Ruben Amorim hoping to see benefits of midweek off when Man Utd visit Liverpool

Ruben Amorim is hoping to see the benefits of a rare midweek off when Manchester United travel to Premier League leaders Liverpool on Sunday.

United have so far struggled to adapt to Amorim’s 3-4-3 system, with Monday’s 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle their fourth in a row in all competitions, and sixth in their last eight, as they have slumped to 14th place in the Premier League.

With Liverpool cruising at the top of the table, Sunday’s match appears to be Amorim’s toughest assignment yet, but he has at least had longer to prepare with this the first week without a midweek fixture since he replaced Erik ten Hag in mid-November.

“We have more time to train, two days in a row, to train with the team,” Amorim said. “I think that can help us given the environment, it’s a difficult moment because we are losing too many matches. We are going to face the best team this year.

“With training, we feel more the team, we prepare more the team and we want to improve the performance compared to the last game.”

Asked what he had focused on with his players, Amorim simply said: “Everything.

“The small things, the transitions, you can see the lack of possession in the last game in the first half. The control of the game, everybody was so anxious, so nervous.

“The crosses are really important, set pieces. It’s hard to say one thing, we work on a lot of things. The possession, the way we control the tempo of the game, the understanding where you should play was the main focus this week.”

The January transfer window has opened but it is thought United need to sell before they can fund any new signings. Amorim knows most of the answers to United’s problems need to be found within the squad that he has.

“We need time to work on the basic