Rashford has not featured for 10 games after Amorim made the shock move to drop him for United’s derby win at Manchester City in December. The 27-year-old responded to his omission by saying he was ready for a “new challenge”, sparking reports that he would be sold by United before the end of the current transfer period on February 3.
Linked with AC Milan, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea, Rashford remains in exile, with United boss Amorim unclear when the situation will be resolved. Rashford trained on Wednesday but the England international watched Thursday’s 2-1 Europa League win over Rangers from a private box, with Amorim naming only nine of 12 substitutes.
Asked if Rashford could stay at United for the rest of the season, Amorim told reporters: “I don’t know. I really don’t know. “We will see in the end of the window what happened. And then we will talk about it in that moment.” Amorim was also coy on the future of Argentina winger Alejandro Garnacho, who has reportedly drawn interest from Chelsea and Napoli.
The 20-year-old started the Rangers win but Amorim would not offer any guarantees, saying: “Let’s see in the next few days”. Last weekend’s 3-1 home defeat by Brighton left Amorim with only three wins from 11 Premier League games in charge. He said United were “maybe the worst team” in the club’s history after that loss left them languishing in 13th place.
The former Sporting Lisbon boss, who replaced the sacked Erik ten Hag in November, said he wants to build a stronger bond with his players after that blast. “I think we need that to get that feeling of belonging,” Amorim said. “For that, we also need time to train, to stay together and that is really important. We don’t have that.
“Pre-season, creating, spending three weeks together, creating something, and then you want to create something new with the players. “I want them to know me in a different way, not always preparing the matches with stress – we don’t have the time to do that. I think it’s really important and I think it’s the secret of teams.”
Amorim offered hope to Andre Onana that he will return in goal against Fulham on Sunday after being left out for the Rangers game following a costly error against Brighton. Altay Bayindir deputised in midweek, but Amorim said that was a pre-planned rotation.
“We have two really good goalkeepers, they need time to play, they need the space in the team, so this rotation was prepared,” he said. “That mistake was my concern but, in the end, we continue with the same plan that we did last week.”
