Ruben Amorim has blasted back at suggestions he dropped Andre Onana from Manchester United’s squad before defeat to Arsenal.
The Cameroonian goalkeeper was not involved at Old Trafford as United lost 1-0 to the Gunners on the opening day of the new Premier League season.
The stopper who did play from the start, Altay Bayindir, made an error in the build-up to Riccardo Calafiori’s winner as he fumbled the ball from a corner to allow the Italian to prod the ball home from close range.
It was an issue which then had members of the press pack at full-time questioning why Onana was not in the matchday squad and then why veteran goalie Tom Heaton did not play ahead of Bayindir.
Ruben Amorim denies dropping Manchester United star Andre Onana
At one stage in the four-and-a-half minute long presser from the Portuguese head coach, he looked visibly frustrated and bewildered at the line of questioning from the media.
And when asked to clarify why Onana had been “dropped”, the boss revealed he had not in actual fact suffered that fate but instead Amorim believes his regular number one had not trained in the build-up and was therefore not ready to feature.
When the query was put to Amorim about dropping Onana, a perplexed gaffer replied: “Sorry? Sorry?”
The question was then clarified, to which he added: “No, no, no, I didn’t drop Onana from the squad, I didn’t drop one of the other two from the squad.
“So it’s not the case of dropping Onana, it’s not putting Andre Onana with just one week [of training], without seeing a game, without time with training. And like you say, guys, like Tom and Altay during the pre-season, they did a good job.”
Altay Bayindir was absolved of error vs Arsenal
Bayindir may have made the mistake which ultimately would cost his side a point but Amorim absolved the Turk.
And he pointed to previous matches where the player had come up trumps for the Red Devils as the reason he chose him to start over Heaton in the first place.
“But, he suffered a goal like this when? Tottenham last season? Without VAR. Without VAR. With VAR, it’s a foul. And then, what happens in the next game?
“Not the next game at Wolves, the next at Arsenal. The next one [that Altay played], Arsenal. Who saves the penalty, who saves the game, all the game? Before the penalty. You don’t remember the game? I remember the game.
“Altay was unbelievable in that game. So I considered everything to put one or another, and I choose Altay.”
