Premier League defeats repeatedly, Manchester United is in trouble, Amorin bets on the Europa League, young players are tested

Manchester United coach Ruben Amorin bluntly admitted that his current roster is "not ready" to be competitive in the Champions League and Premier League.

Shortly after Manchester United's final whistle to lose the Premier League in Game 16 of this season, Amorin showed his usual candidity. As the Premier League champion team with record-breaking titles, Manchester United has never lost more than 14 games in a single season before, and Sunday's 3-4 loss to Brentford set a frustrating record.

The last time Manchester United lost more than 16 games in the league dates back to the 1973/74 season, when they were relegated from the League One after 20 losses in the top league.

Despite this unpleasant series of records, Manchester United still has the potential to win a European trophy at the end of the season and qualify for the Champions League next season. After defeating Athletic Bilbao 3-0 in the first leg of the Europa League semi-finals, Amorin's side has great hope of advancing to the final, and in the final they are likely to face Tottenham Hotspur, who is also struggling in the Premier League. The extremely pessimistic head coach said the prospect of entering the top European competition through this "shortcut" is a "real dilemma". “We are not ready to be competitive in the Premier League and not ready to play in the Champions League,” he explained to Sky Sports this weekend.

In 2025, Manchester United beat only one team that was not in the relegation zone in the league (a victory over Fulham in January).

"We know this, but we need to win, we need to fight to win this game, bring something to our fans and qualify for the Champions League.

" Then we will have time to prepare the team to deal with both events. So, this is a dilemma, but of course we still want to win. ”

It is obvious that Amorin puts United's performance in Europe first. The 40-year-old coach sent the youngest Premier League starting lineup in club history against Brentford, unabashedly leaving his main players to the key second leg of the home game against Athletic Bilbao on Thursday.

Although these young players ended up losing against the experienced Brentford, Amorin gave a high praise for their efforts.

"I think they were really good," he insisted, "they didn't have much chance to play, but then they had to play 90 minutes as we had to replace some other players to keep them in their energy for Thursday's game. ”

17-year-old forward Chido Obi is the youngest of the group, and he becomes the youngest to start for Manchester United in the Premier League.

Amorin pointed out that "Chido tried his best throughout the game", and then pointed out some of the shortcomings of the teenager: "But you can feel that sometimes he is really naive in using his body. He will gradually understand the feeling of playing football in such a game. This is the best way to grow. ”