Jose Mourinho maintained Wayne Rooney has a big part to play for Manchester United despite dropping the England captain for Saturday’s 4-1 Premier League win over Leicester City.
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Speaking to the Daily Star ahead of their trip to Old Trafford on Saturday, Ranieri has claimed that despite admiring the 30-year-old’s ability, he wouldn’t be able to find a place for him in his current starting side: “He’s an awesome player”.
Mourinho, who recently lashed out at football’s “Einsteins” who have criticised United during their recent dip, said he was frustrated that he could not protect his players from media scrutiny. “I’ve worked hard and tried to do my best for the team”.
“It was a very good performance and result”.
“My captain is my captain”. And while Mourinho has never spent more than three years at one team, he’s already starting to look out of place at Old Trafford in his first. I want to be able to play on the left, on the right and down the middle. If I don’t play [Jesse] Lingard, you ask me why.
“The only thing that upsets me a little bit is the kind of criticism to my players because my players are my players”.
“I have nothing else to say, he is my man I trust him completely”.
The sweeping changes led to a disjointed start, with the hosts dominating possession without creating clear-cut opportunities. A major shadow of doubt, however, is over the participation of Red Devils talisman Wayne Rooney, who had a flop show during England’s match against Slovakia in the World Cup 2018 qualifiers earlier this month. “But in football, everyone is the same and if he has to go on the bench, he goes on the bench”, Mourinho told. He played OK against Hull City.
“Sometimes you are the manager’s captain because the manager likes you very, very much, sometimes you are the players’ but not the manager’s one”.
It was Pogba’s best display for United. “We are happy. We want to carry on like this”. “Him and Ander [Herrera] in midfield were good and a good compliment to each other”.
Leicester had a rough start to their title defense, and even after winning two of their last three league matches, they’re still only in 11th in the EPL table.
Did well to limit the threat of Jamie Vardy who was replaced at half-time, and made key interceptions as he made good use of his excellent reading of the game.
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“I’m always positive”, he said.
