Soccer-I understand criticism but I don't care, says Amorim

NEWCASTLE, England, April 13 (Reuters) - Manchester United ( MANU ) coach Ruben Amorim insisted he understands the criticism levelled at him and his team after another Premier League loss at Newcastle United on Sunday, but claimed losing games is worse than any personal condemnation.

Amorim's side were beaten for the 14th time in the league this season -- matching the number of defeats they suffered in the entire 2023-2024 campaign.

United did put together some encouraging passages of play at St James' Park but Harvey Barnes' double, capitalising on some generous defending, left Amorim's team languishing down in 14th in the standings with six games left.

"I understand (criticism) but I don't care," Amorim said. Nothing is worse than losing games. People can say whatever they want to say. I don't want to defend myself or anything like that. If you look at our position in the table, it says it all.

"When we suffer the second goal in the beginning of the second half we went down and we need to be better in these moments, we need to control it.

"We need to improve in a lot of things and our position is a reflection of our performances this season."

On course for their worst-ever Premier League points haul, Amorim made five changes to his starting XI, with a crucial Europa League quarter-final second leg against Olympique Lyonnais to come on Thursday.

One change grabbed the headlines after first-choice goalkeeper Andre Onana was left out of the squad, with Altay Bayindir handed his Premier League debut.

The Turkey international struggled, however, with his error gifting Newcastle their fourth goal.

"Even if we put a different XI we don't know the result," Amorim added. "But we had to make choices, we played three days ago.

"We are going to analyse the game, but we need to focus on the next one, we cannot change this one, the next one is massive for us, so let's focus on the next one on Thursday to play better and to win the game." (Reporting by Peter Hall, editing by Pritha Sarkar)