The Big interview: Ruben Amorim on pressure, players and his Man Utd 'destiny' | BBC Sport

Hi Ruben, I'm Mark, nice to meet you. They believe that I'm the right guy. I think it will change my life. It will not change me. This will not change me. Thank you very much for doing this. I sort of feel like I ought to apologise at the start for making you do another interview. No, I understand. I explained that because it is so different here. Less focus on you, okay? Not players, not tactics, not a back three, nothing like that, let's just park that for a bit. How are you? I'm really happy. Stressed a little bit, but like all the coaches, you must be stressed, you must be feeling the weight of the job. But I feel that I'm in control of the situation. I don't control the results, but I know what to do. Do you sense, and I sense this from talking to United fans, that even though they don't know you, somehow they feel a connection with you? Yeah, for sure. I feel that. Maybe because I'm a little bit of an emotional person and I can transmit that even in interviews, I think. Maybe because I'm different from the last coach and this can bring a different connection with the next guy. And also they believe that I'm the right guy. People always believe that the next guy is the right guy. So we have always this feeling. To maintain this feeling, we have to play better, to win games and to be, I think, really honest with the supporters. I think if you are honest and direct with the supporters, maybe you don't say all the time the popular thing. You create a better connection than try to hide the real things. Have you always been emotional? Yes, because it's my character. You cannot change. You cannot be one day not emotional and the next day be emotional. But I think also with my head, not always with my heart. But when I do things, I do it with emotion. And I think as a coach, you can be so good with tactical and technical stuff. But if you are not emotional, you cannot have a connection with the players. You cannot do nothing with the football team. So were you emotional as a kid? Were you emotional as a player? When you were released by Benfica, how did you take that as a teenager? Yeah, it was really hard because it still is my club. A difficult moment, but I think it was important in my life to understand things. Then I grew up with not a large family, but a strong family with a lot of emotion. I'm a Latin guy. And I'm just like that. I like people. I like to bond with people. And I think it's one of the best things in this job. You can make a lot of friends and still do your job. You can be demanding, but have a connection with everybody. What kind of player were you? I was a team player. I had a lot of injuries. But all the team players say that to excuse some lack of success. But I think I always loved the game. And I always loved the tactical aspect of the game. And I tried to understand things. I played in all positions. So I understood the game and tried to help the game in every position. Does that mean when you are doing training sessions here, no matter where the players are playing, you can put yourself in their shoes? Whether it be in the middle of a back three or one of the two 10s, that you can go through that with them? Of course, because you've already done that. One of the things that helped me a lot is I understand my structure very well. So I continue through the years. It's like a focus on just one thing that can adapt to everything. So other coaches try to do everything. And they are very, very good on that and changing all the time. I have one structure that can adapt to all the other formations. So it is one structure, but it is adaptable? Of course. Because otherwise it would be easily found out, wouldn't it? In the beginning, it is a little bit. I know that in the beginning, you have something you can see. They play like this. And then with time, we can change in the middle of the game. So I think you have to start with one base. And then you grow that base and that structure will gain fluidity. When you were playing then, were you making notes on what other coaches were doing on sessions? Or was it all just going in? It was notes in my head. I remember almost everything about my coaches and some plays. I remember a lot in my job. That helped me because I remember all the situations. And when you have these moments with different coaches, I had different coaches with different mentalities, different ways of playing. I think it was like a university. So when I was younger, I was thinking all the time that I wanted to play football. But maybe I wanted to coach football players because it was like a university. I had some problems with the coaches. I was suspended two times. So I'm not just a nice guy. All these situations helped me now to understand every player in my team. You went to university, didn't you? You went to university in Lisbon to study elite coaching and management. Was that a big part of it, the sort of emotional side of individual? Yes. And I'm not ashamed to say I had also, you don't say therapist here? Psychology. I think it helps a lot because I was preparing the end of my career and I want to change different things on me to prepare my career as a coach. And also I went to university because I was a football player. And sometimes the football player thinks that they are ready because they know football and they are ready to cope with the demands of being a coach. But we have to learn so different things about the psychological things, the movement of the players, the schedule, to know the load, how to train with the load, how to manage the load, the days that you should do this or do that. So you have to learn these things and I went to university to understand that. Did you like being a student? Yes, it's not all the subjects are funny to learn, but that's why I have a very good staff. And for me, I need some time to see other coaches. It's so important to see other coaches, see other ideas. And also you need time to be fresh, to have the connection with the players. If you are always overwhelmed with the physical aspect, the data and everything, you cannot be free to think in the other people's needs. When you have moved jobs, starting out at Casapia and then to Braga, and then to Sporting and then to here, what have you looked for in each move? Sometimes it's destiny, but in the first moment, Casapia was I want to coach. I want to be the main coach, the head coach. So I have to go into a division to have that opportunity. And that time was really to feel how it is coaching. I have two small sons, so I try to also to have a club near my house. So these details led me to Casapia. Then I went to Braga and I didn't went to Benfica, because in Benfica, in the youth teams, you don't have the full control. And that was important for me, because my way of seeing football, the manager and the head coach has to have full control. It's not decide everything, it's different. It's in my part, I have to be in full control. Then I went to Braga, Braga B. Braga B is like a second team in Braga. And then was to feel a bigger club. I played there as a player. I went to that club with better conditions, more professional players, to try to understand how to deal with these different players. Then the destiny took me to the first team after nine games in the B team. I had so, so lucky in the first games, because I think it was a trap for president Antonio Salvador, a good friend of mine. Braga had like five games in a row with Sporting, Benfica and Porto. And we managed to win with a lot of luck. And I know that. Everybody needs luck, don't you? That changed my life. And then I went to Sporting and the rest is history. I had so much luck in my career so far. Do you think you are one coach with the same approach and same mentality, no matter who it is in your squad? Or do you think you have to be a slightly different coach to different players? For me, some rules are for all. And that is what you make a team. But I treat my players completely different. They are different people. How long do you think it takes you to get to know your players before you go, right, I've got a real grasp of my squad here? I think not too much. But that was my experience. I'm not saying that here is going to be the same, because it's a different culture, different club, different attention, different people around the players. So I don't know here. But in my past, it was really fast. Because also I was in my country. So it's different. I know the culture and the feeling of each one of them. So I hope to be in the same way here. Who are the coaches that have inspired you to get to where you are now? Yeah, I had coaches in my career. I already talked about Jorge Jus. I learned a lot with him about the game. I learned about the demand. It was really, really demanding. And I'm also really, really demanding because I spent seven years with him. So you can sometimes you don't want to be the similar coach, but you are because you spend so much time with him. You can see some things in the same way. But I'm different from him. So I took this information from Jorge Jus. And then I had Leonardo Jardim, Pezeiro, Coceiro, a lot of Portuguese coaches that I took something from everybody. As a coach, I'm trying not to change my person during training. So I try to take the good stuff of everybody that is similar to my way. How do you think you are demanding? And the reason I ask that is because there's an assumption, I think, that if coaches are demanding, it can be, you know, ranting and shouting. And you've got to do this, got to do that. And yet, talk to Joe Hart and a couple of other people after Sven-Joeran Eriksson passed away. And they said, you know, very nice man, very quiet, very calm. And of course, he was at Benfica. I was saying that he's like an idol in Benfica. But he would occasionally just give them a look if he felt they'd let him down. And Joe Hart would say, you know, if you'd got that look, you would feel terrible because you feel they let him down. I think it's more powerful sometimes. You are not like that all the time, but when you are, you are. And they feel it. And then the small details, the schedule to training, the hours to be there. In these small details, you can be demanding. And then after training, you can be like one of them, like to have a feel, a real connection, you have to put in the other shoes. So you have to feel it. So that's it. I'm really demanding at work. And then after the training, I'm just one of them. You are very relaxed. Yeah, because I'll be OK. No matter what, in this stage of my life, I'll be OK. So that's why I'm relaxed. Do you think this will change your life? I think it will change my life. It will not change me. This will not change me. I will be, of course, if something happens, I will be frustrated for a while. But I know I will recover. But I believe that we are going to succeed. When I had this invitation, I felt that it was really, really hard to leave my players at sporting. But when I had this opportunity, in this moment, I felt that I had to do this. So maybe that's why. Maybe it's destiny. And that will be a little bit like in the beginning. And then everything is going to be fine. We'll leave it there because you have an awful lot to do. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mark. Thank you very much.