Ruben Amorim says he will speak to Alejandro Garnacho following the Manchester United winger’s reaction to being substituted against Ipswich.
Garnacho was back in the United starting lineup for Wednesday night’s Premier League clash at Old Trafford, having been dropped for Saturday’s eventful 2-2 draw at Everton before delivering an impactful cameo off the bench.
However, the Argentine ended up going off shortly before half-time against Ipswich, replaced by defender Noussair Mazraoui as Amorim was forced into a reshuffle after a red card shown to January signing Patrick Dorgu for a challenge on Omari Hutchinson.
Rather than take a seat on the bench after being withdrawn, Garnacho raised eyebrows by heading straight down the tunnel and later posted an uncaptioned picture of himself on Instagram after the game looking downbeat in the rain at Old Trafford.
“The thinking was that we were playing more in the 5-3-1,” Amorim said when asked what the thinking was behind taking off Garnacho early after Dorgu’s dismissal. “I know that is a risk because you are taking off maybe the only player now that has one against one with pace.
“But I felt the team was okay in the controlling of the game almost at half-time and then we make the substitution. We had to choose someone to go out, we have to think about set-pieces also so it was my choice.”
Pressed on if he was unhappy with Garnacho’s decision to go straight down the tunnel, the United boss said: “You are making a connection with [Marcus] Rashford, right? I know. What I am seeing 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.”
“It was cold and wet, maybe,” a smiling Amorim had initially replied when asked if Garnacho had permission to head straight back to the dressing room.
Amorim will be thankful that Dorgu’s red card did not prove too costly in what looked like a must-win game for his side on paper against relegation battlers after a torrid run, with an own goal from Sam Morsy cancelling out Jaden Philogene’s fourth-minute effort before goals either side of another from Philogene scored by defenders Matthijs de Ligt and Harry Maguire in a dramatic 3-2 victory.
Referee Darren England had originally missed the challenge from Dorgu, but the Danish international was then sent off after the intervention of VAR Craig Pawson.
"Everybody when they watch that ball were thinking 'here we go again'," Amorim said of Ipswich’s early goal at Old Trafford.
"But then sometimes football is like that and we managed to fight all the situations during the game and think we truly deserve the three points today.
"The first situation was a misunderstanding, the way they connect each other.
"Then the sending off, the important thing is that I really know Dorgu quite well. He doesn't want to harm anybody and that is important for me.
"Then you have this situation. He had that mistake and then you feel in the game that he was making a lot of runs, trying to win every ball, being aggressive and sometimes you overdo it and he has these problems today."
