Ruben Amorim has told Marcus Rashford he “needs to talk to the manager” rather than make his complaints public after hinting he could leave Old Trafford. The 27-year-old was left out of Sunday’s game against Manchester City by manager Amorim and responded in a social media interview saying he was “ready for a new challenge.” Rashford joined Manchester United’s youth team and has scored 138 goals in 426 appearances for the club since making his debut in 2016.
But he has lost form at United over the past 18 months and has been left out of England’s Euro 2024 squad.
Rashford has scored just 15 goals in 67 appearances since signing a lucrative new contract 18 months ago, and speculation over his future has been increasing recently.
The forward, who suffered a setback in training on Monday, will miss Thursday’s League Cup quarter-final at Tottenham.
Amorim wants to keep Rashford but admits he would have handled the situation differently when he was a player.
“If this were me, I would probably talk to the manager,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“But guys, let’s focus on Tottenham. Tottenham is the most important thing.”
Amorim has revealed he has not yet spoken to Rashford since the interview that put his Manchester United future in doubt.
‘A little emotional’
“It’s hard for me to explain to you what I’m trying to do.” Amorim said. “I’m a bit emotional, so I’ll figure out what to do in the moment.
“We are preparing for the game and we will see. Let’s focus on the team and not on individual players. That’s all.”
Amorim addressed 16 questions about Rashford during his 14-minute press conference.
It was an allusion to the intense media scrutiny that Amorim will have to adapt to United after joining from Sporting Lisbon to replace the sacked Erik ten Hag in November.
He said, “It is difficult to comment. “If I give it too much importance, it will be a big headline in the newspaper.
“If I say there is no problem, my standards are lowered, so I will take care of that, I understand.
“My focus is not on drawing attention to the game and the team and what we did in the last game and what we put into Marcus.
“What I’m saying is the team is more important than the individual. We will evaluate at the right time, let’s focus on the game, that’s all.”
Amorim is determined to focus on the Tottenham game despite his controversial decision to ax Rashford and Argentine winger Alejandro Garnacho in the Manchester derby.
Unlike Rashford, Garnacho reacted impressively to his expulsion and was pictured with the United squad heading to London for the quarter-finals.
“It’s really good, he’s trained really well,” Amorim said of Garnacho. “He seems a little mad at me, which is perfect.
“I would do the same thing in his shoes and he was ready for this game, so I was really, really happy.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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