Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim said he shares a connection with Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou because of their unwavering commitment to their football ideologies and tactical resolve, irrespective of outside criticism.
The two teams, who face off on Sunday at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, find themselves in unfamiliar territory in the Premier League standings with United 13th and Spurs 14th, two points behind Amorim's side.
Both managers have tried to get their players to adopt a specific style of play, which has often cost them at the back as they leak goals and Amorim believes they have the same problem as both remain steadfast with their tactics.
"I'm a huge fan of Ange Postecoglou. I'm from a different culture, I'm Portuguese and all the Portuguese coaches can adapt. I adapt," Amorim told reporters on Friday.
"The simple thing is that I use one system at the moment because I believe if you work on that system you can play in different systems at the same time. That is my idea.
"But we are not winning games and I understand the connection between me and Ange, we have the same problems.
"In my opinion, with all due respect, I am at a bigger club with bigger pressure. I understand the connection and he's a really important coach to follow his principles."
Spurs have won only two league games since the start of December while they were also knocked out of both domestic cups in the span of three days last week and Amorim said he sympathises with Postecoglou.
"Of course, especially because he is a good guy. He's a very good coach. He wants to play football in the right way, for me that is a good thing," Amorim said.
"When we choose this profession there are a lot of good things but then you have to feel that pressure when you don't win."
With Marcus Rashford and Antony going out on loan in January, United did not bring in any attacking reinforcements and Amorim said they would have to let players go before they can bring more in.
"Here it's simple. To do something, we need to sell players. My focus is to prepare the game. We cannot do it now, the window is closed," he said.
"We need to focus on the games we have and then in the summer we'll see."
WHAT THE STATS SAY
Tottenham are unbeaten in their last four Premier League games against Man Utd (W2 D2) and are looking to complete the league double over the Red Devils for the first time since 1989-90.
Manchester United have conceded at least twice in each of their last four Premier League games against Spurs – the last side they conceded multiple goals against in 5+ consecutive league games was Arsenal (5 between 1975 and 1978).
Tottenham have already beaten Manchester United twice in all competitions this season, 3-0 in the Premier League and 4-3 in the League Cup quarter-final. Not since 1989-90 have Spurs beaten Man Utd three times in a single campaign, while the last side overall to defeat the Red Devils three times in a season were Chelsea in 2012-13.
After their 2-0 win over Brentford, Tottenham are looking to win back-to-back Premier League games for just the second time this season, previously doing so in September – when their two wins were over Brentford and then Manchester United.
Tottenham are winless in their last seven Premier League home games (D2 L5), their longest such run in the competition since going eight without a win from March to October 2008. Their five defeats in these last seven games are more than they suffered in their previous 17 at home in the league (W13 D0 L4).
Since Ruben Amorim took charge in November, only five sides have picked up fewer points in the Premier League than Manchester United (14). Amorim is only the fourth manager to lose 7+ of his first 13 top-flight games in charge of the Red Devils, along with AH Albut (7), John Chapman (10), and Jimmy Murphy (7).
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou is unbeaten in all three of his Premier League games against Manchester United – only three managers have ever remained unbeaten in each of their first four against the Red Devils (Ruud Gullit, Nuno Espírito Santo and Unai Emery).
After his assist for Pape Sarr’s goal against Brentford, Son Heung-min became Tottenham’s outright leading assister in the Premier League (69), overtaking Darren Anderton (68). Son has seven assists in the competition this season, only recording more in a single campaign in 2019-20 (10), 2020-21 (10), and 2023-24 (10).
No player has scored more goals (6) or provided more assists (6) for Manchester United in the Premier League this season than Amad Diallo. However, the Ivorian hasn’t scored or assisted in any of his last three league games, only attempting two shots over this time while creating 10 chances without any leading to a goal.
Dominic Solanke has scored in each of his last three Premier League games against Manchester United, netting in both meetings with Bournemouth last season and the reverse fixture for Tottenham this term. The only players to score in 4+ successive appearances against the Red Devils in the competition are Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (5), Sergio Agüero (4), and Mohamed Salah (5).