Ruben Amorim rues missed chances after Man Utd’s thrilling draw with Bournemouth
By Ian Parker, Press Association
Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim rued missed first-half chances after a remarkable match against Bournemouth finished 4-4 at Old Trafford.
United led 2-1 at the break as Casemiro’s stoppage-time header restored their advantage after Antoine Semenyo cancelled out Amad Diallo’s early goal, but they had peppered Djordje Petrovic’s goal with 17 attempts in total and the fact their lead was not more proved costly.
Bournemouth levelled within 37 seconds of the restart through Evanilson, then took the lead thanks to Marcus Tavernier, only for United to respond with two goals in three minutes – first Bruno Fernandes’ superb free-kick, then Matheus Cunha’s 79th-minute strike.
This United team may not know when they are beaten but they also do not know how to close out games, and five minutes later they allowed Bournemouth substitute Junior Kroupi to level before David Brooks had two clear chances to win it in stoppage time.
United should never have been in that position given they had 12 attempts at goal before Bournemouth finally mustered their first in the 29th minute.
“It was a fun game for everyone at home,” Amorim said. “If you look at the game you can think we lost the two points in the second half. I think we lost the two points in the first half. I think we should have more goals, we should have a different result at half-time.
“It was then similar to Nottingham (Forest, a 2-2 draw in November) where we suffered two goals really fast but we managed to get back to take the advantage and then we need to close the game out.”
Amorim would not be drawn on what appeared to be a tweak to his tactical system, with United switching to a back four when Bournemouth were in possession.
“That is for you to discuss, not for me,” he said. “I will say the same thing – you can play with the same players and it looks like one thing (but) is another thing… I know you guys know that I trained this week with the back four. I don’t know how but that is a good thing for you guys to discuss.”
Bournemouth’s winless run now stands at seven games, but coming on the back of last week’s goalless draw with Chelsea, this was another night to give encouragement to Andoni Iraola.
“Normally when it’s 4-4 they say the managers don’t like these kinds of games because it’s a lot of mistakes but also it’s one point for us,” he said. “Maybe it’s not a lot but we also enjoyed the game because we’ve come from behind…
“It’s for both teams, (because) also they go behind and they’ve reacted. We have gone behind more, but both teams were quite open. We were taking risks from the beginning and leaving space behind. You never expect this type of game but it can happen.
“For us it is not a lot, one point, I feel like from Chelsea and United, two good performances and two points is not a lot but I think we can use a lot of things to try to get the three points in the next one.”
