Embattled Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho leads his players with a smile as they entered Manchester Piccadilly station to catch a train south to Watford. The Red Devils will be hoping to build on their away victory at Burnley earlier this month having lost their second and third EPL encounters. His side's defeats to Tottenham and Brighton means that this United's poorest start in the league in over two decades.
However, the former Real Madrid and Chelsea manager has defended his criticisms of Marcus Rashford, who scored for England in their international friendly victory over Switzerland. The 20-year-old striker also found the back of the net in the Three Lions slim defeat to Spain in the UEFA National League.
His performances prompted many pundits to call on Mourinho to give Rashford more game time, but the Red Devils boss wasn't caught off guard as he defended himself well. "I'm going to do something, not for you, but the United fans," began Mourinho. Alexis Sanchez and Young on their way to the train station for Watford EPL clash -
Depositphotos "And I think I hold myself to the United fans and so for them I am going to spend two mins with you. "In 2016-17, Marcus Rashford played 32 Premier League matches, 11 Europa League matches, including the final, three FA Cup matches, six League Cup matches, including the final, and the Community Shield. "He had 53 appearances, but if you want to take to the minutes of play, he played 3,068, and if you wan to divide that by 90-minute matches, he played 34.2 matches of 90-minute matches in 2016-17.
Darmian and De Gea in Man United track suit with other teammates travelling for Watford game - credit: Zenpix Source: Depositphotos "In 2017-18, he played 35 Premier League matches, eight in the Champions League, five. "He played a total of 52 matches with 2,676 mins, and if you divide that by 90, it gives you 29.7 matches, so with me, in two seasons, he had 105 appearances, 5,774 mins, 63.7 matches of 90 minutes, including five finals, so the people speaking about these minutes, I think they are a bit confused." Having stated his points in clear terms, the Portuguese tactician later wore a welcoming smile at the train station.
David De Gea, Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez, Antonio Valencia, Nemanja Matic, Jesse Lingard, Matteo Darmian, and Ashley Young were among the United players also catching the train south. United take on Watford at Vicarage Road in Saturday's late kick-off. NAIJ.com previously reported that Manchester United returned to winning ways following their 2-0 victory over Burnley at the Turf Moor on Sunday.
Two goals from Romelu Lukaku handed the Red Devils their second victory of the ongoing league season. Having suffered back to back defeats to Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur in their second and third matches respectively. Their 3-0 home defeat to Spurs mounted loads of pressure on the manager Jose Mourinho and vice chairman Ed Woodward.
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