A body language expert has revealed the one concerning thing that they noticed about Ruben Amorim's
Manchester United suffered what could be the most consequential defeat in the club's recent history on Wednesday, as they lost 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final.
The result marks Amorim's 17 loss in 41 matches in charge at United, taking his win percentage to a miserable 36.59% having won only 18.
But Wednesday's loss will have undoubtedly been the hardest for the Portuguese boss to come to terms with, as explained by a body language expert who analysed his behaviour post-match.
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According to body language analyst Darren Stanton, Amorim is clearly in a 'dark place' as his actions after the loss are a complete contrast to his usual behaviour.
Speaking via OLBG, Stanton claimed: "With Ruben Amorim, it’s very interesting, the shift in emotional dynamics.
“He has always come across as super confident, very direct. At that moment he became a lot more self-conscious. He's not showing the same confidence levels.
“When he was asked the question about whether the board would let him continue he immediately tipped his head down, tilted it to the right and folded his arms. That's a massive internal emotional shift.
“He's certainly not got the same levels of resilience and confidence. He's got a sort of decreased eye contact by dipping his head down and to the side. That's almost like a gesture of shame and like he can't believe he’s in this position.”
The body language expert added that he believes that, despite Amorim's claims that he won't defend the loss, the United boss clearly feels that he has to amid the mounting pressure over his future at the club.
He added: “Essentially we've got these gestures of what I call shame and disbelief and obviously internally and in his physical gestures his emotions shifted from being relatively confident to not very confident by folding his arms, which is a reassurance gesture.
“We do reassurance gestures when we feel under attack or we feel self-conscious or we've got anxiety so obviously he wasn't happy that he's obviously had to sit there and I do not feel he believes that his position is definitely as secure as he claims."
Stanton then pointed out the clear difference between Amorim's reaction to Wednesday's loss and how he has behaved after many of the other big losses during the season, claiming that he offers a true insight into how he is feeling.
“He's usually a really smiley person. If you look at his previous press conferences, he's always got this beaming smile. After that loss, we aren’t getting that smile or any other micro-expressions of genuine happiness. I think he’s in quite a dark place.
“It’s quite a drastic contrast from the baseline behaviours we’ve become used to seeing, even following other defeats with lots of open palm gestures, a lot more animation, that tendency to smile. These are his main characteristics for me.
“He’s someone who generally does display signs of genuine happiness that you can see from the crow's feet and laugh lines at the side of his face. It’s rare we see him folding his arms, tucking his arms in.
“Essentially, he's not in a good state in terms of emotion, no smiling, no genuine signs of happiness. We see those self reassurance gestures, the dipping of his head down, making himself appear smaller than usual.
“They're all big shifts from his normal baseline of how we are used to seeing him being quite chatty, smiling, and being quite happy-go-lucky.”
Topics: Manchester United, Ruben Amorim, Football, Europa League
Ben McCrum