Manchester United had to weather the storm in their dramatic 2-1 win over Viktoria Plzen to keep up a 100% win record in the UEFA Europa League under Ruben Amorim. Despite going behind, a superb display from Rasmus Hojlund and his brace allowed them to take home all three points from the chilly Czech Republic.
Before the match had started, however, a particular topic started a storm among the Manchester United fans on Twitter. As has almost become a norm for the entire campaign, the Red Devils’ starting lineup was leaked minutes before the club officially announced it on their social media platforms. This common occurrence has started annoying a lot of people, especially with a general feeling that a player is the one responsible for leaking it.
Leaking team lineups can give a potential edge to the opposition side as they can shape their plans accordingly. A lot of popular Manchester United fan accounts on Twitter have come under fire for leaking out the teams, but they’ve pointed to being fed the information from someone within the squad itself.
These ‘leakers’ were ultimately pressurized by fans into revealing their sources, something that caused a lot of stir. After giving a few hints and keeping many in anticipation, the fan account Utd Scout revealed that Alejandro Garnacho was the player leaking the teams.
The account pointed towards another fan account UtdScope (Morgan) for being on close terms with the Argentine winger and getting exclusive information on team news.
Utd Scout also revealed screenshots of a group chat conversation where Morgan (utdscope) is seen saying ‘One of you ducked me over’ and that he was leaving the chat after seeing his secrets exposed.
Another popular fan account named ‘AmorimBall’ revealed screenshots of an alleged conversation with Garnacho, showing him naming Joshua Zirkzee, Marcus Rashford and Amad Diallo starting against Viktoria Plzen in advance.
Irrespective of whatever these accounts claim, it’s hard to imagine a player leaking out information on team news before a match.
That is because the likes of Garnacho are too busy either taking part in pre-match warm-up sessions and getting prepared for matches rather than playing around with phone to check out social media.
Some have even accused of the leaker being Manchester United’s no.2 goalkeeper Altay Bayindir, who has one appearance this season and is always on the bench.
But even Bayindir at least has to take part in warm-up sessions before game, meaning it’s unlikely he gets the time to leak stuff.
This has caused the consensus to come up that it’s actually Roberto Garnacho, Alejandro’s brother, who is the one leaking information.
Roberto, who has over 67,000 followers on his Twitter, loves having fun on social media and often mocking other players.
Mark Goldbridge tweeted that the ‘same player is leaking the team’ before the match. To this, Roberto commented ‘Me’ to insinuate it was him, even though he was clearly joking.
The Argentine later told fans that he’s trying not to stay active on social media anymore either.
But that was only meant as a joke, as Roberto later insisted that he tries staying far away from social media these days to protect his brother.
Goldbridge, who interviewed Rasmus Hojlund last season and has some sources within the club, has also dismissed claims that Garnacho or his brother are the ones leaking the teams.
Amid all of the confusion, some fans have started a theory that Amad Diallo is the leaker. This is based on speculation that Amad is close to some of these ‘fan accounts’ on the platform.
This has caused for a bit of a ‘civil war’ inside Manchester United Twitter pitting the Garnacho fanboys against the Amad Diallo supporters. The funny thing is that Amad doesn’t even have a Twitter account, so him interacting on the platform seems unlikely.
The reality, is, that there isn’t enough prove whether either of the two wingers have been leaking stuff from inside the dressing room. It’s probably high time the Red Devils’ hierarchy identifies who exactly is leaking their lineups to go out earlier than expected and put a lid on this entire issue to stop the needless fighting among fans on social media.
