Ruben Amorim: I would put 63-year-old on bench instead of Marcus Rashford

Ruben Amorim said he would rather name his 63-year-old goalkeeper coach as a substitute than Marcus Rashford or any Manchester United player who was not prepared to give “the maximum”.

The manager watched his starting centre-forward, Rasmus Højlund, endure a torrid time in the club’s 1-0 win at Fulham on Sunday night; he was forced to replace him with Joshua Zirkzee, who made little impact.

Amorim has frozen out Rashford, having grown frustrated with his application and the idea was to move him on during the January window. It has not yet happened and, with the time getting short, Amorim was asked whether Rashford could yet be the answer. Højlund has scored seven goals in all competitions this season; Zirkzee has four. Was there a way back for Rashford, who has not featured in United’s past 11 games?

“It’s always the same reason,” Amorim replied. “The reason is the training, the way I see what a footballer should do. In training, in life and it’s every day, every detail. So if things don’t change, I will not change.”

Amorim was pushed as to whether the situation would remain the same if Rashford stayed at United after the closure of the window on 3 February, which led him to thrust Jorge Vital, his veteran goalkeeper coach, into the spotlight.

“It’s the same situation for every player,” Amorim said. “If you do the maximum, if you do the right things … we can use every player. You can see it today on the bench – we miss a little bit of pace to go, to change the game, to move some pieces, but I prefer [it] like that. I will put Vital [on the bench] before I put a player that doesn’t give the maximum every day so I will not change in that.”

skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Football Daily Free daily newsletter Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion

Amorim turns 40 on Monday and he joked: “It’s not 40, I’m 50. After two months at Manchester United, it’s 50. You cannot see a great improvement in the team and that is a fact. But to win helps us to improve. We’ve had some lack of luck in some games. Today was not the best match but we managed to win.”

Click here to read article