Ruben Amorim says Manchester United outcast Marcus Rashford is “ill” and unlikely to make the matchday squad against Liverpool on Sunday.

Rashford is available for transfer this month after falling out of favour under new head coach Amorim.

“We try to evaluate everything, training performance, game performances, engagement with team-mates, push their team-mates up,” the Portuguese said after Rashford was first omitted from a matchday squad against Manchester City.

“Everything is on the line when we analyse and try to choose the players. It is my selection. Simple.

“I don’t want to send a message it is simply an evaluation and they know it. The players are really, really smart. Everybody understands my decision and I have to choose. It is simple selection.

“Of course the context is difficult because we have to win games and we have a difficult situation now. I pay attention to everything, the way you eat, the way you put your clothes to go to a game. Everything. I make my evaluation and then I decide.”

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Man United have been in awful form, losing five Premier League matches in December, which was the first time since September 1962 that the Red Devils have lost five league games in a calendar month.

Rashford returned to the squad for Monday’s Premier League match at home against Newcastle United but was an unused substitute.

He will not even make the bench for Sunday’s trip to Anfield due to illness, Amorim has confirmed.

“It’s the same situation, at the moment he is ill,” Amorim said.

“He is not training. 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. We will see but I think this week he is out.”

Having been linked a January transfer, Rashford’s future “depends more on him than on me”, says Amorim.

“I already spoke a lot about Marcus, it depends more on him than on me,” the 39-year-old said.

“He has to want it really, really bad. He’s here, he’s in our squad so he’s our player and he’s ready to play if I decide.

“In that moment, I was really focused on trying to turn things around, to score one goal to open the game. And I chose, for example, Garna [Alejandro Garnacho] to do the job.

“I was not focused on the idea that I put Marcus on or not because he was away for four games. It was not that. If he’s there, he’s ready to play but I chose Garnacho.”

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Players Liverpool sold, signed and even just targeted before swiftly moving on are among the most expensive transfers in the history of the January window…

20) Juan Mata (Chelsea to Manchester United, 2014) – £37.1m
David Moyes did not do a great deal right as Manchester United manager but flying Juan Mata in on a rescue helicopter a matter of months before his sacking goes down as a positive. The Spaniard stayed long enough to win four trophies, leapfrog Andy Cole in terms of all-time Premier League appearances for the club by one and draw level with Roy Keane for goals.

17=) Lucas Moura (Sao Paulo to PSG, 2013) – £38m
“We have shown an interest, but until such time we get a deal agreed, we can’t say he’s our player,” declared Sir Alex Ferguson in summer 2012. Paris Saint-Germain ensured Manchester United never had the chance but the French giants ultimately made a loss on Lucas Moura, who did at least manage to collect 15 trophies in Paris.

17=) Alex Teixeira (Shakhtar Donetsk to Jiangsu Suning, 2016) – £38m
Only the real ones remember when Alex Teixeira was The Next Big Thing. Liverpool supporters were absolutely obsessed with the idea of signing an uncapped and almost entirely untested Brazilian they had never seen play, purely because he was linked with them for loadsamoney. They pulled out of talks in the end and Shakhtar simply sold to the highest bidder: a team which was dissolved in 2021. Wonder why.

17=) Paulinho (Barcelona to Guangzhou Evergrande, 2019) – £38m
Barcelona were laughed at when they signed Spurs legend Paulinho from Guangzhou Evergrande for £36m in August 2017, but the tables turned so considerably after a fine season in Spain that the decision to loan him back a year later was equally confusing. Guangzhou subsequently made that deal permanent and he scored 19 league goals to help them win the title. The 34-year-old is back at Corinthians, determined to play for each of his clubs twice. Pick up the phone, Ange.

15=) Bruno Guimaraes (Lyon to Newcastle, 2022) – £40m
Newcastle could almost certainly double their money now if they wanted. And there was talk they might have to, but that seems to have died down somewhat. It still feels inevitable, though, that one of the Spanish giants will come knocking.

15=) Anthony Gordon (Everton to Newcastle, 2023) – £40m
Looked like a dreadful waste of money at first then was one of the players of the season in his first full campaign at Newcastle. Again, the possibility of doubling their money was pondered by the Magpies but, instead, they’ve tied the England winger down to a new contract.

14) Luis Diaz (Porto to Liverpool, 2022) – £49.9m
The transfer which so infuriated Daniel Levy, the supposed master negotiator seething at another club for negotiating. Luis Diaz was been a fine addition to further regenerate the Liverpool attack. Injuries knocked him out of his stride last season, but Arne Slot seems to have sorted those too.

13) Fernando Torres (Liverpool to Chelsea) – £50m
It still feels bizarre that Fernando Torres played eight more Premier League games for Chelsea than he did for Liverpool. The goal haul despite that – 20 at Chelsea and 65 at Liverpool – points to a career trajectory that suffered a sharp fall upon his move to Stamford Bridge. And yet his four years with the Blues yielded a Champions League and Europa League trophy each, with no Anfield trinkets whatsoever.

12) Ferran Torres (Manchester City to Barcelona, 2022) – £54.7m
Back before Barcelona used economic levers to sign players with money they absolutely didn’t have, the Blaugrana fed their transfer addiction through old-fashioned means like overdrafts and bank loans. We’ve all been there. They could have plucked Torres from Valencia for £20m or so about 18 months beforehand but shut up that’s why.

11) Bruno Fernandes (Sporting to Manchester United, 2020) – £55m
The most transformative signing at United since Robin van Persie. Just a shame the club are dragging him down with them.

READ MORE: Every Man Utd signing post-Sir Alex ranked: Sancho, Antony in bottom five, Bruno top

10) Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund to Arsenal, 2018 – £56m)
A miserable end should not obscure a mutually beneficial and temporarily happy union. Only eight players who played in the Premier League era have scored more goals for Arsenal than Aubameyang – and of those players, only Ian Wright and Thierry Henry scored more goals per game. If only he was more punctual.

9) Diego Costa (Chelsea to Atletico Madrid, 2018 – £57m)
One of football’s greatest mysteries is how Chelsea managed to sell a 29-year-old Diego Costa to Atletico Madrid for £57m despite the striker being very publicly surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge, as painstakingly proven by Antonio Conte’s text message dumping him straight after they won the title together in summer 2017. Costa had not played professional football for seven months by the time he returned to the Spanish capital; his La Liga record during that second spell was 61 appearances, 12 goals and 17 yellow cards, as well as an eight-game suspension he received for abusing a referee.

8) Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Bilbao to Manchester City, 2018) – £57.2m
Perhaps swayed by Liverpool breaking the world record for biggest transfer fee ever spent on a defender earlier that same month, Manchester City settled for Aymeric Laporte. It wasn’t all a smooth ride but five Premier League titles in six years tells quite the compelling story of a player for whom City recouped £23.6million from Saudi in 2023.

7) Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea, 2019) – £57.56m
It did not going to plan for Pulisic, who might well suggest that playing for and being coached by three different managers in nearly four years at a time of immense upheaval has not helped. Frank Lampard, Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter all struggled to harness the American’s talents. And Maurizio Sarri was managing the Blues when the deal was put together. Still, he’s fairing rather better in Milan now.

6) Oscar (Chelsea to Shanghai SIPG, 2017) – £60m
Receiving £57m for an unwanted Costa was a quite ludicrous magic trick from Chelsea, but even they would be hard pushed to outdo the £60m they raked in for Oscar, practically a reserve, in 2017. Jamie Carragher described it as “embarrassing” for the Brazilian, but he can probably live with the shame. Or wipe his tears away using crisp £50 notes.

5) Mykhaylo Mudryk (Shakhtar Donetsk to Chelsea, 2023) – £62m
Oh boy. You will have read a lot about this being an £89m transfer but the truth is that Chelsea will only pay £89m if everything goes swimmingly. It has not. After we were told the Ukrainian winger only wanted to join Arsenal, he signed an eight-and-a-half-year contract. Two years on, Mudryk has flopped hard and is currently waiting on the B sample of a failed doping test.

4) Dusan Vlahovic (Fiorentina to Juventus, 2022) – £66.6m
The football world scoffed along with Vlahovic at the Sophie’s Choice he was presented in January 2022. After breaking numerous records with Fiorentina, the young striker could have taken his pick of interested clubs. Arsenal were predictably – and justifiably at the time – rejected in favour of a move to Juventus. What could have been. What could yet be.

3) Virgil van Dijk (Southampton to Liverpool, 2018) – £75m
This was the most expensive January deal ever when it went through on the first day of 2018 and the size of the fee took everyone by surprise. But it turns out that it was basically a bargain for the lynchpin of one of the most formidable teams in Premier League history.

2) Enzo Fernandez (Benfica to Chelsea, 2023) – £106.8m
A deadline-busting deal that was on and off for much of January and only at the very last definitively on. Chelsea ended up going over and above Fernandez’s 120million euro release clause in exchange for a payment structure that suited their needs. Those needs primarily being ‘spread the cost as much as possible across the massive eight-and-a-half-year contracts we give out now’. Has he been worth it? Meh.

1) Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool to Barcelona, 2018) – £142m
Liverpool were merely delaying the inevitable when they resisted Barca’s three offers in summer 2017. The Spanish side had to wait half a season and chuck another £20million at the Reds but finally they got their man and Coutinho got his move. Not that either he or the buying club will look back on the deal fondly. Liverpool, though, haven’t stopped laughing.

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Ruben Amorim is reportedly ‘fearful’ of allowing Casemiro to leave in January despite knowing that keeping him on board could put Manchester United’s transfer plans in ‘real danger’.

Casemiro joined United from Real Madrid for around £60m in the summer of 2022 and after a promising start to his career at Old Trafford has become the poster boy of their struggles, first under Erik ten Hag and now under Amorim.

The Portuguese coach replaced Ten Hag in November and has lost six of his first 11 games in charge, including five of his last six in the Premier League to put United – by his own admission – at risk of being dragged into a relegation fight.

The nadir came last time out against Newcastle, a game they only ended up losing 2-0, but for the opening half hour of which they were ripped apart at Old Trafford as Amorim made the bizarre decision to play Casemiro alongside fellow ageing midfielder Christian Eriksen in the middle.

Joshua Zirkzee was the real victim of the piece, but Amorim surely won’t make the same mistake of fielding that pair together again, with the performance leading to reports that Casemiro has ‘agreed to leave’ the club in January, with a move to Saudi Arabia on the cards.

It was claimed that there has previously been a reluctance from the former Real Madrid star to move to the Middle East but Casemiro now ‘looks favorably on a transfer at the start of 2025’ and ‘there would then be no major obstacles for the exit to happen’.

But now GIVEMESPORT claim ‘Casemiro is more likely to seal his Manchester United departure in the summer instead of completing a mid-season exit’ after a change of heart from Amorim.

Co-owner and head of football operations Sir Jim Ratcliffe was eager to get Casemiro – who still has 18 months to run on his contract – off the United books in the summer as he earns an astonishing £350,000 per week and is ‘desperate’ to see the back of him in January.

READ MORE: Ten Manchester United moves for Ruben Amorim’s perfect January transfer window

But the report claims Amorim is now ‘fearful’ of being left with limited options in midfield amid doubts over summer signing Manuel Ugarte and academy graduate Kobbie Mainoo.

The report states:

‘GMS sources have been informed that Amorim is fearful of being left short of options in the middle of the park if he allows Casemiro to embark on a fresh challenge in the coming weeks, resulting in him being on course to remain at Old Trafford unless a lucrative offer is made by an interested party.

‘Having decided to start planning for life without the 32-year-old, the Red Devils agreed a deal worth up to £50.5million in order to sign Manuel Ugarte from reigning Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain in August, but he is still adjusting to the pace of the Premier League and Kobbie Mainoo has contended with injury problems this term.

‘Casemiro is not part of Amorim’s vision at Manchester United beyond this season, GMS sources have learned, but the former Sporting chief does not want to run the risk of being left with limited midfielders as he looks to oversee a recovery after falling to within seven points of 18th-placed Ipswich Town.

‘GMS sources have been told that Amorim’s stance could change if Manchester United receive a respectable offer for Casemiro’s services ahead of the February 3 deadline, but there is an awareness that it is highly unlikely a suitor will be prepared to spend big during the winter transfer window.’

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The major problem for Amorim if he decides to keep Casemiro is the knock-on effect in his bid to bolster his squad in January, with his exit providing significant space on the wage bill for the additions, though that wiggle room could still be provided if the club finds a buyer for wantaway forward Marcus Rashford.

The report continues:

‘But Casemiro’s wages are proving to be a significant problem as Amorim aims to bolster the squad he inherited from predecessor Erik ten Hag, GMS sources understand, and keeping him on board is in serious danger of limiting Manchester United’s ability to welcome fresh faces midway through the campaign.

‘Offloading Marcus Rashford could help in that department, and GMS sources recently revealed the Red Devils’ academy graduate is aware that he is on course to be presented with opportunities to leave Old Trafford for Major League Soccer if he gives indications that he is prepared to make the move.’

Manchester United are reportedly in talks with Juventus over a swap deal for striker Dusan Vlahovic, who’s now said to be a ‘priority’ for Mikel Arteta at Arsenal.

Vlahovic moved to Juve for around £60m in January 2022 when Arsenal were also keen on landing the Serbian.

He’s got 53 goals and 11 assists in 123 appearances in an up and down spell with the Old Lady, and it’s thought manager Thiago Motta is willing to part with the 24-year-old if they can source a suitable replacement.

Transfer expert Rudy Galetti claimed on Thursday that the Gunners ‘are prioritizing Dusan Vlahovic as their top January target, with Arteta favoring him over a direct Saka replacement’.

Brentford’s Bryan Mbuemo is joined by Jamie Gittens and Leroy Sane as alternative options in the winter window for Arsenal, who reportedly face competition from United – who have a useful bargaining chip – in their bid to pinch Vlahovic from under their nose.

Motta would welcome the chance to again work with Joshua Zirkzee, who could leave Old Trafford in January having only moved to United in the summer.

He was unceremoniously hooked after half an hour against Newcastle, to jeers from the United fans, with Amorim now ‘officially rejecting” him as an option going forward.

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville described the situation against Newcastle as “brutal,” adding: “I actually feel sorry for him. There is a human being in there. He is being cheered off by his own fans, and that is brutal.”

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Zirkzee earned his £36m summer move to United through his performances under Motta at Bologna, helping the Serie A side to their groundbreaking qualification for the Champions League, before the head coach also left, for Juventus.

A return to Serie A was on the cards even before the home fans’ reaction to his substitution vs Newcastle and reports suggest Zirkzee would more than welcome an escape from Old Trafford.

Antonio Conte is also thought to be keen on bringing Zirkzee to Napoli, but Juventus are particularly keen on the move, with sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli already hinting at a possible move.

Juventus’ financial constraints are a problem, prompting talks with United over a creative solution.

According to journalist Enrico Camelio (via Radio Radio Lo Sport), United and Juventus are exploring the possibility of a sensational swap deal involving Zirkzee and Vlahovic.

He said: “In Italy he had done well in Parma and then very well in Bologna precisely with Motta. We are working on it, but there is an idea of ​​​​an exchange between Vlahovic and Zirkzee, let’s see how the situation evolves.

“The idea is plausible; the Dutchman would find the coach who consecrated him again.”

Couple of belting Premier League games on the list this weekend, while elsewhere there are derbies in two of the world’s great locations: Rome, and East Lancashire.

Game to watch: Liverpool v Manchester United
Rarely going to see this on the weekend schedule and it not be the stand-out game, let’s be honest. Dull purists might argue it’s at its biggest when both teams are good but to those fools we would say tish and indeed fipsy.

What we have now is perfect. This fixture more than any other is one that fizzes most pleasingly when one team is good and the other is rubbish. And before anyone accuses us of any bias, we could not give one single shiny sh*te which way round they are. Let’s remember for that for the first two-thirds of the Premier League’s existence when we did get that perfect set-up it… well, it wasn’t often the current way round, was it?

There have been plenty of fine Liverpool Good v Man United Bad efforts in more recent years, but in truth you’d have struggle to find it more exaggerated in either direction at any time since The Invention of Football than it is right now.

Liverpool under Arne Slot have retained all the madcap high-energy brilliance of Jurgen Klopp’s side but married it with some more calming influences from the new boss to really quite delightful effect. And, let’s be honest, Mo Salah not just rolling back the years but seemingly tinkering with the very concept of time itself like some crazed God-playing scientist who will surely destroy us all also helps.

He’s never been better, and Liverpool are great. United, on the other hand, are a lazy, embarrassing, bloated mess of a thing, bedevilled by the cartoonish efforts of Scrooge McRatcliffe off the field and a squad too feckless and stupid to learn a new system on the pitch.

This should be a massacre, but let’s not forget we all thought when these two last met in April and it turned out to be wonderful nonsense. Liverpool would have gone top with a win but managed only one goal from a dominant first half and then watched in horror as Bruno Fernandes equalised from the centre-circle and Kobbie Mainoo curled in a beauty to put a struggling United hilariously and improbably in front.

Salah rescued a point late on from the spot because of course he did, but we’re fully braced for more of that kind of nonsense here please and thank you. Or failing that, Liverpool 5-0 Man United and ‘Amorim sack’ headlines will also suffice.

Team to watch: Newcastle United
A thing that we will never fully understand about football is how invested people get in fixture release day. We understand the ‘When are the big derbies?’ kind of excitement, and don’t want to be one of those completely dreary ‘Oh everyone is playing everyone twice, once at home and once away’ smartarses.

But what we’ll never understand is this idea that before a ball has even been kicked, people earnestly going through the fixture list to find the difficult runs and potential trouble spots. And the reason is because predicting one team’s predicament at any given point of the season is hard enough, and trying to do so for multiple teams near impossible.

And that’s our long-winded way of getting to a point we can now only half-remember: that Newcastle’s Christmas fixture list would have looked through August eyes like one such potentially unpleasant run. But Eddie Howe’s Nightmare After Christmas simply hasn’t materialised, with Villa at home followed by Big Six trips to Manchester United and Tottenham now turning out to be a simply lovely way to spend the holidays.

They are now fifth in the Premier League table and that is likely to come with a Champions League spot.

Villa were swept away emphatically on Boxing Day in a genuinely impressive performance against a still-competent side. Man United were dealt with in the sort of way more and more teams now deal with them, where it’s so uncomfortably easy you almost forget to laugh.

And next up it’s Spurs, about whom nobody will ever forget to laugh.

Newcastle have now won their last five games in a row across Premier League and Carabao, scoring 16 goals and conceding just one. They now travel to a team whose response to a defensive injury crisis has simply been to give up on the very concept altogether. And they weren’t particularly interested before.

They’ve conceded 12 goals in their last four games, a run during which their only win was a shambolic 4-3 Carabao success against fellow embarrassments Manchester United.

It’s only been two weeks since Spurs could be considered lucky to have escaped with ‘only’ a 6-3 home defeat to Liverpool, and you do wonder what might happen here given Newcastle’s current form and their penchant for inflicting misery – albeit previously mainly St James’ Park-based – on Spurs at their most vulnerable.

Alexander Isak (eight goals in his last six league games) against this defence should come with a graphic content warning. We can’t wait, to be honest.

Manager to watch: Kieran McKenna
A manager whose stock has perhaps never been higher than it is right at this moment. While much of the reaction to Ipswich’s 2-0 win over Chelsea inevitably focused on the visitors’ foibles and beard-stroking ruminations on their ongoing role in any title race that Liverpool may or may not permit to occur, McKenna could reflect on a job well done and another major reward for the effort he and his side have put into a season in which they should really be powerfully outmatched.

Even before the wins arrived as they have in recent months against Spurs, Wolves and most impressively now Chelsea, Ipswich could pride themselves on how competitive they had been, with plenty of hard-earned draws and narrow defeats along the way.

With that particular quality in mind, McKenna and his side perhaps deserve the greatest praise for how they’ve responded to a 4-0 home thumping from Newcastle. The Magpies are playing well right now and have the ability to do that kind of thing to anyone, but it was still a game and result out of kilter with what Ipswich had previously been about.

And given that game was followed by Arsenal and Chelsea, it was a situation with serious potential to snowball. Instead, a narrow shame-free defeat and that potentially season-shaping win over Chelsea have put Ipswich firmly back on track and with a still very manageable roadmap to survival.

Next up comes a trip to Fulham, where you never quite know what you’re going to get, and in Marco Silva another manager who like McKenna right now just needs to keep doing what he’s doing and take a bit of care to make sure he doesn’t accidentally become the next Spurs manager.

Player to watch: Gabriel Jesus
One goal in 20 games for Arsenal between August and December 14 – and that at Preston in the Carabao – has been followed by six goals in four games for a man who might just be saving Mikel Arteta the bother of having to go out and buy FOUR new players in January to revitalise his front three.

Jesus has now even scored against a team that isn’t Crystal Palace in this current run, one in which it should be noted that his wider contribution to Arsenal’s much-improved open attacking play extends beyond direct goal contributions.

A trip to Brighton, who appear to be having their standard season once again and are currently somewhat leaky at the back, provides Jesus with ample chance to keep these unexpectedly good times rolling.

Football League game to watch: Blackburn v Burnley
An East Lancs derby with plenty riding on it as second-placed Burnley look to find a route back to winning ways after a pair of goalless draws against Middlesbrough and Stoke to end 2024 and begin 2025.

Blackburn have followed a six-game winning run with a four-game winless run that has hurt their play-off chances, but they did halt leaders Leeds’ home charge last time out with a last-gasp equaliser. They’re also long overdue a win against their local rivals, having failed to get the better of the Clarets since a David Dunn penalty secured a 1-0 win at Turf Moor in a Premier League game almost 15 years ago.

European game to watch: Roma v Lazio
Worse ways to kick off the new year in Serie A than a nice friendly Derby della Capitale at Stadio Olimpico.

Roma have endured a pretty miserable season to date and languish in mid-table while their city rivals occupy a Champions League spot.

One interesting quirk for this one with Roma the designated home team: they’ve won five, drawn none and lost four of their nine home league games this season. Lazio’s away record is also won five, drawn none and lost four.

Paul Merson believes Ruben Amorim “doesn’t fit” at Manchester United and thinks the Portuguese boss would have been better suited to a different Premier League club.

Ruben Amorim has endured a torrid start to his Old Trafford tenure, losing six of his 11 games at the helm, including 5 of his last six in the Premier League to put them at risk of being pulled down into a relegation fight.

They lost 2-0 to Newcastle last time out, but after Amorim fielded Casemiro and Christian Eriksen together in midfield, Merson feared the worst.

He told Sky Sports: “When the teams came out the other day [against Newcastle], I thought they did well to keep it to 2-0.

“[Christian] Eriksen and Casemiro have been top-drawer players, but to play them in midfield, the manager’s got to get used to understanding this is not Portuguese football. This is the Premier League now. It’s on a different planet to Portuguese football.

“When he’s set up with them in midfield against [Sandro] Tonali, Bruno [Guimaraes] and Joelinton, I thought ‘these two are going to get absolutely destroyed’. And as I said, I thought they did well to only lose by two.

“I don’t know how much money they’ve got with Financial Fair Play. They’ve got a lot of players they need to get rid of at the same time. This is a hard job [at Man Utd].

“You’re talking about one of the biggest clubs in the world… but at the moment, they’re all over the place.

“The way he wants to play doesn’t suit Man Utd. They haven’t got the personnel to play the way he wants to play. The most important thing when you play three at the back is you have got to have outstanding wing-backs – and they haven’t got outstanding wing-backs. Both the full-backs are good defensively, but they’re not great going forward.”

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Merson reckons Amorim and United are a bad fit but believes the former Sporting boss would have done well had he joined Chelsea instead.

Merson added: “I’ve said it a few times, I think the manager would have suited Chelsea. Don’t get me wrong, Enzo Maresca has been outstanding, but if you had to pick a club for him in the Premier League to play the way Amorim wants to play, you’d put him in at Chelsea. Chelsea have got a lot of centre-halves that are pacey.

They’ve got wing-backs that are amazing in [Ben] Chilwell, [Malo] Gusto, [Reece] James – natural wing-backs that can get forward and defend.

“They’ve got holding midfield players with legs in [Moises] Caicedo and [Romeo] Lavia, and then they’ve got the talent going forward. I think he would tick the box at Chelsea. With Man Utd, I don’t see how it fits.

“There’s so much work to be done to get to the way he wants to play and that’s going to take a long time with a lot of players coming in and out. And with the way the rules are now, I don’t know how that long that’s going to take.”