Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho were surpriseomissions from Manchester United’s squad against Manchester City on Sunday.

And United head coach Ruben Amorim was coy about the reason for leaving out two of his most high-profile players.

“It was not a disciplinary thing — next week, next game, new life,”Amorim said after the 2-1 derby win at the Etihad Stadium.

“They are fighting for the places, but for me it’s important the performance in training, the performance in the game, the way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with teammates, the way you push your teammates. Everything is important in our context, and we are beginning to change a lot of things. When people in our club are losing their jobs, we have to put the standards really high.”

It was Amorim’s first Manchester derby since taking over as United’shead coach last month. And the bold call paid off with his team staging a late comeback through goals from Bruno Fernandes and Amad Diallo to seal a memorable win.

Rashford was substituted after 56 minutes of United’s Europa League match against Viktoria Plzen on Thursday and has scored three goals in six appearances under Amorim. Garnacho, who scored in United’s FA Cup final win against City in May, came on as a substitute against Plzen.

“If they train well with the talent they have, we will be so much betterwith both of them (Rashford and Garnacho). But they have to work hard,” Amorim said.

“The players are smart and so, everybody understands my decision and I have to choose. It’s just a simple selection. Of course the context is difficult — we have to win games and we have a difficult situation now.

“But, like I said, I make my evaluation and then I have to decide. I have a lot of players to choose from and today (Sunday) I did my choice.”

A United source said Garnacho’s absence has nothing do with allegations about team leaks, but his absence along with that of Rashford provides more questions than answers.

“It’s the same all the time and they all understand,” Amorim said of how the pair found out.

“There’s a communication that after the last training is going to the WhatsApp, and then they receive the information. But they are alright, they had training on Sunday.

“I was there because it’s important for every player… even Jonny Evans because Jonny Evans also (trained) and Toby (Collyer) was there and everything was OK. They trained really well.”

Amorim said United earned their right to win the derby. “I think so,” Amorim said, when asked if he felt United deserved their first win at Etihad Stadium since 2021.

“We did a great job. Amad is in a good moment. Erik (ten Hag) brought him to the first team. Ruud (van Nistelrooy) did a great job. Now don’t make the same mistakes we made in the past.”

Amorim didn’t explain what the previous mistakes were.

With inputs from AP