While most of United’s top players were benched or rested entirely for the English League game against third-tier Northampton on Wednesday, Rooney played the full 90 minutes – less than three days before a big Premier League match against champion Leicester.
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Mourinho has publicly criticised Luke Shaw, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard in recent days, and according to reports, the players are lacking in confidence due to their manager’s tongue lashings.
Shaw is not expected to play in tonight’s EFL Cup Clash against Northampton due to what’s being reported as a minor groin tear.
Mourinho labelled that sorry sequence as a bad week but accused “Einsteins” of trying to “delete” his track record and United’s history.
“The game could and should have been easier because normally it’s easier against 10 men and we should have been playing against 10 men very early in the second half”.
You know what terrible situations can arise from this sort of thing.
“Now we have a chance to play against them, and I am sure it will be different”.
Struggling West Ham required a free kick by Dimitri Payet six minutes into injury time to overcome the lowest-ranked team left in the competition.
The former Chelsea manager showered praises on his team for delivering a positive performance with goals from Micheal Carrick, Ander Herrera and Marcus Rashford.
Given the presence of Pogba and Ibrahimovic, a 4-3-3 formation with no authentic No. 10 could be the way forward for United.
Herrera impressed at Sixfields, hitting the post from long range before scoring the crucial goal to put United 2-1 up in the second half.
Juan Mata and close-season signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan, both more conventional number 10s, have had to content themselves with wide roles or places on the bench.
“It was probably the strongest bench I’ve ever seen in my career and when you see the likes of them warming up to come up you do sort of take a gasp”.
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Guardiola gave a first start of the season to captain Vincent Kompany, who underwent thigh surgery in May, but the Belgium centre-back had to go off late on after appearing to injure himself.
