Jose Mourinho has explained why Henrikh Mkhitaryan didn’t feature against Fenerbahce in the Europa League on Thursday. A jubilant United defeated the Turkish team 4-1 with goals from Anthony, Martial, Jesse Lingard and Paul Pogba. Former United player Robin Van Persie reduced the deficit for the visitors.
The Armenian playmaker last featured in the 2-1 lost against Manchester City. Since then, he missed a number of games as he was recovering from a thigh injury. The midfielder who arrived from Borussia Dortmund has started training a few days ago but Jose preferred to leave him out of the squad.
Mourinho cleared his intentions, “The situation is that we played with Lingard, with Mata and Martial. I am not an Einstein. I don’t know a tactical system that can play with four wingers at the same time.
“He has to work more to get the intensity and fitness to play at a high level. To have him on the bench and give him 15 or 20 minutes like I did to Memphis (Depay), I think it is much better for him to work and wait for his chance, but he is going to be ready very soon.”
United dominated the match from the beginning. Mourinho gave Michael Carrick his third start of the season and brought in Rooney in the place of Zlatan Ibrahimović.
United will next face Jose’s former club Chelsea on Sunday.
