London, Aug 22: Manchester United have a group of players who want to leave, but the club will not wait for their departure to bring in their replacements, coach Ruben Amorim said on Friday.
United said in July that five players were seeking to leave the club, including Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Antony, Tyrell Malacia and Jadon Sancho. While Rashford has joined Barcelona on loan, the others are yet to depart.
Amorim left all four players out of the squad when United began their Premier League campaign with a 1-0 home loss to Arsenal last weekend.
“I know it’s not a good thing to have players in this situation, but it’s clear that they want to play in a different club,” Amorim told reporters ahead of Sunday’s visit to Fulham.
“It’s not an idea that these players are going to leave and then we’ll receive another player. We don’t know what is going to happen but we are not waiting to take out someone to bring another player. One thing is not responsible for the other.”
United have spent around 200 million pounds on transfers already this summer, strengthening their attack with the arrival of Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo.
Amorim said United did well against Arsenal despite the narrow loss, and needed to maintain their consistency against Fulham, who drew at Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend.
“They have a clear identity, Marco Silva is really experienced, really smart. He can change several things, cover several spaces and you can see game by game, he’s tried to do that,” Amorim said.
“They are comfortable because they have experience, they understand the league… it’s going to be a tough match.”
A hamstring injury had sidelined United’s first-choice goalkeeper Andre Onana against Arsenal, and an error by replacement keeper Altay Bayindir led to the visitors scoring an early winner.
“Onana is ready to play like last week… so we will see who is going to be the goalkeeper,” Amorim said, adding that every player other than Lisandro Martinez and Noussair Mazraoui was fit. (Reuters)
