Manchester United are convinced a network of people are behind the club's team news leaks.

The Manchester Evening News published United's leaked XI against Manchester City 20 hours before kick off on Saturday evening and also reported that Marcus Rashford had been omitted from the matchday squad.

United team news and line-ups have leaked sporadically for several years yet the earliness of the derby XI and the significance of the match made the matter more topical.

Club sources branded speculation that Alejandro Garnacho and his brother, Roberto, were behind the leaks as "rubbish". Despite reports claiming that Amad was questioned, he has not leaked any team news.

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The club believe the leaks are not down to one or two players but that a network of people with varying motivations and incentives have obtained separate pieces of information and are responsible.

United denied that they had conducted an investigation on the back of the leaked team for the Manchester derby.

The United head coach Ruben Amorim was asked about his team entering the public domain after United beat City 2-1 at the Etihad. "I know that story," Amorim said. "I think it is impossible to fix, because you have a lot of people in the club, the players talk with agents, you can talk with friends, it's hard to know, it is not a good thing.

"But let's move on and go to the next one and I see if they find the next starting XI!"

One of the leaked messages included a starting player's name misspelt while other starters' names were not capitalised.

Ahead of Fenerbahce's Europa League tie with United in October, Jose Mourinho reminded the press that this correspondent used to obtain United team news during his two-and-a-half year tenure at the club.