For a man who knew what was coming next, Ruben Amorim seemed remarkably cheerful when he sat down at Carrington yesterday morning.
A smile for the cameras, a wave to a friendly Portuguese reporter he recognised at the back of the room, and then straight down to business.
Question one, Marcus Rashford. Question two, Marcus Rashford — and so on.
Alejandro Garnacho and Mason Mount got a brief look-in, and Amorim was asked once about the problem of his line-ups being leaked. Otherwise, there was only one show in town and it certainly wasn’t tonight’s Carabao Cup quarter-final at Tottenham.