“I’ve spoken to Josh…” – Ruben Amorim reveals damning reason for early Joshua Zirkzee sub | OneFootball

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has spoken out on his surprise decision to sub Joshua Zirkzee off after just 32 minutes in last night’s defeat to Newcastle.

The Red Devils put in another poor display as they suffered a 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford, and Zirkzee was one player who seemed to be particularly struggling on the night.

It’s been a bit of a nightmare start to life at Man Utd for Zirkzee, who joined from Bologna in the summer, but who has looked completely out of his depth at his new club so far.

Amorim made the rather bold decision to take the Netherlands international off just after the half-hour mark, which is not something you see that often unless a player picks up an injury early on.

Ruben Amorim admits Joshua Zirkzee was “suffering” for Man United against Newcastle

Joshua Zirkzee subbed off for Manchester United (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Rather damningly, Amorim pulled no punches when he addressed the Zirkzee decision after the game, saying he did it for the good of the player, who was “suffering”, and for the good of the team as he felt he needed something different.

“You have to think about the team, and also sometimes about the player as the player was suffering. I felt the team was suffering and needed another midfielder, that’s it,” Amorim said, as quoted by Fabrizio Romano.

He added: “Josh is a really good lad. We will support him and keep going. It was really tough for me to do that, but I’ve spoken to Josh as it was important to express the message. We needed Josh to go out, for the team.”

Zirkzee looked like a promising young talent at Bologna, but it increasingly seems like the move to United has come too soon for him.

The 23-year-old might still be able to turn things around, but at the moment he’s looking nowhere near good enough for a club of this size.

For Amorim to concede that he simply had to remove the player so early for his own good and to improve the team is really damning, and it’s hard to see how he’ll come back from this.