Anthony Elanga only got four goals for Man United and he returned to haunt his former club for Nottingham Forest.
Ruben Amorim claimed Anthony Elanga had his chance at Manchester United after the Nottingham Forest winger scored the winner against his former club.
Elanga spent nine years at United in the academy and first team before he was sold for a fee rising to £20million in July 2023. He got the only goal at the City Ground as Forest beat United home and away for the first time since 1991-92.
Sweden international Elanga, 22, scored four goals during his 18-month stint in the United first team under Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag and he has already got six goals for Forest this term.
Elanga has thrived at third-placed Forest while fellow wingers Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Antony, all kept at United ahead of the Swede, endured turbulent spells at the club before they were sent out on loan.
“We are talking about a lot of front players for Manchester United that are doing right but they had the chance here,” Amorim insisted. “At Manchester United you don’t have the time. I will not have the time. We have to get it right fast.
“You are not talking about players that didn’t play for Manchester United, they were here playing for Manchester United. In here the pressure is too big sometimes and sometimes you don’t get time and you should have time for these kids to develop.
“But for that you need a strong base to support all these kids and if you don’t have strong base we are not going to help our kids. They had their chances and sometimes football is like that and the pressure of playing for Manchester United is really big.
United failed to score for the 11th time this season and centre back Harry Maguire, sent on up front at Forest, had their best chances late on with a wayward header and a goalbound effort that was cleared off the line.
Amorim started Joshua Zirkzee up front and introduced striker Rasmus Hojlund at half-time. Zirkzee was substituted for Maguire in the 78th minute while Hojlund failed to get a clear-cut chance.
United invested £108.5million in Hojlund and Zirkzee in successive summers and their goal difference in the Premier League is now -4.
“In the end of the game, when the opponent is just protecting the box, if you look at the central defenders of Nottingham, they are really comfortable there,” Amorim said. “With a line of six, not five.
“We can reach the final third but then we have to put the ball inside the box, because it’s hard to make combinations to get inside the box to score goals.
“Harry Maguire, when he’s attacking from set pieces is maybe the best player in our team. When you are in the box, you are not a defender, you are a striker. It was that idea to put one man that is really good on it to score a goal.
“Independent of the characteristics, Nottingham were playing a line of six and is the matter of size and the way you have the ability to have a ball. So I don’t see it that way (that it is a concern that Maguire had chances and Hojlund and Zirkzee did not).
“That can happen with any team with the best strikers in the world, the defenders sometimes are the best to attack the ball inside the box and Harry was really good at that.
“We create some chances but we could create more with the possession that we had. We reached the final third a lot of times but we need to be better in the final third because it’s really important to score goals and we have a lack of goals.
“We start the game suffering a goal and putting Nottingham in a place that they want to be, defending with a lot of men. Then they have really fast players to make transitions, we controlled that quite well, especially in the second half. We pushed forward again but in the final third we were not good enough.”