Here are the Manchester United morning headlines for Tuesday, August 11.
Juan Mata makes fitness admission after Europa League win
Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata admitted his team are “tired physically” after their extra time victory over FC Copenhagen in the Europa League quarter-finals.
Mata came off the bench to help United advance to the semi-finals where they will face either Sevilla or Wolves, but the Spaniard accepted some of his teammates are feeling the impact of a gruelling schedule since lockdown.
“I would say that today's more relief to be honest and tiredness," Mata told BT Sport when asked for his reaction to the win. “I think the team is quite tired psychically and you could see in the game, it wasn't the best of games.
“But at this stage of the season with so many games, so many months, it's very important to win games like we did today and we go through, we came here with the aim of staying for quite some time and hopefully we can win this tournament.”
United boss on why he rested key duo for Copenhagen clash
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has explained how he is having to manage his United squad, detailing why Nemanja Matic and Victor Lindelof both started Monday’s clash against FC Copenhagen on the bench.
The pair came on in the second half and Solskjaer said he is having to look after the physicality and fitness of his players with the season now extending over a year.
“Yeah, we have a squad and we decided to start with the team we did today and when we put Nemanja and Victor on the game was there for us to attack,” he said afterwards.
“Eric was on a yellow and I didn't want him to end up in a difficult situation wanting to do a tackle. Fred played really well but Nemanja has a calming influence on the game and did really well.”
United not giving up on signing Sancho this summer
United are still hopeful of pulling off a deal for Jadon Sancho this summer, despite Borussia Dortmund’s insistence the deadline for any transfer has now passed.
The Bundesliga club imposed a deadline of August 10 for a deal to be struck and now claim Sancho will stay at the Westfalenstadion for the 2020/21 season as no agreement with United was struck in time.
But despite being frustrated at the lack of progress of talks with Dortmund, United remain confident that a deal can be agreed for Sancho, although they are cautious about overpaying on agents fees.
“He'll play for us next season. The decision is final. I think that answers all of the questions,” Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc said on Monday.
“Last summer we adjusted the salary to the performance development of Jadon. So in context, we had already extended the contract until 2023.”
