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Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim has refused to blame Altay Bayindir for the club’s loss in the Carabao Cup quarter-final against Tottenham Hotspur.
United slipped to a 4-3 defeat on Thursday evening at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Bayindir was at fault for two of the goals United conceded – the hosts’ opener and fourth goal. For the first, Bayindir palmed Pedro Porro’s shot out to a lurking Dominic Solanke, who was all too happy to tap it in.
The United goalkeeper was also easily beaten directly from a corner kick by Son Heung-min, whose strike ended up being the winning goal.
There were suggestions that Lucas Bergvall may have been hindering Bayindir but even then, the Turkey goalkeeper should have been stronger.
In his post-match press conference, Amorim refused to slam Bayindir. The United boss said, “He doesn’t have to do that. He has to focus and we will see the game and we will improve every player of this team.”
“We win together, we lose together, you already know it’s not the individual it’s the team, we could win even with all these goals in the game, so let’s focus on that.”
On the team’s performance, Amorim explained, “We controlled the possession. I think we were not the best team in all of the game, but most of the parts I think we were the best team. e had the same situation in the first half that are similar with the second and third goal of Tottenham and that made a difference.”
“We disconnect for eight minutes and was really hard to recover from that. But then the lads did a great job to recover.”
He added, “We were so near the draw, so near, and that could make the difference because we still have time to win the game but then the fourth goal was really hard for us. We managed to respond but in the end is not enough and we are out of the cup.”
“If you look at the game, if you forget the long balls from Tottenham, it’s really hard to have a lot of pictures with five in the back. We are pressing high, it’s impossible to press high with five in the back. I know you used to look at the system and say five at the back but it’s three defenders in my view.”
“The disconnect is simple…suffer a goal and then we manage to have long possession to calm down the game. You felt that we suffer the goal, then the ball goes to the middle, we continue to play our way but we lose a lot of balls near our box with the team all open and were really nervous in that moment.”
“One long ball, we suffer the third goal and then we manage to calm down, push again and score three goals. Of course, we suffered the goal but when you concede a goal you have to have long possession to calm down and to stay in the game and we couldn’t do it.”
United are back in Premier League action on Sunday when they host Bournemouth at Old Trafford.
Featured image Alex Pantling via Getty Images
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