Ruud van Nistelrooy insists he is not yet thinking about a long-term future at Manchester United after guiding the Red Devils to a vital Europa League win over PAOK.
The Dutchman’s interim reign has now yielded two wins and a share of the spoils for Chelsea, with Ivory Coast striker Amad Diallo two-goal hero for United as they got their first win in Europe since beating FC Copenhagen 1-0 aa Champions League group stage crash in October 2023.
Ruben Amorim arrives as United’s new boss on Monday but must first take charge of his final match as Sporting CP manager, while Van Nistelrooy has another Premier League game to oversee before concede again to Amorim – Leicester City the opponents after being knocked down. the Carabao Cup to the former striker first match as interim coach.
Van Nistelrooy was quizzed about his long-term future after United’s last win, but said little about the possibility of working alongside Amorim when asked if the two had spoken.
“I think Ruben, what he’s saying, his focus is on (Sporting against) Braga and me on Leicester,” Van Nistelrooy said.
“I think at the moment it’s fantastic. And it shows that we’re focused on the day-to-day work and getting the most out of the team. So let him focus on Braga, I’ll focus on Leicester. We’ll see later.
“I’m just busy with one thing on my mind. I want my last game as an interim, I want to prepare as well as I can and give the players everything they need to get the best out of them and hopefully get three very important games to keep them at Old Trafford and that is my absolute focus.
Van Nistelrooy also spoke about it unitedIndustrious work in the first half which saw them create very few chances and the impact of the eventual match winner Amad.
“The first half wasn’t good, that’s clear, a very good point. I think we didn’t create almost anything and neither did PAOK, they didn’t create much, so in that sense, we were good,” remarked Van Nistelrooy .
“But we didn’t get going. I think our possession wasn’t good enough, we made a lot of tactical mistakes, our shape wasn’t good, sometimes it wasn’t low enough and every time in that shape we wanted to play.
“In the second half we were much better, we insisted on finding Casemiro and (Manuel) Ugarte in front of the defense, or Amad and Bruno (Fernandes) in the 10 positions and that’s why we started to play better and create more chances. and getting the best of the game, playing his half more.
“And as you said, Amad made the difference with two good goals.”
