Another player could have won the award was Marcus Rashford who playing on the left, ran Leicester ragged, got himself a goal and put in a shift anyone would have been proud of.
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Mata doubled the hosts’ lead by starting a move that went through Pogba and Jesse Lingard before he fired home, then collected a clever Blind corner and directed into the six-yard box for Rashford to score.
While he was an influential figure in the midfield with his vision, passing and the general solidity that he brings to the United line-up, he was also able to celebrate his first goal for the Red Devils since returning to the club this summer.
De Gea clawed another Gray effort away from the top corner before Rooney was given a 10-minute run-out in the closing stages, as United saw out a morale-boosting win that will raise plenty of questions over the future of the captain.
Asked if the decision to omit Rooney was merely an objective one, Mourinho replied: “Depends on the way you approach it”. In a normal football media, in a normal football country I would say we have 23 players we have very important games and if Rooney doesn’t play today he plays the next one. “And I can only start with 11, until somebody tells me there is a change in that”.
It was a phenomena that left many surprised as reporters questioned whether the striker was indispensable to Jose Mourinho regardless of how poorly he performed.
Never quite as gifted as his former team mate Cristiano Ronaldo or United’s latest five-star acquisition Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Rooney once dictated games largely thanks to his tremendous work rate and aggression.
Wayne Rooney has been denied the chance this lunchtime, from the start at least, to hit back at the critics who “damaged” him after the England-Slovakia game.
“I think I’ve had that my whole career”, he said.
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Rooney, meanwhile, could only applaud from the bench as the goals flew in.
