Ruben Amorim said there were “no excuses” for Manchester United’s failure to beat Wolves after the Premier League’s bottom side earned a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford.
Wolves earned just their third point of the season against United and their first since Rob Edwards’ appointment as manager on Nov. 12.
Amorim is dealing with a long list of absentees including injured captain Bruno Fernandes, but insisted afterwards his team should still have beaten a Wolves side which hasn’t won a league game since April.
“We didn’t use that excuse against Newcastle and we are not going to use today, but of course, if you see the game, I understand why we play the way we play today, the lack of fluidity, lack of one against one,” said Amorim. “We knew that it would be a completely different game compared to Newcastle because in Newcastle, we have more space to play.
“We didn’t have to work the play so much and today we have difficulties in that aspect and that is clear.”
As well as Fernandes, Amorim is also missing Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo, Noussair Mazraoui, Kobbie Mainoo, Mason Mount, Matthijs de Ligt and Harry Maguire.
He had broadly the same squad available against Wolves as he did for the 1-0 win over Newcastle on Boxing Day, but decided to revert to his usual 3-4-3 system after picking a back four against Eddie Howe’s side.
“We knew that they [Wolves] will play with the five,” said Amorim when asked about the decision. “They will use the width. And today was just to do that and then sometimes building up with [Patrick Dorgu] open or close with Luke Shaw doing the opposite.
“So we try to arrange the right situations for the situation that we have in the moment. I think we are in one situation that you have a lot of players out in the same time.
“Of course, when you play Casemiro and [Manuel] Ugarte in the middle, you know that is different when you have Kobbie Mainoo, Mason Mount or Bruno, that is normal.
“So we just need to recover our players, the players from AFCON to return, and then the fluidity is going to be different.”
Manchester United are away to Leeds on Jan. 4 in their first game of 2026.