Ruben Amorim explains Alejandro Garnacho reaction to substitution, star pledges to treat Man Utd teammates with honourable gesture

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Alejandro Garnacho went straight down the tunnel after he was substituted in the first half against Ipswich Town.

The Argentine international started in Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Ipswich on Wednesday night to move up to 14^th in the Premier League.

Garnacho was replaced by Noussair Mazraoui when Ruben Amorim was forced into a personnel change because Patrick Dorgu had been sent off for a late challenge on Omari Hutchinson.

Instead of taking his place on the bench, Garnacho walked straight down the Old Trafford tunnel before sharing a cryptic post on social media.

This created more noise around United’s first team and Amorim was bound to get asked questions about it at this afternoon’s press conference.

Ruben Amorim addresses situation with Alejandro Garnacho

Although Garnacho’s behaviour on Wednesday night led to questions from many United fans, the 20-year-old took the initiative and went to speak with the United head coach on Thursday morning.

Amorim revealed that Garnacho explained he went straight to the dressing room to change from his wet kit.

The boss added Garnacho will now treat his teammates to a meal and that there’s not an issue.

“He came to me,” Amorim told reporters at his press conference. “It was funny because in the next day he came to me, to my office.

“I did some investigating, and he went to the dressing room, he changed his clothes because he was wet.

“He watched the game in the different (place), not in the bench. In the end of the game he was there, then he went home, so there’s not an issue there.

“But I told them that in Manchester United, everything is important, and the perception in a big club is really important, so he’s going to pay a dinner to all the team, and that’s it.”

Amorim realises that Garnacho has a lot of maturing to do and it sounds like he is providing a support network for the young forward to grow.

He added: “He is a young kid that will learn. The most important thing is that in the next morning he was speaking with me. Zirkzee did the same thing [walking down the tunnel] but the context was different.

“We can deal with that and let’s just move on.”

Amorim verdict on footballers using social media

Later in the press conference, Amorim was asked about players dealing with criticism, especially on social media.

The Portuguese coach stressed that it’s the way of modern football and each player has to be prepared for that.

“I think it’s completely different for the players nowadays,” Amorim added.

“Before, it was two newspapers and nothing more. With social media, it’s completely different.

“They are so focused on social media. You can’t go to social media without seeing news or a photo or if you read something bad, you focus on that. You can have 100 good things, but then one bad thing and you focus on the bad thing.

“I think it’s really hard for them, you can call it soft, but they have that access to criticism and it is really, really hard to deal with that. They need help to deal with that so it’s the [way of] modern football, and they have to be prepared for that.”