Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho was less than happy on Wednesday night after being substituted during the victory over Ipswich Town.
Having just gone down to ten men following Patrick Dorgu's straight red card, Ruben Amorim chose to immediately alter his formation bringing Garnacho off and Noussair Mazraoui on. The Argentine clearly took exception to the decision, storming down the tunnel instead of returning to the bench.
In his post-match press conference, Amorim insisted he would be speaking to Garnacho regarding his decision. Before the press conference, Garnacho shared a cryptic image of his reaction to social media but having cooled off on Thursday, he celebrated the victory.
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MEN Sport understands that Garnacho is rather the opposite of the player some fans may expect him to be. Club sources claim he is one of the quieter, more humble members of the squad despite what his social media presence exudes.
However, this is not the first time that Garnacho's behaviour has been called into question and MEN Sport has taken a closer look at some noteworthy incidents since the winger became a first-team regular.
Fernandes' attitude warning
In November 2022, Garnacho was hailed as the hero after scoring the winner in the Europa League against Real Sociedad. However, in a post-match interview his teammate Bruno Fernandes took the opportunity to warn the youngster about his attitude after struggling during that summer's tour.
"He was good but he knows we expect at lot from him," Fernandes told BT Sport (TNT Sports). "He's still really young.
"He's doing really well. At the beginning of the season, not at his best, in the tour he didn't have the best attitude that he should have and that's why he didn't get his chances until now.
"Now he's getting chances because he's training better, he's having a better attitude and he deserves his chances." As suggested, attitude problems for Garnacho appeared to be a thing of the past until last December.
Garnacho's training problem
Before the derby against Manchester City, Amorim made the controversial decision to drop both Garnacho and Marcus Rashford from his matchday squad. The move was exonerated thanks to the Amad heroics at the Etihad Stadium and afterwards the Portuguese head coach explained his thinking behind the decision.
"We try to evaluate everything - training, performance, game performance, engagement with the teammates, push the teammates up," he told reporters. "Everything is on the line when we analyse and try to choose the players, so it was my selection. Simple.
"I don't want to send a message (to the dressing room with this). It's simply an evaluation, and they know it.
"The players are really, really smart and so everybody understands my decision and I have to choose. It's just a simple selection.
"Of course the context is difficult - we have to win games and we have a difficult situation now. But, like I said, I pay attention to everything - the way you eat, the way you put on your clothes to go the game. Everything.
"I make my evaluation and then I have to decide. I have a lot of players to choose (from) and today I did my choice."
While Rashford did not play for United again before his loan move to Aston Villa at the beginning of the month, Garnacho returned to the squad immediately for the clash with Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup.
Amorim's true feelings
While Amorim acknowledged the potential similarities between what has happened with Garnacho and Rashford in his post-match press conference, the reality is that the Portuguese's relationship with the winger is nowhere near as badly damaged as it is with the latter.
At the end of January, Amorim was quick to heap praise on Garnacho for the way he bounced back to being dropped against City. "He changed right away since that game against City," Amorim insisted.
"The way he understands things and understands that I just want to help him, I just want to win games. He changed in everything: The approach when you talk with him, the way he recovers.
"He understands that sometimes I’m a different coach, that I am demanding in my way and sometimes it’s hard with the first impact because it’s a different kind of coach. He understands that it is never in a bad way, it’s always for him, but I am different person.
"I think all the merit (goes to) Garnacho. He is improving and we want to continue to improve with Garnacho."
