Amorim gives Man Utd's 'plan' as they are set to lose Mbeumo, Amad and Mazraoui

Ruben Amorim aims to keep Bryan Mbeumo and other players heading to the Africa Cup of Nations for as long as possible but admits it will not be easy without them.

The AFCON will take place between December 21 and January 18. Bryan Mbeumo will represent Cameroon's national team at the tournament, while Amad Diallo is set to feature for the Ivory Coast. Noussair Mazraoui will also be at the tournament representing Morocco.

Amorim said United will "struggle a little bit" when they lose the trio, and that the club will talk with the federations to keep them for as long as possible.

"I think it’s going to be more or less at the same time," said Amorim when asked whether Benjamin Sesko would return from his injury before United lose players to the AFCON. "I don’t want to say for sure, but when they are going to camp [to prepare for the tournament], I expect to have Ben back.

"We have the rules about when to release the players. We’ll see, we’re doing our job to keep the players a little longer. But it's not just in our hands, and we have to respect that, but we will try to do everything to protect the club, protect the players and the national team."

Amorim was asked to clarify when the rules stated United would have to release the players, and said: "I think it's two weeks before the start, so we'll try to arrange something with the federations, but we need to respect their rules in this case."

Amorim has been in charge of United for a year and says he knew it was never going to be easy.

"It was everything really fast, the first thinking was the environment was really different in the Premier League and I was excited in that," he said.

"Right away I knew would struggle in some things, but the feeling it is the best league in the world, maybe the best club. I think we are showing that [improvement], but the important thing is that it doesn’t matter what we did in the recent games.

"We cannot forget we suffer a lot in that games and play every game like it is the last one. More dominant, playing better football and more competitive in every way."

Amorim was named manager of the month for October after securing three wins on the bounce against Sunderland, Liverpool and Brighton. United started November by drawing against Nottingham Forest and Tottenham, and they now sit in seventh position in the table.