Ruben Amorim decided to reintegrate Tyrell Malacia into the Manchester United first team after the coach spoke to his players to get their thoughts on the defender. Malacia fell out of favour at Old Trafford following Amorim’s arrival and spent the second half of last season on loan at PSV.
United signed Malacia from Feyenoord in July 2022, just after Erik ten Hag had been appointed as the club’s manager. The 26-year-old was in and out of the starting line-up during his maiden campaign in England, but missed the whole of the 2023/24 campaign due to a serious knee injury. And by the time he returned to action last November, Ten Hag had left the club.
Amorim handed Malacia two Premier League starts last December, with the ace being named on the left flank in matches against Arsenal and Bournemouth.
But the player was hauled off at half-time on both occasions as the Red Devils suffered comprehensive defeats in the two matches.
And Malacia only played another nine minutes in the league before being shipped off to PSV at the start of February.
After returning to Old Trafford in the summer, Malacia was placed in the ‘bomb squad’ alongside Marcus Rashford, Antony, Alejandro Garnacho and Jadon Sancho, with the five players forced to train away from the main group.
Four of those players eventually secured moves away from Old Trafford during the transfer window, with Malacia the only one to remain at the club after seeing a proposed loan transfer to Spanish outfit Elche collapse.
And he was ultimately reintegrated with the first team at the end of September after asking to play for United’s under-21s side to keep himself sharp.
According to The Athletic, Amorim canvassed opinions on Malacia before the Netherlands international was brought back into the fold. And players spoke in favour of his reintegration.
United captain Bruno Fernandes then showed his support to the Dutchman as he shared a picture of the player on Instagram and captioned the post: “Happy to see you back.”
Following his return to training, Malacia was named on the bench for United’s Premier League clash with Brighton at the end of October. He remained in his seat all afternoon, however, as Amorim opted not to use the star, despite making five substitutions throughout the encounter.
Malacia has since dropped back out of the matchday squad and failed to make it onto the bench for United’s matches against Nottingham Forest and Tottenham.