The Spanish midfielder was a half-time substitute during Saturday’s disappointing 2-1 derby defeat by Manchester City at Old Trafford.
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Guardiola was satisfied with his side’s display against Jose Mourinho’s United.
City ended United’s winning start to the season with its fourth straight victory and it will be the sweetest of them all for Guardiola, coming at the expense of Mourinho in the latest instalment of their coaching rivalry.
“I’ll help him every day, him and all the others, in any way I can”. You need to be sharp, the way you think and the way you play, we had a few players below the level.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been prolific if a little stodgy in his movement so far and Mourinho suggested he may even choose to play both strikers through the centre in future.
“When you play good in the first half with the ball it’s for that reason, because you make this build up with Claudio”, he added.
Rashford, 18, was overlooked for a place in the starting line-up at Old Trafford despite scoring a hat-trick on his debut for England Under-21s during the global break, but Mourinho said: ‘For me, the next big game is against Feyenoord and the next game he is going to play. I made a couple of decisions because I thought the individual qualities of certain players would give me what I wanted.
“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”, Guardiola said. Rashford came on in the second half and looked like he was playing for the U18s against Salford City. How I can decide is by performances, it’s the only way. Sometimes players disappoint managers. The kid Jesse – how many big matches?
Mourinho switched to a 4-3-3 formation in the second half, meaning that Rashford was played wide on the left.
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“They didn’t give me what I want”. Everything around the game: the derby, the big game, the focus, the attention.
