Ruben Amorim says Manchester United’s players and first-team staff must take their share of responsibility for the club’s redundancies and ticket price hikes.

This is a challenging time on and off the field at Old Trafford, with the side languishing 14th in the Premier League standings as co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe oversees some controversial decisions behind the scenes.

Ineos slashed staff benefits and shed around a quarter of United’s staff over the summer, with more redundancies planned as they seek to reduce losses that totalled £300million over the last three years.

Ticket prices have also gone up as United seek to overcome financial constraints that have grown under the Glazers – issues that Amorim says the first team cannot shy away from.

“I think it’s really important for us in the first team, coaches and players, not to ignore that,” the United head coach said. “People are losing their jobs, so we have to acknowledge that.

“And the biggest problem is the football team because we spend the money, we are not winning, we are not in Champions League, so the revenues are not the same.

“And we spent a lot of money in the past, and now we have to be careful with the finances. We cannot rebuild the team the way you would like.

“People are losing their jobs. Of course, that feeling of saving their job is hard to have that feeling and that affects the environment, so I think we cannot ignore.

“We acknowledge that problem and I want to say that the responsible (people) is the first team.

“We have to change that. To change that the first part what we should do is to win against Tottenham.

“That is the small step to try to help these people, to try not to push the prices of the tickets higher. We are responsible for that.”

Amorim’s honesty about the situation came ahead of Sunday’s trip to fellow Premier League underperformers Tottenham, where counterpart Ange Postecoglou is another coach under pressure.

Both managers have been criticised for sticking to their methods rather than being more pragmatic, although the Portuguese is confident he has the requisite backing from Ineos.

Despite that, highly-rated United head coach Amorim, who arrived from Sporting in November, knows patience only goes so far and risk is attached to that approach.

“Yeah, I accept that,” he said. “It’s a choice you make when you are a coach and I truly believe (in) the way I do things, and I know that in this kind of club, with this kind of pressure, you are always in risk.

“So, I’m aware of that and it’s not my biggest concern. I’ll say it again – losing games is the hardest part of my job.

“Being sacked, maybe sometimes it’s like a liberation, so I just want to win. I just want to win games.”

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