Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has revealed that both Eric Bailly and Marcus Rashford had suffered minor injuries on international duty. The Red Devils drew 0-0 versus Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday afternoon with a couple of forced changes with Bailly and Marouane Fellaini not making the matchday squad. Rashford, however, had a cameo appearance in the second half in place of Anthony Martial, although he could not have much of an impact on the match.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Mourinho said, “I don’t think we have many options. Fellaini was injured with the national team, Bailly was injured with the national team and Rashford was injured with the national team. We don’t have many options. I never complain about that. I was just mentioning it to you because the next question is maybe why is Rashford not playing? Why is Bailly not even on the bench? But, okay, since the moment we know the players we have available, we thought about the match and we thought about our options and we made these decisions.”
The Red Devils had drawn their previous three outings with the Merseyside giants, but many had expected an open game with Jurgen Klopp’s side preferring to play on the front foot. However, Mourinho set his team up to defend from the off, and the Red Devils presumably followed a similar pattern over the course of the game.
Both teams had just one chance to score with Simon Mignolet blocking a straight shot from Romelu Lukaku whilst David de Gea made a stunning interception with his left leg to deny Joel Matip. As a result, the Red Devils have fallen behind league leaders Manchester City on the table by two points whilst the Reds are trailing by a further seven points following a run of just one win in eight matches across all competitions.