Ruben Amorim has paid tribute to Joshua Zirkzee and fans of Manchester United-for the way in which the Dutchman returned in December from a humiliating replacement of the first half against Newcastle.
United goes to Tyneside to be back in Newcastle on Sunday with Zirkzee in good mood after scoring in the 2-2 Europa League-equal game with Lyon in France on Thursday evening.
The summer signature of £ 36.5 million from Bologna also came away with an important goal to Real Sociedad in the final round of the competition, and scored against Leicester and converted the decisive penalty in the FA Cup shootout in Arsenal.
It is far removed from the lowest point of Zirkzee during Christmas when he was replaced in the 33rd minute by Kobbie Mainoo against Newcastle to toast the old Trafford and ran the tunnel directly on the edge of tears.
Amorim praised the 23-year-old because he had the character to recover and is also pleased to see the reaction of United fans who made up for it by helping Zirkzee recover his trust.
“Yes, he's doing great,” said the United Boss. 'But also a very important thing was the way the fans responded after that incident. Even if Josh doesn't play, if you see every time he comes to the field or just warms up our fans, the Josh number sings. That is huge for the boy. So it is 50-50-50 percent the fans and 50 percent of Josh's side. '
Asked what he did to help Zirkzee, Amorim added: “The same thing. I explained the situation. As a former player I wanted to hear some explanation from the coaches about that. I just want to help the team.
'And then work with him, all the work that all the staff does to him and he improves, and then bring it to the game. This is the only way to show trust in him. '
With the Lyon tie evenly, Amorim has to decide whether he should rotate his team in Newcastle. Mason Mount, Luke Shaw and Mainoo have returned to the couch in recent matches, but it will be the same pool of players in St James' Park.
Could Amorim be tempted to let Captain Bruno Fernandes rest who already played a total of 54 games for Club and Country this season?
“We will make this evaluation with all the staff and all the data we have,” he replied. 'Because we already know the players, we will try to protect that it will be difficult to play a lot of games.
'Bruno Fernandes always plays and he always plays better. Sometimes these types of players do not play in every match, but we will tackle that.
“There is a big responsibility. We don't have a team that is really big and then we have players I know they can't make 90 minutes at the moment, we have to be very careful.
'So we will try to tackle all these topics in the game against Newcastle. But we have a great responsibility when we play games. I will try to look at that, that's for sure. We must be confronted in Newcastle with a team that we can be competitive to win the game.
'Sometimes winning games is the best way to prepare for the next one. Of course I will be careful with some players, but again, we have to be competitive.
'If you play for Manchester United, you can't go to the game and think about the next one. So we're going to face this and then we have three days.
'We are going to prepare for the next without running and a lot of training. It is just recovering and then we will be fine with our fans on Thursday. But we have to be confronted in a way that we can win in Newcastle. '
The side of Eddie Howe is at a peak after a four-game extraction running that has seen them eliminate the first domestic trophy of the club in 70 years by beating Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final and moving to fifth place in the Premier League.
Amorim added: 'They have top players, really good on set pieces, the physicality and the way they run when they are defeated in the first edition.
'They play together for a while and they won a title that was really emotional for everyone, you can see it in that week. But we are more consistent in the way we play the games and we will try to do the same on Sunday. '