Ruben Amorim’s exclusion of Marcus Rashford from Manchester United’s past three match-day squads is solely his decision, with the head coach under no pressure from Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s football department.
The Portuguese also questioned the “choices” of people surrounding Rashford following an interview with the journalist Henry Winter two days after the Manchester City game in which the forward said he was “ready for a new challenge”. This was interpreted as the player wanting a move.
“It is a hard situation but I understand that this kind of player have a lot of people around them, and making some choices that sometimes is not the first idea from the player,” Amorim said on Monday.
“I’m always here for helping Marcus as another player and they have to do what they have to do. I say they chose to do that interview because it’s not just Marcus.”
Rashford is for sale in the January transfer window, a decision approved by Ratcliffe, but it is understood the player’s demotion from the squad was purely Amorim’s choice.
Amorim again left the forward out of the squad of 20 for the 3-0 defeat against Bournemouth at Old Trafford on Sunday. This followed Rashford not being in the squad for the Carabao Cup defeat at Tottenham on Thursday and the victory at City the previous Sunday.
After dropping the 27-year-old and Alejandro Garnacho for the City game, Amorim said: “It is important the performance in training, the performance in games, the way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with your teammates, the way you push your teammates.” Since then he described Rashford’s absence as being for “selection” reasons.
Despite Amorim’s cited reasons for leaving out the England international and informing him he will be reinstated if his training performance improves, it is unclear whether Rashford would be recalled.
