Marcus Rashford offered a message of support to his Manchester United teammates after he was surprisingly left out of the squad for the Manchester derby on Sunday.
Both Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho were absent from the squad to face Manchester City at the Etihad.
Without them Ruben Amorim’s side bounced back from a goal down as late strikes from Bruno Fernandes and Amad Diallo gave them a 2-1 victory.
The Red Devils manager confirmed that it was not disciplinary or injury issues that kept the two forwards out of the squad, but instead a string of factors relating to training, attitude and general behaviour at the club.
Rashford did move to show that he is still on board with the project under Amorim at Old Trafford by posting a message after the dramatic victory.
Posting a picture of Diallo celebrating his goal on a television at home, Rashford captioned the image: ‘Yesssssssss! Love it lads ❤️❤️.’
Amorim spoke at some length about his decision to leave both Rashford and Garnacho out of the derby, but left the door open for their return if they show that they deserve it.
‘It’s important to say why: was not a disciplinary thing. Next week, next game, new life, they are fighting for their places,’ said the Portuguese boss.
‘But for me, it’s important: the performance in training, the performance in game, the way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with teammates, the way you push your teammates, everything is important in our context in the beginning of something when when we want to change a lot of things.
‘When people in our club are losing their jobs we have to put the standards really high and for that they have to fight for a place in the team. And today the team proved we can leave anyone out of the squad and manage to win if you play together.”
‘I’m going to say again was not a disciplinary thing,” Amorim reiterated. “It’s the small details. You can see the games like I see, there are some things that have to change.
‘But it is a new life, it’s not a disciplinary thing, it’s the performance in training, the performance in game and I have to choose players. Jonny Evans did everything right, he was at home, and he is really important for us.
‘If it was disciplinary, I would say that here and it will be a bigger problem but was not that. Sometimes I want to improve my players and you understand that for so long.
‘We tried for example with Rash, it does not work. Let’s continue to do the same thing or try something different? So it’s as simple as that. If they train well with the talent they have we will be so much better with them.
‘But they have to work hard, they do, today they trained really hard. New week, new life, let’s see.
‘You can dress in a way that I don’t like, really don’t like, but it’s not a disciplinary thing. It’s the small details. But the performance in training and games, then I have to choose. That’s it. New week, new life. That’s it.’