Ruben Amorim has revealed his regret over a Europa League decision involving one Manchester United star ahead of the semi-finals.
Manchester United’s struggles continued with a draw against Bournemouth over the weekend, with Rasmus Højlund’s late strike rescuing a point for the Reds.
Their focus, however, has now shifted decisively to the Europa League — the most viable route to both a major trophy and qualification for next season’s Champions League. Only three matches separate them from silverware yet again.
United remain the sole unbeaten team in European competition this season, having eliminated Real Sociedad and Lyon to reach the semi-finals.
Standing in their way are Athletic Bilbao, their most formidable opponents yet. The Basque side, currently sitting fourth in La Liga, possess a combination of technical quality and attacking prowess that will pose a significant challenge.
The first leg of the semi-final will be played in Spain later this week, with the return leg at Old Trafford scheduled for the following Thursday.
Amorim reveals regret over Europa League decision
Chido Obi has continued to impress in his cameos for Amorim’s side and once again looked solid when coming off the bench against the Cherries.
Despite being just 17 years of age, Obi seems to be able to do the basics better than Højlund, particularly when trying to hold the ball up.
Højlund’s goal will hopefully provide him with some needed confidence but Amorim would certainly like to have the option of Obi heading into the Bilbao fixture.
However, the Reds decided against registering the young striker for their Europa League squad after the league phase and he is not eligible to play through the B-List like other youngsters.
At the time, Amorim made the decision since Obi wasn’t really involved in the first-team. Amorim labelled him as “a bit naive” after his debut. But now he is a genuine option and the United boss says it is “unfortunate” that he isn’t listed for the games.
“We have a lot of things to do still in this season and we are focused on… we like our strikers, we are improving our strikers, we’ll see what happened in the next season,” Amorim told reporters when asked about the striker situation at Old Trafford.
“But in this season, Josh [Zirkzee] cannot play, Chido [Obi] is not in the list, unfortunately, for the Europa League. He has the Premier League games to win every minute and to work on, and Rasmus [Hojlund] is scoring, so you’ll see it Thursday.”
Obi could have been a handful in Europa League
It is clear that Amorim regrets his decision to leave Obi out of the Europa League squad and it has only been made worse by the injury to Zirkzee.
Højlund has a lot of pressure on him to deliver and now the only other alternative is moving Harry Maguire up front since there are no available centre-forwards to come on the bench.
Obi has been a handful in almost all of his appearances and would certainly feel like he could have an impact off the bench in these European games.
Instead, like Amorim mentioned, the teenager just has to focus on continuing to prove himself in the remaining Premier League fixtures.
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