Ruben Amorim disagrees with Marcus Rashford going public over his future, claiming he would have spoken to the manager.
Amorim says he would have handled being axed differently to Rashford when he was a player rather than air his grievances in an interview. The Manchester United boss is trying to repair their broken relationship after Rashford claimed he is “ready for a new challenge”.
Amorim, speaking ahead of Thursday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final with Tottenham, said: “If this was me probably I would speak with the manager, but, guys, let’s focus on Tottenham.”
Amorim insists he and United want Rashford to stay, even though the club would be prepared to sell him in next month’s January transfer window. “Nothing has changed, we believe in Marcus,” said the Portuguese. “Marcus is a player of Manchester United so there’s no change.
“This kind of club needs big talent and he’s a big talent, so he just needs to perform at the highest level and that’s my focus. I just want to help Marcus.”
Amorim claimed Rashford could win back his place after he dropped him for Sunday’s Manchester derby win if he trained well. He is focused on getting the best out of the striker, who has struggled for form for the last 18 months, saying United are better with him.
“What I want is to take the best stuff of Marcus Rashford as the player so I don’t talk about the future, I just talk about the present,” he said. “I want the best of each one of them and that’s the key point for me. I just want to win and to help the team be better.
“We’re better with Marcus Rashford, that’s simple, and we’ll try different things to push Marcus to the best levels he showed in the past.”
Amorim knows he is in a difficult position and he can already seen the headlines if he publicly chastised Rashford for his interview. Yet he knows his authority is on the line and he will be undermined if he is seen to let Rashford off lightly.
“It’s a hard situation to comment on,” he said. “If I give a lot of importance to it, it will have big headlines in the papers and if I say it’s not a problem, then my standards are getting low. So I will deal with that, I understand that. “What I’m saying is that the team is more important than the individual. We will assess it at the right time, that’s all.”
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