Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho were surprise omissions from Manchester United's squad against Manchester City on Sunday.

And United head coach Ruben Amorim was coy about the reason for leaving out two of his most high-profile players.

"It was not a disciplinary thing — next week, next game, new life," Amorim said after the 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium.

"They are fighting for their places, but, for me, it's important the performance in training, the performance in the game, the way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with the teammates, the way you push your teammates. Everything is important in the context of beginning to change a lot of things. When people in our club are losing their jobs, we have to make the standards really high."

It was Amorim's first Manchester derby since taking over as United's head coach last month, and the bold call paid off, with his team staging a late comeback through goals from Bruno Fernandes and Amad Diallo, sealing a memorable win.

Rashford was substituted after 56 minutes of United's Europa League match against Viktoria Plzen on Thursday, and has scored three goals in six appearances under Amorim.

Garnacho, who scored in United's FA Cup final win against City in May, came on as a substitute against Plzen.

"If they train well, with the talent they have, we will be so much better with both of them (Rashford and Garnacho). But, they have to work hard," Amorim said. "Today, they trained really hard, so it's a good thing."

Agencies via Xinhua