“It is obvious that we left players like (Antonio) Valencia and (Luke) Shaw at home to play and to rest so we go back to a normal team without so many changes”, Mourinho told BT Sport.
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Chris Smalling says Manchester United’s players need to stand up and be counted to avoid an “unacceptable” third successive defeat.
Speaking at his news conference on Wednesday, Mourinho said: “This is not a competition that Man United wants”.
The Portugueuse manager insistsed the decision not to bring Rooney to Rotterdam for tonight’s match was to keep him fully fit for Sunday’s Premier League fixture against Watford.
“I have played here in friendly matches and I know the atmosphere will be good with half of it”.
Jose Mourinho was disappointed by Manchester United’s lack of first-half ambition in Thursday’s 1-0 Europa League defeat at Feyenoord.
Despite admitting that the Europa League is not a “big dream” of some of the players in his squad, he is hoping to motivate them enough to put in a performance which will earn them all three points against the Eredivisie side.
“I was not saying that we are a phenomenal team and we are going to destroy every opponent”.
“I always said it was a very good start but”. I know that the situation is not click your fingers and everybody is ideal.
“But, to be honest, I think we didn’t play phenomenal matches in these two defeats, but in both I think it is a punishment for the team because we deserved more than the results we got”.
“We know that we are not going to have any kind of support for that, in fact the week when we play Liverpool, Fenerbahce and Chelsea, the gift was to play Liverpool on the Monday, but the Monday before, not the Monday after”.
“The second half was better than the first”.
“First of all I have players that are not here, I have players that didn’t play here for 90 minutes, so it’s not a problem of accumulation”, he added.
“United upped the tempo and used their physical presence in moments of the game, making it very hard for us”.
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“I think we upped our intensity”, he said, having made his first start of the season.
