Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho insists he doesn’t have to appease anybody with his team selections. The Portugese says he doesn’t need to explain his decisions on who to play and how much he plays them, to anybody, and that includes young starlets.
Both Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial are rumored to be unsettled and looking for regular first team football elsewhere. The two talented young forwards have both consistently been linked recently with a move away from Old Trafford.
The January arrival of Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal has made the attacking position group more crowded, and thus opportunities for playing time have been reduced. United reportedly maintain that Martial and Rashford are not for sale though.
During his Friday news conference ahead of Sunday’s home clash versus West Bromwich Albion, Mourinho had this to say:
”If I was you I would go why Lukaku plays every match, why Matic plays every match. You always go to the one, the answer is if you want what I call dry answers, I have dry answers and a dry answer is only 11 can start the match and we are 22.
“It is just football, we cannot have 11 players, it would be amazing economically for the football clubs to have only 11 and play with the same 11, no injuries, suspension, fatigue, it would be better for everyone to have only 11 but is not possible.”
It is very true what Mourinho said there, about “dry answers,” because he is typically somebody who doesn’t give a whole lot of those. His press conferences are typically pretty interesting.
He summated the depth chart and team selection issues in a very pragmatic way. It’s all a numbers game, he concluded.
“At every club and every level, you need more than 11 players and only 11 can start, is as simple as that, there’s nothing I can do,” Mourinho summarized.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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