Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford will miss this evening’s Premier League clash against leaders Liverpool at Anfield because of illness, head coach Ruben Amorim said.
The 27-year-old was left out of the squad for four straight matches before being named on the bench for their game against Newcastle United, which Amorim’s side lost 2-0 at Old Trafford on Monday.
Rashford, however, did not play a single minute against Newcastle.
With five losses in their last six league games, United languish 14th in the standings with 22 points from 19 matches, which was their worst placing to end a calendar year since they were 15th in 1989.
“It’s the same situation, at the moment he is ill. He is not training,” Amorim told reporters ahead of the game.
Amorim initially left Rashford out for the 2-1 derby win at Manchester City on December 15, two days before the England international said he was “ready for a new challenge”, after having been at United since the age of seven.
Rashford has scored 138 goals in 426 appearances since making his senior debut for the club in 2016, winning the Europa League, two FA Cups and the League Cup twice.
“We will see in the future but this is like a normal player, then I make a selection. So, it’s the same. I think he is going to be out, this week he is out,” Amorim said.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot believes struggling United are better than their place in the Premier League standings suggest, and said he does not plan to rest any players for the clash at Anfield.
Liverpool top the table with 45 points, with a game in hand over the other title contenders. They are six points ahead of second-placed Arsenal.
While United are no longer the force they were during the Alex Ferguson era, Slot was taken aback when asked if he plans to rest any of his key players today.
“No. Of course not,” Slot said. “For me, they have much better players than maybe the league table shows at the moment. It might take a while for Ruben Amorim to bring this out of the players, but they are much better than the league table shows.”
Though Slot is not expecting defender Joe Gomez back any time soon after he suffered an injury in their 5-0 thrashing of West Ham on Sunday, there was some good news in the return to training of Conor Bradley and Ibrahima Konate.
“Joe is not in a good place when it comes to his injury, he’s out for a few weeks,” Slot said. “Conor and Ibou will train with us today for the first time. They worked hard to come back for the team. The next step is how they’ll handle team sessions.”
Slot deftly sidestepped questions about Trent Alexander-Arnold amid speculation about a move to Real Madrid.
“I can tell you he’s playing on Sunday and hopefully brings the same performance he’s been bringing in the last half year,” he said. “He played an incredible game against West Ham. I see him training hard every day.”
Liverpool talisman Mohamed Salah leads the league with 17 goals and combined with his 13 assists, his goal contributions add up to one every 53 minutes.
Asked if Salah is currently the best in the world, Slot said it is difficult to compare players.
“If I only look at my own team, Virgil (van Dijk) also has an outstanding season but he doesn’t have the numbers because he is a defender. The numbers Mo has speak for themselves. If you simply look at the numbers and the way he’s playing, he’s definitely a great, great player.”
Slot’s men, who have lost only one game this season, beat Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford in September and United have just one victory over their rivals in their last 13 league meetings.
Slot had kind words for Amorim, who admitted after their 2-0 loss to Newcastle United on Monday that his team could be facing potential relegation.
“Every manager sympathises with every other manager,” he said. “We all know how much pressure this job brings. It is something we like. He’s done so well at Sporting and I think he has a good squad of players, so he will eventually bring the best out of them.”
An optimistic Amorim said: “Anything can happen in one game. If you talk about the season ... in the moment they are better than us, but we can win any game. We have to focus not on the context but on the performance. We need to improve the simple things to play these kinds of games.
“Of course, it is a difficult moment because we are losing too many matches and we are going to be facing the best team of this year, but with training ... we want to improve the performance compared to the last game [a 2-0 loss to Newcastle on Monday].”
Reuters
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.