Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed that Marcus Rashford will start against Feyenoord in the Uefa Europa League on Thursday night.
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“But this is football and sometimes players, they disappoint managers, and sometimes players, they give us great surprises”.
“So you never know the way players are going to react, especially when you don’t know them so well”.
United have failed to reach the Champions League in two of the past three seasons.
‘The second one, (Nicolas) Otamendi, I think it’s a penalty’. Referee Mark Clattenburg remained unmoved when the Red Devils appealed for a penalty after Bravo collided with Wayne Rooney inside the box during the second-half.
Mourinho gave Jesse Lingard and summer signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan their first league starts of the season and it’s a decision he’s probably regretting now.
“For me, the next big game is against Feyenoord – and the next game he’s going to play”, said Mourinho.
“I’m happy, I’m very happy, for my team, for everyone”.
When asked if some positions are up for grabs in the starting XI, Mourinho said only this: “Performances are the only way that I can decide”. For the fans it is worth more than three points – for us we just have to maintain the same.
“We played good. We won the ball back quickly and created a lot of chances, but when you have that many chances to counter attack against a team like Manchester United you have to take advantage”.
Mourinho substituted the pair at half-time, and admitted after the game that he made a mistake.
Given his side’s poor first-half performance in particular, the Portuguese trainer has harboured the blame for the defeat after his team selections.
“I thought about many other options – but I thought in the beginning to show to my players that I came to win the game”.
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“I did not change after 20 minutes because I didn’t want to destroy the players”.
