Jose Mourinho has admitted the Europa League is not Manchester United’s natural, or preferred, habitat but has nonetheless challenged his players to find the motivation to win the competition.
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United begin their Europa League campaign at Feyenoord on Thursday night and Mourinho agreed the nature of the competition would make their title challenge more tricky.
Having lost to Manchester City in a fierce derby clash on Saturday, it’s hard to predict exactly how Mourinho will line-up on Thursday – will he drop those who underperformed last time out or ask them to prove a point to him? “It’s not the competition I or the players want”. No matter what their team looks like on Thursday, we will be prepared. I think we want to do well in the competition and, for a club of our dimension to do well, is not to be out of the competition in the group phase. We want to win the competition. Tomorrow is an important match for us.
“I have to try and pass that motivation to the players, because I know the Europa League is not the big dream of every player”. “You are not in the Champions League so you have to find your motivation in the competition you are in”, he said.
Mourinho said striker Marcus Rashford would start for the first time this season while Memphis Depay, Ashley Young and Michael Carrick have also been included in the 20-man squad.
“Everyone can see what it did to the team when they lost to City at the weekend, already there is more pressure on the team, although the teams in the Premier League have difficulties in challenging the teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich”.
“It’s a very big game for us against one of the biggest teams in the world”.
United is coming off a 2-1 loss to Manchester City in the derby on Saturday, the team’s first defeat under Mourinho.
Before United face their local rivals once again in February – or for that matter, before they square up against bitter enemies Liverpool in October, their next heavyweight fixture – it appears Mourinho has some thinking to do.
Manchester United and Feyenoord have met only two times in their histories, both matches coming in the 1997-1998 UEFA Champions League group stage.
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United have taken nine points from their opening four Premier League games. “In the position he plays, I have lots of solutions”.
