Manchester United boss defends Marcus Rashford’s gametime
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has defended the amount of gametime Marcus Rashford has received under his management. The 20-year-old scored for England during the recent internationals against both Spain and Switzerland and this had brought criticism over Mourinho’s handling of him at Old Trafford.
However, speaking ahead of the Watford game, Mourinho appeared to counteract the criticism by citing that Rashford has played more first-team football with United when compared to other graduates at their respective clubs, he said: “People speaking about his minutes, they are a bit confused. Marcus Rashford is not [Liverpool striker] Dominic Solanke. He’s not [Chelsea midfielder] Ruben Loftus-Cheek. He’s not [Everton forward] Dominic Calvert-Lewin. He’s Marcus Rashford, Manchester United player, with an incredible number of appearances and an incredible number of minutes played at the highest level in the best possible competitions.”
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Blind had barely featured for Mourinho during the course of the previous campaign but he was nevertheless offered the chance to stay for at least another year. However, the Dutchman believed it would be the right choice to extend his professional career elsewhere and the prospect of returning to Ajax was too hard to refuse.
Speaking ahead of United’s pre-season opener against Club America, Mourinho said: “Hopefully he [Sanchez] join us later. Because it would be important at least to work with Mata, Alexis, Martial, which we think are the players we have in attack for the start of the season. No Lukaku, no Lingard, no Marcus Rashford, so if Alexis is not working with us for 15 or 20 days it will be very bad.”
Speaking after the move, Fred said:“This is the biggest club in the world and I am delighted to be a part of this amazing team. To work with Jose Mourinho, who has won so many trophies in his time as a coach, is an opportunity not to be missed. I cannot wait to get started and to meet my new team-mates. I would like to thank everyone at Shakhtar Donetsk for everything they have done for me over the past five years. This is a very exciting time for me with my focus now fully on the World Cup with Brazil.”
He said: “I think we need some players with some experience to bring some more qualities to our team. After that, we can fight for the title and the Champions League also. I think that we have improved. As you know, United last year were sixth. The year before that, fifth. So we improve, we are second. The only team who is better than us this year is Man City. Obviously, they play amazing football. But we are second and we are in the Champions League next year which is the most important thing.”
“Diogo is an extremely talented young defender with all the qualities to quickly become a great player for this club. He has all the attributes that a full-back needs: physicality, tactical intelligence and technical quality, combined with a Porto Academy mentality which prepares players for the maturity they need at the professional level. In his age group, he is the best full-back in Europe and we all believe he has a bright future ahead of him at Manchester United,” Mourinho is quoted as saying on the club’s official website.
Speaking to MUTV, Mourinho was pleased with the performance of Young over the course of the season and feels the Englishman has answered plenty of questions which were pointed out towards his fitness, age and ability to play at the highest level. He said: “When I arrived, he was playing a few matches per season. For the last couple of seasons, lots of injuries, lots of doubts, lots of question marks about his future at the highest level. 
Speaking to the club’s official website, Pereira stressed that he is very happy at Old Trafford despite playing deputy to De Gea and Romero, he said: “I’m very happy. As the number three, I have two top goalkeepers in front of me, and they help me a lot too. They have lots of experience and they can help me with that. Obviously, I have a manager who has helped me so much and has always been by my side. I’m learning a lot so I am happy where I am. Obviously, it’s very nice to hear good stuff coming from the manager. Now is my time to show people that he’s right about me and everything he says is actually the truth. I’m just learning and getting some experience. We’ll see what happens next.”
In an interview with SFR Sport, Mkhitaryan defended his stint with the Red Devils, and believes he had relatively good success with the club, having netted the crucial second goal during the Europa League final win over Ajax last season, he said: “I think I left an impression in Manchester, although I had difficulties. We won three titles in a year and a half — not every club does that. We won the Europa League, and I scored a goal in the final. If people say that I did not have enough success it is their opinion but I believe that I had a lot of success at the club.”