Ruben Amorim says he plans to talk with Alejandro Garnacho over his reaction to being substituted in the first half of Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Ipswich.
Patrick Dorgu was shown a straight red card for a mistimed challenge on Omari Hutchinson in the 43rd minute and Garnacho was the man sacrificed by Amorim.
Matthijs de Ligt had earlier put United in front after Sam Morsy directed the ball into his own net in a breathless first half at Old Trafford, which began with another almighty blunder from Andre Onana.
Jaden Philogene scored his second of the night just moments after Dorgu’s sending off to turn the game on its head and make it all square at the break.
Harry Maguire went on to head home the winning goal in the 47th minute but Garnacho’s reaction to being taken off proved a key talking point at Amorim’s post-match press conference.
The Argentina forward headed straight down the tunnel after being replaced by Noussair Mazraoui and hinted at his frustration after the game with a cryptic post on Instagram.
Asked if Garnacho had permission to go directly into the changing room, Amorim grinned and replied: ‘It was cold and wet, maybe…
‘The thinking was that we play more in the 5-3-1. I know that is a risk because you are taking the only player now that has one-vs-one pace.
‘But I felt the team was okay in controlling the game and then we make the substitution.
‘We had to choose someone to go out and we had to think about set-pieces also so that was my choice.’
Back in December, Amorim left Garnacho out of his squad for United’s match with bitter rivals Manchester City, along with Marcus Rashford.
At the time, the Portuguese cited poor training performance as a reason for the pair’s omission, though Garnacho returned to the fold for the side’s following match against Tottenham.
‘You are making a connection with Rashford, right?’ Amorim replied when asked if he was happy with Garnacho later on in tonight’s post-match press conference.
‘What I’m saying is that I’m going to talk, obviously, with Garnacho about that. So I will talk about that, if you want, in the next press conference.’
Amorim was otherwise pleased with the doggedness his players showed in coming away from the match with all three points, despite having only ten men on the field.
‘Today I’m not frustrated,’ he said in his post-match interview with TNT Sports.
‘With the situations of the game, of course you get a little bit of frustrated with the game because we suffered a goal, one mistake and that can happen. But since the first minute I felt that the players were fine, were trying to play.
‘We managed to score two goals and then the sending off changed the game a little bit but the fight that the guys showed… and our fans helped us a lot so I think we fully deserved the three points today.’
Asked if was concerned about Dorgu following the youngster’s sending off, the United boss added: ‘He’s ready because he already proved that in the last game.
‘Any player here can have a mistake like today from Patrick and the sending off, he wants to play the ball.
‘Maybe he’s a little bit harsh with the way he went for the ball.
‘He’s inexperienced but he’s clearly ready for the Premier League.
‘People judge right away so last week he was okay, good performance against Everton and today they will say that he’s not experienced enough to play in the Premier League. But I don’t feel that way.’
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