United head coach Jose Mourinho, who is expected to put out his strongest XI after making as many as eight changes in Rotterdam, acknowledged it won’t be easy to bounce back from consecutive defeats.
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United face Feyenoord before travelling to Watford in the Premier League on Sunday and Northampton next Wednesday in the EFL Cup.
He said: “Of course I’m unhappy”.
He said: “We don’t have time to dwell on the defeat and we have a few days to recover now”.
“We’ve got to show a lot of character because it’s unacceptable to go and lose three games in a row”. “We make sure that we stand up and be counted on Sunday because we’ve got a big result to get”, Smalling told United’s in-house TV station MUTV.
Per-the-source, Shaw missed United’s clash with Feyenoord with a slight hamstring injury.
Despite the post-match rush, Smalling – skipper in the absence of Wayne Rooney – was more concerned with United’s second defeat on the trot, admitting they lacked “intensity” against the Eredivisie leaders. “I know they want to win, they want to work and that is what we have to do”.
Both losses were slender and could have been avoided were it not for ineffective first-half displays – something Shaw says cannot be repeated when they return to domestic action with a trip to Watford on Sunday.
“In the second half they answered my words at half-time but it’s disappointing because it was in our best period that we lost the game”.
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But he struggled to produce a sample after his first game of the season and United’s team coach left the De Kuip stadium without him. “We need to get off to a quick start and hopefully get an early goal that would settle us”.
