Ruben Amorim said the Manchester United team’s decision to show solidarity with Nussar Mazraoui through a collective choice not to wear jackets with rainbow motifs to support the LGBTQ+ community must be respected.
Before that, the players had to go out on the field in their clothes their match with Everton on Sunday but Mazrawi refused on the grounds of his Muslim faith and his team-mates followed suit, leading to criticism from the Rainbow Devils, the club’s LGBTQ+ supporters’ group, who said the decision was “a big disappointment”.
“It was a group decision as players, as it should be,” Amorim said. “There are three difficult things to manage. On the one hand, it’s the club’s values and I think everyone can agree that’s not a problem, but then you have a religion to respect. Our values are to respect other opinions. And then the third thing is the group thing. I will not leave Nus alone – we are a team. The majority of players believe in one thing, but they saw one person alone and said: “Let’s be together.” These are three things we must manage and respect. The question is difficult to decide. I think we did it in a good way. This club represents… we have to respect everything, but we also respect the religion of Noos and its culture.”
Amorim suffered his own first loss on Wednesday against Arsenal and will be looking to make it three wins from three at Old Trafford against Nottingham Forest on Saturday night. Forest are three points and six places above United, who start the weekend in 13th, an indication of the work Amorim has to do.
“We’re a huge club but we’re not a huge team and we know that, so it’s not a problem to say that,” Amorim said. “We want to improve – we are at a different time to Arsenal. But you can feel it during the game. I think we need to believe more. We didn’t dominate the game, but we were in control. Not that many chances for Arsenal, of course a lot of set pieces, but we were good, especially in the first half.
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“You can feel that there is so much work. We have to be better in the final third – they had more danger. I felt that Arsenal had problems blocking our build-up but then when they defended the goal it was quite comfortable for them so we are learning and trying to improve.
