Ruben Amorim has warned Manchester United they must prepare for a long period of suffering while they adapt to his methods.
The new head coach's first game in charge ended in a 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town on Sunday, with the excitement of Marcus Rashford's early opener soon fading when the issues of the Erik ten Hag era began to resurface.
Amorim confessed that his new squad struggled to understand the demands of his preferred 3-4-3 formation, before identifying a handful of key tactical issues he had seen during the game.
Acknowledging his side do not have the ability to control matches at this stage, the incoming coach began: "When you start a game like this, you score one goal, then you have to control the ball; you have to control the tempo of the game. We cannot do it at the moment.
"But they tried, they really, really tried. I know for some people it's hard to understand this, but they are really, really trying and they want this."
Amorim went on to challenge three players to adapt as soon as possible, with Bruno Fernandes, Joshua Zirkzee and Jonny Evans all called out after the final whistle.
"Bruno Fernandes, he improved his game by playing near the ball," Amorim continued. "So he can give us the long pass but you cannot put him there all the time because he wants the long pass all the time.
"I think [decision-making] is a concern, you don't need to coach them at this level. You have to keep the ball and know the momentum to put the ball in front. Sometimes you feel that you can't keep the ball and you [have to] put the ball in front.
"Then you have like we are in the end of the game, we were around the box with two strikers. Josh [Zirkzee] has to understand that he has to go to the box to have the crosses."
On Evans, the United boss added: If you see the first half, we were a little bit afraid. The No.5 [Sam Morsy] was always alone, we have to jump on him. [Omari] Hutchinson was always in the dead space, Jonny Evans should be pressing his guy, but when we don't have the training, it's hard to say all the reactions to the players.
"We had two days, they are confused a little bit. If you stay here, you don't run, you defend but you don't run. You feel that in the data, but we have to understand the data to understand what happened in the game, then we have to be so much better physically to cope with the high pressure, the volume of the high-speed running, we need time to work on these things."
While Amorim was keen to praise his new side for working hard to try and adapt to his demands, he conceded things are likely to get worse before they get better.
"We are going to suffer for a long period and we will try to win games," he warned. "This will take time, but I know we have to win games. So we start now, we risk a little bit, we suffer a little bit and in the next year we will be better at this point, so we have to risk it a little bit."
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