Former Red Devils including Neville and Keane have refused to hold back in their criticism of United in their role as television commentators and pundits. Amorim’s side have endured another tough start to the campaign and currently sit in 11th place in the Premier League table and have already been knocked out of the Carabao Cup by League Two minnows Grimsby.
“You see how big the club is, how much people want to be involved with the club, even on the media attention,” he told ESPN. “I think even now we speak about United here. It’s just the power of the club. Obviously the more opinionated, the more feelings towards the club are negative, the tougher it is, because the fans follow their heroes on the TV and it doesn’t help the players at the club. At the same time at United, as a footballer, there’s always someone who has an opinion on one or the other, but you’re just playing football. You try to focus on that bit, and I think United were good at that. The focus was on the game itself and not so much what people say.”
Eriksen won the FA Cup and the EFL Cup during his time at Manchester United but feels domestic cups aren’t given the same importance at Old Trafford than at other clubs.
“It probably depends who you ask. If you ask a fan, they want to be back to winning the league every year for the next 20 years like they did … this time of football it is almost impossible, to do that with so many other clubs having that many good players around. It’s tough,” he added.
“I think obviously they want to get back to that to being stable as a top club, but even being there, winning the FA Cup and the Carabao in the last two seasons is something that any other club would be proud of to have done. Then there is also the size and the image and the feeling at United — it’s like it’s not good enough. I think hopefully that will change. Even the Carabao [Cup] is a small thing, but at that moment it is a big thing.”
After beating Chelsea last time out, Amorim’s side will aim to make it two wins in a row on Saturday when the Red Devils travel to Brentford in the Premier League.
