Ruben Amorim insists it is on Manchester United as a club to set the right culture and leadership for their players after Casemiro and Marcus Rashford drew criticism for visiting the United States during the international break.
The duo were granted permission to take five days off by the club and visited Florida and New York City respectively while many of their teammates were off with their national teams, which Gary Neville felt was ‘not right’ given Manchester United’s poor start to the season.
Neville sat down with new gaffer Amorim for an interview with Sky Sports and raised the question with him directly, with the Portuguese responding: “The first thing, it was five days off. The second thing, they received the information of [permission to take] five days off. They are big boys.
“Us as a club have to set the standards and have to manage that. It’s my decision if they can have five days, or three days, or three days to rest and you cannot fly. This is something that us as a club have to decide. Would I set a different structure? Yes, for sure.”
Amorim acknowledged that a five-day break was too long for this stage of the season, but added: “We cannot put this on the players. They told them they have five days off so they can fly anywhere. Because nobody in the club says you cannot fly, so they have to live their lives because they are grown men and they have to decide these things.
“But us, as a club, have to change these standards. You said that you, as a player, thought in a different way.
“For me, the big difference is your time. You had great leadership at the time [Neville was at United], 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 seeing things. I’m just imagining but even your team-mates, if you do that, they will talk to you. So now it’s a different point, and you have to acknowledge that.
“So this must be started in the club, with us and me being responsible in that area. So we cannot, this time, put that on Rash or Case.
“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.”
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