'A win and Man Utd fans will think I'm the new Ferguson!': Amorim on pressure of facing City

Lisbon, Nov 4 (IANS) The red side of Manchester will be keeping out for Manchester City's away game against Sporting CP on Wednesday (IST) in the UEFA Champions League as it will be a real test for Portuguese head coach Ruben Amorim, who will be joining as the United head coach on November 11.

Ahead of the game, Amorim joked about the importance of the game against City claiming if they were to win today, Manchester United fans 'will think that the new Alex Ferguson has arrived.'

"The focus is on winning the game for Sporting, after that, the inferences that people will draw from this game are not important to me because they could be misleading. If the result is negative, expectations will drop; if we win they will think that the new Alex Ferguson has arrived!

"What interests me is to win, a good farewell in Alvalade, win in Braga and start a new adventure in Manchester. What I want is to leave the fans and my players happy for what is to come in the new season," said Amorim in the pre-game press conference.

Ruben will be replacing the current interim manager Van Nistelrooy, who was appointed after the sacking of Erik Ten Hag, after the November international break on November 11.

Since March 2020, when Amorim took charge, Sporting have the highest win percentage (77%) of any team across Europe’s top 10 leagues, as per Opta. Now, however, Amorim is heading to Old Trafford for a new challenge.

"They are different contexts, I'm not thinking about that. Tomorrow I will be Sporting's coach and only Sporting's, from the 11th onwards I will be United's coach. I know they will draw conclusions from this result, but I don't care much, I'm Sporting's coach. I understand the interest, but for me it's just another game against a team from the best league in the world," he added.

--IANS

aaa/