Heading into last night’s 2-0 win at Bournemouth, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho claimed that the midweek league clash would be an open tryout of sorts for the FA Cup semifinal versus Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium.
Don’t buy it; Mourinho will select his best team possible this weekend. He was always going to pick the best XI, regardless of who did what versus the Cherries. While there is reason to doubt the veracity of that Mourinho commentary, what he said after the match was definitely honest and spot on.
The Portugese admitted that his side was not consistent enough to win the league title this season.
“The change has to be based on their attitude, their mentality,” Mourinho said acknowledging the progress his side has made this season, but also all the work they still need to do.
“This season of course was a much better season in the Premier League for us than the last one — the last one we finished sixth. We are quite safe now in the top four and we have a big chance to finish second. We already have more points than at the end of last season, but we need to be more consistent in our approach.”
“I know why you win, I know why you don’t win. OK, no doubts about City’s quality, and that in any circumstances they would win this title because they are the better. I’ve spoken with my players. I think we are inconsistent. and we are inconsistent many times in our attitude.
“We didn’t lose points in the duels against direct opponents, we lost points against teams that were promoted, and we’ve lost points against teams that are probably going to be relegated.”
“We were not consistent, and we’ve paid the price.”
Without further ado, let’s take a look at who Mourinho might select versus Spurs, in the cup clash at their opponents’ temporary home this season.
Marcus Rashford Romelu Lukaku Jesse Lingard
Paul Pogba Nemanja Matic Ander Herrera
Ashley Young Eric Bailly Chris Smalling Antonio Valencia
David de Gea
Team news, match preview, prediction: go to this link
Tottenham Hotspur starting XI prediction: go to this link
FA Cup Odds: Tottenham 14/11 United 32/13 Draw 5/2
FA Cup Outright Winner Odds: Chelsea 7/4 Tottenham 2/1 United 11/4 Southampton 20/1
As always, feel free to post to your own Tottenham and/or United starting XI predictions, as well as your score predictions, in the comments section below.
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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