Ruben Amorim will pick ‘best’ Manchester United team for Arsenal FA Cup clash | OneFootball

Ruben Amorim insisted he will not prioritise the Premier League over the FA Cup and plans to field his strongest Manchester United side for their third-round clash at Arsenal.

While Amorim confirmed Altay Bayindir would replace Andre Onana in goal for Sunday’s blockbuster clash at the Emirates Stadium, the Portuguese wants to build on last weekend’s 2-2 draw at Premier League leaders Liverpool.

United sit 13th in the standings, just seven points above the drop, but Amorim will resist the temptation to send out a weakened team when his side begin their FA Cup defence in north London.

“In this moment, I’m living day by day,” United boss Amorim said. “What I’m thinking is that one week without any game, we had a day off (after Liverpool), we could work on the team a little bit.

“It doesn’t make sense for me to rest players now. So I think we have to put the best team, we have to win and we have to follow the last performance.

“Sometimes, it’s better to win this kind of game and then you have less time to rest but your mind is so different that you can cope with the physical aspect of the game.

“Now we are rotating less. Sometimes I have to choose fresh legs because I look at some players in the same position and I feel that they are at the same level, so I try to put in some fresh legs.

“I don’t rotate because I want to rotate. I’m not different than any other coach. I’m trying to find out the best solutions to win every game.”

It doesn’t make sense for me to rest players now

Ruben Amorim

United secured their 13th FA Cup title last May with a shock 2-1 win in the final over rivals Manchester City, and only Arsenal, with 14 titles, have lifted the trophy more than the Red Devils.

Arsenal have won the last four meetings between the teams, including beating United 2-0 at home last month, but Amorim has been heartened by what he has seen on the training pitch recently.

United had a busy schedule in December, playing nine matches, which gave Amorim little time to work on improvements in-between games, but their calendar has eased over the past fortnight.

“It was different (before the Liverpool game) because we could train, so you can push them, you can show them what they need to do,” Amorim said.

“It’s so much easier with training and then the environment is different because they felt the confidence in the performance.

“But we can say anything after a match or during a week, we have to show it in the next game so we are focused on that.

“But I felt during the week they were focused on improving, they were open to learn and that was a good feeling this week.

“Now we have time to train a bit more, I expect our team to understand better the game.”