Why did Alejandro Garnacho miss out on playing in the Manchester derby?

The duel between Manchester City and Manchester United by date 16 of the Premier League had shocking news more than an hour before its start: The Red Devils coach, Rúben Amorim, decided to leave Argentine striker Alejandro Garnacho out of the squad..

Since the arrival of the Portuguese technical director to Manchester United, Garnacho had played 4 games as a starter and had entered another 2 after being part of the substitute bench. In the 6 games under Amorim’s command, the Argentine had been used.

Garnacho scored only one goal with Amorim as coach: opened the scoring in the 3-2 victory against Bodo/Glimt in the UEFA Europa League.

For this Sunday’s match against Pep Guardiola’s team, the most important since the arrival of the Portuguese coach, Garnacho was not taken into account. The decision was exclusively for football reasons, since the Argentine attacker is physically fit to compete.

The other forward who was not called up by Amorim was Marcus Rashford. Both the Englishman and Garnacho trained without problems on Sunday morning.

Asked about this decision before the match, Amorim said: “I pay attention to everything. What each player eats, the way they dress for a game, absolutely everything. After that I make my evaluation and decide.”