Ruben Amorim claims Manchester United players must take blame for latest job losses

The Old Trafford club announced a further 200 redundancies this week after significant job cuts last year

Ruben Amorim feels that Manchester United's poor performances are partly to blame for the latest redundancies (Getty Images)

Ruben Amorim said Manchester United’s players must take the blame for Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s decision to axe a further 200 jobs because their failings on the pitch have created the crisis at Old Trafford.

United, who sacked 250 people last year, announced a further redundancy programme on Monday as they seek to cut costs after making losses of £373m over the last five years.

And head coach Amorim, whose side are only 15th in the Premier League, believes the team is the “engine” of the club as he said they need to work out how they got into such a dire situation.

United have underachieved on the pitch in recent seasons, only coming eighth in the league under Erik ten Hag last season, and are at risk of not qualifying for Europe from the current campaign.

And Amorim said: “We as a club have to understand what we did wrong to get to this situation so we need to think in solutions at this moment.

“We have to address all the problems in the club but one important piece of this moment is to understand how we got to this situation and it has a lot to do with the lack of success of the football team because we are the engine of any football club.”

Amorim, who has only taken 15 points from his 15 league games in charge, admitted it is difficult for players and staff who see their colleagues at risk of unemployment as he urged his players to concentrate on get results.

Another round of redundancies has been announced by Manchester United (PA Wire)

He added: “It is always hard for everybody. They see the friends and the teammates losing their jobs but we have to focus on what I can do to help the club in the moment. I just want to help the club in my department which is to improve the team and improve the players to have success.

“We know this year was really hard for everybody. We did as a club a lot of changes and then when you are doing the changes if you have a football team who are playing well and are winning games, it is easier for the fans and everyone to feel that changes [are working]. But in this moment we are in a difficult period inside of the club and inside of the pitch so we have to fight against this feeling and we have do our job and we try our best to help the team to perform better.”