Jose Mourinho made it clear that the Europa league could hurt Manchester United’s title defence. Manchester United are set to play Feyenoord in their opening match of the Europa League on Thursday.
Mourinho didn’t include Rooney, Valencia and Luke Shaw alongside Phil Jones and Jesse Lingard in the squad. He admits that he still wants to perform well in the competition and will motivate his players to avert any disasters like last year’s FC Midtjylland match.
“It is more difficult, yes,” said Mourinho.
“Especially because you have also the chance to play on the Monday, but we did not get that privilege, so when we play Thursday, we were never given a Monday spot, to have one more day.”
Mourinho is furious about their schedule as United will face Liverpool, Fenerbahce and Chelsea in a one-week space.
He opined, “We know that we are not going to have any kind of support for that, in fact the week when we play Liverpool, Fenerbahce and Chelsea, the gift was to play Liverpool on the Monday, but the Monday before, not the Monday after.
“We play Liverpool on the Monday (October 17), then we play Fenerbahce on Thursday (October 20) and then Chelsea on the Sunday (October 23).”
United lost to Midtjylland 2-1 in the last season before bouncing back to win the second leg. Mourinho has asked his players to learn from the mistakes.
“If you see what happened last season, against Midtjylland, you don’t forget that as a fan,” he said.
“Maybe as a player but not the fans. We have to make sure we are not sleeping. I have brought a very good squad and I will play with a very good team.” He also added.
Mourinho has already announced that Marcus Rashford will be in the starting XI. With a lot of players injured United will have to be at their very best to defeat Feyenoord.
“This is not a competition that Manchester United wants,” he said. “It’s not the competition I or the players want.
“But it is the competition where we are and that is the reality. We have to look to the competition with respect and we want to win the competition.
“It is difficult to do it, but it is simple to say, and this is how we want to approach the competition tomorrow.
The match will be played in front of a less capacity and the ground will be surrounded by nets as Feyenoord don’t want to repeat the violence which had spoiled their Europa League encounter against AS Roma.
