Ruben Amorim has praised Joshua Zirkzee for "doing a great job" of rebuilding his relationship with the Manchester United fans after the low point of their last meeting with Newcastle.
United travel to St James’ Park on Sunday seeking to avenge a December defeat in which Zirkzee was substituted after just 33 minutes and some supporters cheered when his number was up and jeered him off.
But the Dutchman has remained an important member of Amorim’s squad and scored in Thursday’s 2-2 draw against Lyon in the Europa League.
Amorim is encouraged by the way fans have rallied behind Zirkzee and said he spoke to the summer signing and the coaches in his bid to resolve the issue.
“He is doing a great job,” he said. “But also a very important thing was the way the fans reacted after that incident. Even if Josh is not playing, if you see every time he gets on the pitch or is just warming up our fans sing the Josh song. That is massive for the boy. So it’s 50-50. 50 per cent the fans and 50 per cent on the part of Josh.”
Amorim said he could empathise with Zirkzee. “I explained the situation,” he added. “As a former player, I wanted to hear some explanation from the coaches on that.
“I just want to help the team. And then work with him, all the work that all the staff is doing with him and he is improving, and then put it into play. This is the only way to show confidence in him.”
Amorim is debating how much to rotate his team at Newcastle, knowing United’s season could rest on the second leg against Lyon but aware he does not want to see a weakened side losing games.
He added: “There is a great responsibility. We don’t have a team that is really big and then we have players that I know cannot make 90 minutes in this moment, we have to be really careful. So we will try to address all these subjects in the game against Newcastle. But we have a great responsibility when we play any games.”
He faces a decision over captain Bruno Fernandes, who normally plays every game but risks being overworked.
He said: “Bruno Fernandes is playing all the time and he is playing better all the time. Sometimes this kind of player doesn’t play in every match, but we will address that.”
