New Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has defended Marcus Rashford and Casemiro after the pair were criticised for travelling to America during days off last week – but added that he will have to raise standards at the club.
Gary Neville questioned the professionalism of the United pair after Rashford was pictured in attendance at Madison Square Garden in New York last weekend for an NBA match between New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets, while Brazilian midfielder Casemiro flew to Orlando for a family holiday to Disney World, posting pictures on Instagram.
Neville said “it’s not right” that the pair flew across the Atlantic in the context of United’s poor season, and with new manager Amorim arriving to take his first training session at United’s Carrington complex on Monday.
But Amorim said it was up to the club to set better standards for his players and that they should not be blamed.
“They received information of ‘five days off’ and they are big boys, they have kids, so they decide what to do,” Amorim told Neville in a lengthy interview for Sky Sports. “The main question here is, as a club, we have to set the standards, we have to manage that. It’s my decision if they can have five days, as a coach, or three days, or it’s three days to rest and you cannot fly. This is something, as a club, we have to decide.”
Asked whether he felt five days was too long a period to take off during mid-season, Amorim said: “For me, yes, for sure. But we cannot put this on the players. (The United hierarchy) told them they have five days off so they can fly anywhere, because nobody in the club said, ‘You cannot fly’. So they have to live their lives because they are grown men and they have to decide these things. But as a club, we have to change these standards.”
Neville suggested that he would not have decided to fly to America during the middle of the season when he was a United player, but Amorim pushed back, saying the reign of Sir Alex Ferguson was not a fair comparison with the current situation at Old Trafford.
“For me the big difference is in your time, you had a great leadership at the time, very very strong, and the culture was already here when you started. So it’s a long time with the same identity, the same way of things. Even your teammates, if you do that, they will talk to you.
“So now it’s a different [time], and you have to acknowledge that. This must start in the club, with us, me as responsible in that area. So we cannot this time put that on Rash or Cassa. They received information ‘five days off, do what you like’, so we have to as a club set better standards, and we will try to do that.”
Neville had made his criticisms on the latest episode of the Stick to Football podcast earlier this week, saying: “The professionalism, looking after your body and making sure you’re best prepared for the next training session is critical to every decision you make during the season.
“He [Marcus Rashford] has got a mental break, he’s got to get away and has got to rest with friends – then you talk about the choice of venue, how far do you fly, what’s the time difference, is that going to give a jet lag issue, is that going to give a stiffness issue from being on a flight for 12 hours?
“This is on Casemiro more than Rashford but if I’m 30 years old and I’m looking after my body – and he’s won five Champions Leagues and is an unbelievable player, but if he was away with Brazil for 10 days, we would say he would struggle this weekend because he’s been away.
“They [Casemiro and Marcus Rashford] have chosen that international break. If you are talking about the minor details in being as professional as you can be and as prepared you can be for a training session [the next day] on a Monday night, that isn’t the best choice of venue.
“I’m not that wound up about [Marcus] Rashford and Casemiro going over to the United States but what I’m asking is, if you’ve got a four-day break, Portland is a 12-hour flight and an eight-hour time difference, your jetlag is bad, and you feel a bit [rough].
“They went to Portland and I’m asking the question based on professionalism – you’re playing badly, the team are losing, you’re 13th in the league, and there is a new manager coming in – would you choose that trip as a break to recharge your batteries? That’s not a recharging trip. It’s not right, that.”
Amorim took charge of his first United training session following his arrival as new head coach, with the club releasing a seven-minute video on Monday showing both him and the players at Carrington. He starts his reign as boss with a trip to Ipswich in the Premier League on Sunday.
