody knows if they are good, average or poor.
The consensus is that United have made progress, although from 15th place last season, with over £200m spent, that wouldn’t be so difficult.
In October, United won three games in a row and Amorim was named manager of the month. Now his streak is one win in five. The concern is that they are going backwards.
Amorim rejects that idea.
“We are not going back,” he said.
“We had some moments. That can happen.
“You were talking about when we had the race and [saying that] We were perfect, when we weren’t. We are inconsistent.
“If you look at the goal, in the 83rd minute there is a long ball and we have everything under control. We have to do better.”
United go to bottom club Wolves on Monday. Once again, they will be playing the last game of a Premier League round, and once again there will be a target to aim for, although each failure will be minor.
Surely they won’t fail again against a team that hasn’t beaten anyone?
