Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has told Marcus Rashford he should have told him privately that he wanted to leave the club.

Rashford, 27, conducted an interview with the journalist Henry Winter on Tuesday and outlined his desire for "a new challenge and the next steps" away from United, a club he joined at the age of seven.

United were given little advance notice of the chat and Amorim had to field 16 questions about Rashford's future on Wednesday morning at his pre-match press conference for the League Cup quarter-final against Tottenham.

"If this was me, probably I would speak with the manager," Amorim said of Rashford's chat. "But guys, let’s focus on Tottenham!"

READ MORE: Touchline reaction was maybe the final straw for Rashford at United

READ MORE: Amorim had a similar reaction to Mourinho when he outed me for leaking the team

Amorim attempted to defuse the fallout from his decision to drop Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho from the squad that beat Manchester City on Sunday. Amorim questioned the players' form in matches and training, and referred to how they dressed and ate.

Amid the intense focus on Rashford, Amorim downplayed his remarks after United won 2-1 at City. "What I expect is every day all the players doing the training and outside the training, the engagement with the players.

"I talk about the way they dress, I was just making a point. I don’t know how they dress, I just see them in the kit. I don’t know how they eat, I’m not looking at their plates, it was just to make a point.

"I don’t care how my players dress, it was to make a focus on the detail. I expect the best of each one of them to prepare the game. If that’s what we’re doing to try to demonstrate to the players, the rest we will have time to address and my focus is on the game and get the best out of Marcus."

Amorim said last month Rashford "has to want it" and reiterated he is powerless to reinforce the England international's focus. "I don’t control that. What I can control is the way I see things to take my players to the games and the training, that is my focus, the rest I don’t control.

"Marcus and Harry Maguire and all the players, my focus is to set the standards and see if my players can do it and then play the games. That part I cannot answer."

At the time he addressed the press on Wednesday morning, Amorim had not spoken to Rashford since he was dropped at the weekend. Rashford did not train on Monday due to illness and the players were given Tuesday off.

Amorim was still uncertain how he would handle Rashford when he eventually encounters him and the Portuguese admitted he could be "emotional".

"It’s hard to explain to you guys what I am going to do. I’m a little bit emotional so in the moment I will decide what to do. My focus now is on the players, they still need to arrive at Carrington so I need to prepare the game and then we will see. Let’s focus on the team not individual players. That’s it.

"It’s a hard situation to comment. If I give a lot of importance it will have big headlines in the papers and if I say it’s not a problem then my standards are getting low! So I will deal with that, I understand that.

"My focus is to not take the attention away from the game and the team and what we did in the last game. What I’m saying is that the team is more important than the individual, we will assess it at the right time, that’s all."

Amorim has not spoken to the United hierarchy about whether they would seek to proactively sell Rashford in the January transfer window. United were open to selling the academy graduate in the summer but there was not a market for one of the club's highest earners who only scraped eight goals last season and was excluded from England's European Championship squad.

"No, I didn’t speak to them," Amorim clarified. "The interview was yesterday, I’m focused on Tottenham and my focus is to prepare the team for that game.

"Nothing has changed, we believe in Marcus. Marcus is a player of Manchester United so there’s no change."