Amorim admits he is pinching set-piece ideas from PL rivals

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim admits he is "stealing ideas" from top-flight rivals in an effort to make his side stronger.

After looking to have a weakness in the set-piece area last season, United headed into the current round of fixtures with 10 set-piece goals this season, the highest in the Premier League. Their expected goals (xG) rate of 6.5 per 100 set-pieces is also the best in the league.

Coach Carlos Fernandes is getting a lot of credit for this, although Amorim says it is a team effort.

However, United have been analysing how their rivals have been so effective in a part of the game Amorim admits he has had to work on since his arrival at Old Trafford from Sporting just over a year ago.

"I'm not going to tell you who we are stealing ideas from," he said.

"A lot of smart managers are doing a lot of things with specialists nowadays. We try to steal from everybody.

"When you are attacking nowadays in the Premier League you don't need to touch the ball, just don't allow the defender to take the ball because it is going to be there for the second ball."

It means Amorim has to pay particular attention to his team selection, especially at a time when injury is depriving him of the services of two significant aerial threats in striker Benjamin Sesko and defender Harry Maguire.

"We played with Amad (Diallo), Bryan (Mbeumo) and Bruno (Fernandes) and didn't have Casemiro, so we suffered against Tottenham with that.

"You have to make a balance sometimes thinking yes the idea for the game is this one but if you have set-pieces against, it cannot be this team.

"Our league is like that in the moment. You need to think not just the way you are going to play, but also in set-pieces."