Leny Yoro praises Ruben Amorim for rooting out 'bad characters' from Man Utd squad

The Portuguese cast Marcus Rashford aside from the squad less than a month after taking charge and then sanctioned his loan move to Aston Villa and then Barcelona. He also took a hard line against Alejandro Garnacho, dropping him for last season's derby at Manchester City along with Rashford and later telling the forward he had to leave the club after lashing out against the decision to leave him out of the starting line-up for the Europa League final. 

Rashford, Garnacho, Jadon Sancho and Antony were all kept apart from the first team squad over the summer while the club worked on their sales. Yoro did not mention any names but he said he felt the club were doing the right thing to prioritise having the right characters around.

Yoro told reporters: "The character is really important, for the atmosphere of the team also. I think the club is doing well with this, to take only people who can bring good things to the team. We don't want any bad things in the team. It's really important for us. So, like you said, try to be focused on the team. Don't do any drama. Just speak with everyone, have a good relation. This is the best, I think, for the team. We cannot build something with bad energy or bad atmosphere or bad characters. I think the club is doing well with this."

Yoro also surprisingly revealed that his mother was not being truthful when she claimed in a previous interview that the defender was named after American rock star Lenny Kravitz. "No, that's not true," he said. "She wanted something for the media. She liked Lenny Kravitz, but she didn't take his name. No, it's just storytelling for the media."

United visit Tottenham on Saturday in the first meeting between the two clubs since the Europa League final, which Spurs won to secure passage to the Champions League final and leave the Red Devils with no European football for the first time in 11 years. Yoro admitted the 1-0 defeat in Bilbao was hard to swallow but he said the team had gotten over it and are in a better place now.

"Yes, it was important for us for Champions Leagut but now we cannot change nothing," he said. "We have one game a week now, so I think it helped us a little bit to work more on the things that were not good last year. We have more time to work now, but of course everyone wants to play Champions League, so this final is important for us, so this year we need to do better.

"We are the same team, so I'm not going to say we're a better team, but we can see with the results that there are some things we do better. Of course we had some new players, and they give everything they have to help us to be better also. We're the same team, but with a different spirit sometimes, I think, and with more time to work."