Marcus Rashford has been ruled out by Ruben Amorim because he does not meet the demands of the new Manchester United manager, according to Wes Brown.
Rashford has now been left out of four consecutive matchday squads by Amorim after failing to make the match against Wolves on Boxing Day. The 27-year-old has admitted he is ready for a new challenge ahead of the January transfer window – and it is looking increasingly likely that a move would suit both parties.
Amorim has publicly tried to toe the line with Rashford to keep both options open, but the club is privately open to offers for their striker. However, an asking price of £40 million and his wages of £325,000 per week make a January transfer virtually impossible.
Former United defender Brown played under Sir Alex Ferguson so has seen man-management tactics first-hand. He believes Amorim is using Rashford as an example to the rest of the squad in a bid to instil some much-needed discipline.
“It is once again disappointing that he is not in the squad,” Brown said on Prime Video. “It seems like the manager has set his terms: 'If you want to be in the squad, these are the terms you stick to – whether it's in training, off the pitch or whatever.'
“And ultimately that has not yet been resolved. It will be a very sad day when we see Marcus leave. But ultimately you have to be on the same page as the manager. I honestly think it's close [to Amorim’s strongest line-up]. I think this is the closest to what you can achieve now.”
Speaking before kick-off at Molineux on Boxing Day, Amorim admitted he was moving closer to landing his preferred starting line-up after making just two changes to the side that were beaten 3-0 by Bournemouth.
Asked if he was close to his strongest starting XI, the United boss said: “I think so, but I don't like to use the expression 'the strongest XI' because we count every player, but we try to build some connections. between players trying to use the same players sometimes because there are three days between games and that's a big difference.
“Right now, with more time, we can change less, so that's the focus. Our focus is also on maintaining our clear identity. The third game of last week (against Bournemouth) was tough for us and our fans, so we need to be better at set pieces. We had many chances [to score] and we need to be more clinical. We need to improve our performance.”
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