Rúben Amorim: New Pep Guardiola contract ‘a problem for everyone’

Manchester United boss Rúben Amorim has admitted that Pep Guardiola’s new contract at Manchester City is “a problem for everyone.”

Amorim has been tasked with bringing the Premier League title back to Old Trafford after succeeding Erik ten Hag as head coach.

The 39-year-old’s arrival has coincided with Guardiola’s decision to sign a new two-year contract which will keep him at the Etihad Stadium until 2027.

Given his ambitions with United, Amorim said it is not ideal for Guardiola, who has won the league title in six of the last seven seasons, to stay.

“I think it’s a problem for everyone, but we have so much to do that we can’t focus on anyone,” Amorim said. “We just have to focus on improving our club and not focus on the other clubs. It’s great, if you can beat that team it’s a good sign, but we’re focused on Manchester United.”

Amorim, who will take charge for his first game against Ipswich on Sunday, is looking to become the first United manager to win the title since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.

Still only two weeks into the job, he said he “hasn’t had the opportunity yet” to meet Ferguson. Despite the Scot’s incredible success at the club, Amorim said he is not in Manchester “to copy” the legendary manager.

“It’s not to copy anybody, so I have to be me,” he said. “We have to be very demanding. This is a club that has to win things, we have to show it to our players. But it’s a different time. I can’t be the same guy that Alex Ferguson was. It’s a different time, and I have to have a different approach, but I can also be demanding with that different approach.”

Amorim has been parachuted into the United job after a miserable start to the season under Ten Hag.

The former Sporting CP coach, who hinted that he would have preferred to stay in Portugal until the end of the season before moving on, admitted that trying to implement his methods halfway through the campaign will be difficult.

“It’s so much harder to come into the team in the middle of the season because you have to get to know the players during the games,” Amorim said.

“You talk about no national team periods to work with the players, it’s just games. It depends. If you win, it’s a lot of fun, to have a lot of games, try to change tactically and win games.

“But if you lose, you don’t have time to train all the things you want to work on. To improve a team, training is the most important aspect.

“Players can recover very quickly, but if you don’t do any practice with it, it’s really difficult to do it in video or recovery training sessions. It’s really difficult, but we’ll try to find ways to do it.”