United’s victory was a welcome tonic for Mourinho and his team following consecutive losses to Manchester City, Feyenoord and Watford.
Advertisement
Wayne Rooney has admitted he is under greater scrutiny than ever before in his career after a testing start to the season but the Manchester United captain believes he can still play a major part under José Mourinho.
Leicester are two points behind United in the Premier League, with Mourinho having lost three straight games in all competitions, including a derby defeat to Manchester City, before Wednesday’s 3-1 EFL Cup win at Northampton.
Leicester sealed a 1-1 draw in the same fixture last season, a result that helped them to secure their stunning title triumph, and the 64-year-old says his players should relish another visit to Old Trafford rather than feel any nerves.
“That’s football, I think”, Rooney told MUTV.
“It’s a big game on Saturday and we want to get our season back on the right road”.
“Of course we are playing against the last Premier League winners, the champions, so we have to respect them but we have to try to win”.
“If you win, you always know it is a good plan but there were moments in the game where we had it tough”, the former Arsenal, Rangers and Barcelona player said. “I managed the Rest of the World team against Jose’s English side”.
“I’ve done that [played in different positions] throughout my career”, he said.
The League Cup fourth round will be headlined by United’s tie against City at Old Trafford (likely to be on Oct 26), after both clubs smoothed their passage into it with away victories.
Rooney, who has been at United since 2004, has had his moments this season, notably setting up Marcus Rashford for a last-minute victor at Hull and also supplying a brilliant right-wing cross that Ibrahimovic headed home in a victory against Southampton.
Rooney has been deployed in several positions as Mourinho experiments with a variety tactics in search of the best system to fit his star-studded quad. “With my experience I know football is like this”, he said.
Advertisement
Leicester have a new signing of their own and Simpson said he had been impressed by record 30 million pounds ($39.16 million) buy Islam Slimani after he twice found the net against Burnley last weekend.
