Patrick Dorgu says a public criticism from his first Manchester United manager “hit me a little bit” but that he has tried to use the moment to improve his game as he returns from a hamstring injury.
Ruben Amorim told reporters in November after a 1-0 loss to Everton: "You can feel the anxiety every time Patrick touches the ball." Dorgu said that remark stung, but he took it as motivation: "It hit me a little bit when Amorim says that because when the coach speaks bad about you [criticises you], it is always going to affect you a little bit. I just took it in the best possible way and tried to improve my game."
The comment came before a turbulent winter. Dorgu, who joined Manchester United from Lecce for £25 million in January 2025 and was Amorim's first signing as United manager, scored in Manchester United's 3-2 away win against Arsenal before suffering a serious hamstring injury in January that kept him sidelined for weeks. He later returned to the bench for the Brentford win as he began to work back to full fitness.
Dorgu rejects the label Amorim used. "I don’t think that was the word he [Amorim] was looking for. Anxious? I don’t think it was that. I just think I didn’t have any confidence and the team was not in a good moment at that time," he said, arguing that his performances for the national team made the remark seem at odds with his form: "I think he said it at the wrong time because I played well in the national team. I don’t see how I can play well in one and play bad in the other, and all of a sudden I am anxious."
Those weeks in November were among the final weeks of Amorim's 14-month reign; the manager was sacked in early January 2026. Dorgu says he began to find a rhythm in Amorim's final games and that the criticism pushed him to change aspects of his game.
Under the club's interim coaches, Dorgu said he has tried to play with more freedom. He credited Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick with helping him to express himself on the pitch: Dorgu said he "tried to play with more confidence and express myself under Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick." Teammates and staff have pointed to Dorgu as one of the standout performers in the early weeks of Carrick's interim reign, and his return from injury to the bench in the Brentford win was the first sign of a push to re-establish himself in the matchday squad.
The tension in Dorgu's account lies in the gap between a coach's blunt public verdict and a young player's view of his own form. Amorim had said plainly: "I can feel the anxiety." Dorgu accepts the remark landed badly but says it did not reflect his assessment of himself — he felt short on confidence rather than gripped by anxiety — and that timing made it worse given his national-team performances.
For patrick dorgu the episode now reads as a turning point rather than a setback. Having joined for a substantial fee and scored at Arsenal, he is back in contention as he recovers from injury and adapts to interim management. The clear conclusion from his remarks is that Dorgu intends to respond on the pitch: he has framed the criticism as a spur to improve, and his recovery and minutes off the bench suggest he will get the chance to prove it.
