Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho have both been left out of the Manchester United squad to face Manchester City.
United declined to offer an explanation for either player’s absence from the game, instead simply stating neither has been selected on the bench.
According to the Manchester Evening News, both Rashford and Garnacho were involved in training on Sunday morning and neither player has picked up an injury, suggesting Amorim’s decision is purely tactical.
Amorim told Sky Sports: “We tried to evaluate everything: training, performance, game performance, engagement with the teammates, push the teammates up… Everything is on the line when we analyse and try to choose the players. So, my selection. Simple.
“I don’t want to send a message, it is simply evaluation and they know it. The players are really, really smart and so everybody understands my decision and I have to choose. It’s just simple selection.”
Rashford’s omission from the squad comes at a time in which his future at United is up in the air. It was recently reported that the Red Devils are open to selling the academy graduate in the January transfer window.
Another report went as far as to state United would be prepare to sell Rashford for as little as £40m.
As for Garnacho, he has been involved in allegations of a dressing room leak, with his brother forced to deny being responsible for several team news leaks.
Amorim’s entire starting lineup appeared to leak on social media before the game. It turned out to be 100% correct, although whether that is purely a coincidence or not remains unknown.