The teenage sensation has been used sparingly off the bench so far by new manager Jose Mourinho, but followed up his late victor at Hull last month with an impressive performance as a second-half substitute in the Manchester derby.
Advertisement
Specifically, the Portuguese feels that it is the poor performance of three or four of his charges during the first half that allowed Man City to seize control and coast to a two-goal lead.
“Well, performances are the deciding factor [in how he’ll choose his team]”. But, except for one or two from Kevin [De Bruyne], we didn’t finish. “That is the only thing I can say”, Mourinho said, quoted by the Guardian newspaper.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho felt let down by his players after the hosts suffered a 2-1 defeat to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City on Saturday.
It sounded like classic, grudging Mourinho, nearly an intimation that, actually, he was the one who should feel let down by the likes of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard. United came out the better side in the second half mainly thanks to Marcus Rashford’s introduction, but they couldn’t find a victor for all of their chances.
“Until my last day in England I will try to play with the ball as much as possible”. We started the game with intensity.
Mourinho took responsibility for mistakes in the team set-up and, despite insisting they were not the only poor performers, suggested the duo could have come off sooner.
“It has nothing to do with experience or age because we put on the kid Marcus Rashford in the second half and it looks like he is playing Under-18s v Salford City”, Mourinho added.
When asked if some positions are up for grabs in the starting XI, Mourinho said only this: “Performances are the only way that I can decide”.
Advertisement
“As soon as you lose the ball it is hard, and especially with players like [Marcus] Rashford and [Anthony] Martial on the counter-attack”. The boss went on to explain that he trusts Rashford “completely” and that he knows his “future will be absolutely brilliant”.
