Ruben Amorim has paid tribute to Joshua Zirkzee – and Manchester United's fans – for the way the Dutchman has bounced back from a humiliating first-half substitution against Newcastle in December.
United head for Tyneside to face Newcastle again on Sunday with Zirkzee in good spirits after scoring in the 2-2 Europa League draw with Lyon in France on Thursday night.
The £36.5million summer signing from Bologna also came up with a key goal away to Real Sociedad in the last round of the competition, as well as scoring against Leicester and converting the decisive penalty in the FA Cup shootout at Arsenal.
It's a far cry from Zirkzee's lowest point over Christmas when he was substituted by Kobbie Mainoo in the 33rd minute against Newcastle to cheers from the Old Trafford crowd and ran straight down the tunnel on the verge of tears.
Amorim praised the 23-year-old for having the character to recover and is also delighted to see the response from United fans who have made amends by helping Zirkzee regain his confidence.
'Yes, he's doing a great job,' said the United boss. 'But also a very important thing was the way the fans reacted after that incident. Even if Josh is not playing, if you see every time he gets on the pitch or is just warming up our fans sing the Josh song. That is massive for the boy. So its 50-50 – 50 per cent the fans and 50 per cent on the part of Josh.'
Asked what he has done to help Zirkzee, Amorim added: 'The same thing. I explained the situation. As a former player, I wanted to hear some explanation from the coaches on that. I just want to help the team.
'And then work with him, all the work that all the staff is doing with him and he is improving, and then put it into play. This is the only way to show confidence in him.'
With the Lyon tie evenly poised, Amorim must decide whether to rotate his squad at Newcastle. Mason Mount, Luke Shaw and Mainoo have returned on the bench in recent games, but it will be the same pool of players at St James' Park.
Could Amorim be tempted to rest captain Bruno Fernandes who has already played a total of 54 games for club and country this season?
'We will make this evaluation with all the staff and all the data that we have,' he replied. 'Then, because we know already the players, we will try to protect the ones that it will be hard to play a lot of games.
'Bruno Fernandes is playing all the time and he is playing better all the time. Sometimes this kind of player doesn't play in every match, but we will address that.
'There is a great responsibility. We don't have a team that is really big and then we have players that I know cannot make 90 minutes in this moment, we have to be really careful.
'So we will try to address all these subjects in the game against Newcastle. But we have a great responsibility when we play any games. I will try to look at that, that is for sure. We have to face Newcastle with a team that we can be competitive to win the game.
'Sometimes winning games is the best way of preparing for the next one. Of course, I am going to be careful with some players but again we need to be competitive.
'When you are playing for Manchester United, you cannot go to the game thinking about the next one. So we are going to face this one and then we have three days.
'We are going to prepare for the next one without a lot of running and a lot of training. It's just recovering and then we will be fine on Thursday with our fans. But we need to face Newcastle in a way that we can win.'
Eddie Howe's side are on a high after a four-game winning running that has seen them lift the club's first domestic trophy in 70 years by beating Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final and move up to fifth place in the Premier League.
Amorim added: 'They have top players, really good on set pieces, the physicality and the way they are running when they are beaten in the first pressure.
'They play together for a while and they won a title that was really emotional for everybody, you can see it during that week. But we are being more consistent in the way we play the games and we will try to do the same on Sunday.'