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Mourinho to return to ‘normal team’ after Europa League defeat
Watford manager Walter Mazzarri has denied suggestions of a rift between himself and old rival Jose Mourinho as he prepares to welcome the Portuguese and his Manchester United side to Vicarage Road.
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The Red Devils, after their loss to Manchester City over the weekend in the Premier League, would have been keen to get back to the winning ways, but they looked below par during the Europe League clash.
Tonny Vilhena scored Feyenoord’s victor late on, despite Nicolai Jorgensen, who delivered the cross, being offside. Charlie Austin tucked away the spot-kick after just five minutes and then the striker headed in from a delicious outside-of-the boot cross from Cuco Martina to give the Saints a 2-0 half-time lead.
“I think in the first half they were much better than us”.
United boss Jose Mourinho claimed he had other “solutions” for the role but the poor performance of his supporting cast of players can have done little to persuade him of the strength of his other options.
Ander Herrera, Anthony Martial, Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford, Morgan Schneiderlin and Chris Smalling were the other changes as Wayne Rooney was also rested.
After an encouraging start at United, successive defeats have raised questions for Mourinho, who felt his team lacked ambition and admitted there would no quick fixes and that confidence was low.
“I know we play midday on Sunday and in his moment it’s 9pm on Thursday, but we are professionals, let’s not make an excuse for Sunday because we have to play this game”, Mourinho said.
Managed by former Arsenal and Barcelona left-back Giovanni van Bronckhorst, their team included former Liverpool players Dirk Kuyt, who scored a hat-trick against United in 2011 in his time at Anfield, and Jones.
“We were double unlucky because it’s a clear offside”. “At the moment this is the situation so I need to verify it at the last minute”. “We fought hard to get the result and after 90 minutes we did”.
Having passionately contested in the top-tier competitions for more than a decade, competing in the Europa League for the first time in 13 years was an unappetising prospect for Mourinho.
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United enjoyed a dream start to the campaign as they won the Community Shield and their first three Premier League matches, only for that run to come to a shuddering halt on Saturday.