Mourinho’s side will travel to the Netherlands to play Feyenoord on Thursday in the Europa League, a competition that Rashford will surely feature heavily in.
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The teenage Nigeria global rewarded his boss with a goal and an assist in City’s 2-1 win over Manchester United on Saturday. That fixture is followed by an away game against Watford in the Premier League on Sunday.
“Look, honestly, I had two or three players in the first half who, if the game was played now and I know what is going to happen, then I wouldn’t play them”, Mourinho told the club’s official website.
“So maybe in the next big game in the Premier League probably I know who can accept well the dimension of the game, which is very important”. “But his big personality is there”. [Rashford can play as a] wide man or we play with both [him and Ibrahimovic up front], which we can do perfectly like we did against Hull City.
It was question everyone was asking ahead of the Manchester derby; Should Marcus Rashford start?
“And the second half to show as well – when we are not playing like the first half because the opponent is really good – you defend with character and personality”.
Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were brought in to the line-up for the derby, but replaced at half-time after poor displays.
“What Claudio did was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen”. And what do I have? So of course I am going to play other players.
Ibrahimovic scored a vital goal – a cracking finish from a hard angle following the Bravo mistake – however, for the whole second half he took shots from absolutely everywhere with no success and, when provided with promising opportunities, for example from Rashford early on in the second half, he completely skied it. We had a lot of things to do after the game.
“Yeah [if you pass the ball from the back] it can be too risky; if you lose the ball they will score but you can control the game”. The United boss believes his wards succumbed to big-match pressure against their cross-city rivals.
“Ander was phenomenal in his attitude”.
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So, where now for Manchester United?
