ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS FOR JOSHUA

“WE need to do what the game was asking,” was the beginning of Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim’s staunch defence of his decision to take Joshua Zirkzee off at half time during the draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

- By JACK FLINTHAM

For a man who was once cheered off the pitch by United supporters, it is now fitting for Zirkzee that his exit on Tuesday baffled everyone.

“If Zirkzee wasn't injured and that was a tactical substitution, it was a really poor one,” Gary Neville told Sky Sports.

“Zirkzee isn’t Eric Cantona, by any stretch of the imagination, but he needed to be out there for physicality, for presence, for experience.

“And he'd scored. You couldn’t take him off. So I'm hoping he's injured. I'm hoping he’s injured for Ruben Amorim.”

But Zirkzee was not injured and Amorim was keen to defend his decision to bring on Jack Fletcher and solidify the midfield further.

“They put a lot of men in the middle of the park and with Jack we balanced that,’ Amorim continued.

“I think we recovered the ball faster in the second half.