Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim says he will not pick Kobbie Mainoo for the first XI, or not pick him, because of an incident involving the player’s brother.
Amorim was speaking at the pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s trip to face Aston Villa at Villa Park.
First on the agenda was team news for the game.
“I think everyone is well, we have one more training but today the rest of the guys are ready to go;” Amorim said. Asked if that means Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt are available, he replied “no. Nobody recovers and nobody else is out.”
On Kobbie Mainoo’s t-shirt incident
As expected, Amorim was then asked about Kobbie Mainoo’s brother wearing a “Free Kobbie Mainoo” t-shirt at Monday’s match. There have been reports that it was done with Kobbie’s blessing.
“No, was not Kobbie that wore the t-shirt, he’s not going to start because of the t-shirt and he’s not going to the bench because of the t-shirt,” Amorim insisted. “He will play if we feel he’s the right guy. I’m used to it, I’ve been here for a year. I’m not going to do something to Kobbie because someone on his family did something.”
On Sunday’s Opponents
Asks what he expects from Sunday’s game, Amorim said:
“Everything can happen. They have a manager with a lot of experience, when you watch Villa you can sense it’s a very mature team, they don’t panic when they’re losing, don’t feel overwhelmed when winning, they can control the emotion. If they fight to the end I don’t know.”
On conceding four against Bournemouth
“We watch the game again against Bournemouth we can avoid those goals,” Amorim insisted. “We have to put everything on the line when we’re defending and sometimes we’re not doing that.”
The presser is ongoing, please refresh this page regularly for updates.
Featured image Matt McNulty via Getty Images
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