Ruben Amorim was “really frustrated” and pointed the finger of blame at his Manchester United players after they lost 1-0 to Everton despite playing against 10 men for nearly 80 minutes. Idrissa Gana Gueye’s unusual first-half red card for fighting his own team-mate meant nothing as a toothless United failed to find a leveller after Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s strike on the half-hour mark sealed three points for the visitors at Old Trafford.

Bruno Fernandes and Joshua Zirkzee came closest but the Red Devils only mustered six shots on target despite having an extra man on the pitch. Amorim was visibly disappointed post-match and told Sky Sports repeatedly how frustrated he was. The Portuguese coach criticised his players for their decision-making and for allowing their level to “drop” as their five-match unbeaten run came to a sorry end.

Amorim said: “Really frustrated like any other person that supports Man United. The way we started the game, the way we didn’t understand how we should play against 10 men. They deserved to win. Even suffering with 10 men that is normal. We had a lot of chances but the quality and the decision-making was not there.

“The understanding of every situation of the game was not there. And then the quality near the box. But the most important is the intensity. You can feel it right away when we start the game in the first minute you can feel when we are at the top level of intensity and when we are not. Then when we are not we cannot win in this way.”

Asked if he was surprised, Amorim added: “Of course. But I said in many occasions that I understand that we have a lot to do. But I am really frustrated with the way we played the game, especially at home and understanding what happened this weekend with the other clubs, looking at the table and felling everything.

“And the way we presented from the first minute is really frustrating. This is more than that [a missed opportunity]. We need to play the game in a different way. Sometimes we can do it, sometimes we can have good runs of results and performance, but sometimes we drop.”

Leny Yoro and Bruno Fernandes were guilty of poor defending for the decisive Dewsbury-Hall goal while goalkeeper Senne Lammens didn’t get a strong hand to the shot. Questioned about what United could have done better, Amorim responded simply: “Everything.

“I don’t want to put anything specifically. We didn’t play well. We didn’t understand and we were going with the flow of the game. That is my biggest concern.”

And centre-back Matthijs de Ligt reacted: “It’s quite clear. A bad night for us. 70 minutes more or less 11 vs 10, conceded a goal and not creating many chances. A few but not enough for a match against 10. A disappointing night.

“From our side, we didn’t do enough. Didn’t make the runs or bodies into the box. They are strong in the air so we didn’t have the players to score from that. We basically played to their strengths. These are the main aspects, but we have to look at ourselves and it’s not good enough.

“We’ve been away and trained for a while together. I just think we lacked a bit of urgency in several situations. They get punished if you lack this urgency. If you don’t score, you lose this game. We lacked this hunger to make a difference on the most important moments.”