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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Jose Mourinho justifies team selection against Liverpool

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.”
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