Ruben Amorim has told former Manchester United players criticising captain Bruno Fernandes to stop seeing his performances in “black and white” and appreciate the colours that paint the overall picture.

The 30-year-old has often been the lightning rod during poor performances or patches, with former skipper Roy Keane fuming “talent is not enough” as he tore into his leadership a fortnight ago.

Fernandes said he was using those eye-catching remarks as fuel after firing United to the Europa League quarter-finals with a hat-trick in Thursday’s 4-1 last-16 second leg win against Real Sociedad.

Head coach Amorim recently said his opinion of the Portugal playmaker was more important than Keane’s and described him as the “perfect captain” after sealing a 5-2 aggregate victory to set up a quarter-final against Lyon.

“I think he’s so important for this team,” he said. “And you can see it by the numbers, and you can see from these last games, he’s always the guy that scores.

“It’s not the most important thing, it’s not the only thing, but he’s always there.

“When you play for this team, you have to be prepared for the critics and I understand that former players had a lot of success here and the standards for them were so high that they see the things like that sometimes as black and white.

“In life sometimes it’s not just black and white, there is some other colours and you have to understand the context.

“Again, he’s always there, trying his best, so I’m really proud to coach a player like him.”

Fernandes’ availability for United is almost as important as his others qualities, especially given the Red Devils were without 11 players for a third straight game.

Those issues could ease slightly when the Red Devils head to struggling Leicester on Sunday, with Manuel Ugarte returning to the bench against La Real as Harry Maguire pushes to return from an issue of his own.

Amorim says “we’ll try not to risk” the former Foxes defender and will assess him ahead of Sunday, when Mason Mount is in line to make his first appearance since sustaining a hamstring issue in mid-December.

“I’ve already said that I really love Mason Mount,” Amorim said. “Because I see him, I know how he suffers, I know how he does everything right.

“He eats right, his physical aspect is perfect. He’s trying too much, maybe he’s thinking too much about everything.

“He was a European champion, he’s a really talented player. And when the player does everything like he does, he will always have the support of everybody here in the club.

“So, we will try to manage the load and you already saw some players that had a lot of problems during one time. In some moments he can stay fit, and I believe a lot in Mason Mount and we need players like Mason Mount.”

Asked if the England international has a chance of featuring against Leicester, Amorim said: “I think he’s going to the bench. We’ll see. But we need every player and if he’s fit, I’m going to take him.

“He cannot play too many minutes, but just five minutes of Mason Mount is perfect.”