Both players were left out of Ruben Amorim's 20-man squad for tonight's Manchester derby despite not being injured.
There were two surprising omissions from the team sheet for tonight's derby at the Etihad. Neither Alejandro Garnacho nor Marcus Rashford were in Manchester United's starting XI against City, and even stranger, they weren't on the bench either.
Garnacho is United's top scorer this season with eight goals and Rashford is just behind with seven, level with Rasmus Højlund. Neither player has an injury – in fact, both played in Thursday's Europa League win against Viktoria Plzen (the Argentinian came on as a substitute for the last ten minutes), so it appears the decision was 'technical'.
“No message” for the United pair left out in the cold
Manager Ruben Amorim was asked before the start of the match why the two attackers were left out and replied. “I don't want to send a message. It's just an evaluation, and they know that,” the Portuguese coach told Sky. “The players are really smart. Everyone understands my decision. I have to choose. It's just a simple selection.
“The context is difficult,” he continued. “We have to win games and we have a difficult situation. I watch everything, the way you eat, the way you put on your clothes to go to the game… Everything. I make my evaluation and then I have to decide. I have many players to choose from. There is a communication after the last training that goes to WhatsApp. They receive the information. But they're fine. They had training this morning, I was there. Everything was fine. They trained very well.”
From what Amorim said, and with the derby being such a big game, we can only conclude that Rashford or Garnacho have been left out due to other issues – according to some reports, as punishment for attitude problems.
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