José Mourinho has confirmed Zlatan Ibrahimovic will start Thursday’s Europa League tie against Zorya Luhansk, though admitted he has reservations about putting Wayne Rooney into what he describes as a difficult situation.
A home game against little-known Ukrainian opponents seemed the ideal opportunity to offer the Manchester United captain a route back into the first team after being dropped against Leicester on Saturday, and Rooney has plenty of experience of more demanding occasions. Yet the ease with which United dismantled the defending champions has complicated what initially appeared a straightforward process and Mourinho is probably right in surmising that Rooney would be under more pressure than usual to perform.
“Wayne is in the squad, but I have not yet decided whether I will start with him,” Mourinho said. “He has had a back problem, so has not managed to train at full intensity all week. He is recovered now, but only just returning to training with the rest of the players. At the start of the week I was completely convinced he would play the whole game, but now I am not so sure.
“I am here to protect him, not to put him into difficult situations. With the situation now created around him he really cannot afford to have a performance that is not really good. I have to analyse if the best thing for him is to start the game. If he is not totally ready for it and I will discuss it with the player and the medical staff, he might start on the bench.”
Having begun the Europa campaign by downplaying the significance of Uefa’s lesser competition Mourinho now accepts that defeat in the opening fixture against Feyenoord has left United with some ground to make up. “I would say we have to win all of the next four matches, which is difficult,” he said. “From now on the approach will be different, I will be putting more of my key players on the pitch. It is very important that we win.”
That means a further wait on the sidelines for Henrikh Mkhitaryan and United will also be missing Luke Shaw, who was sent home from training on Wednesday with a temperature. “Luke Shaw is ill,” Mourinho said. “As soon as the doctor saw him he ordered him home so as not to affect the other players.”
Juan Mata has not thus far been regarded as a key player at Old Trafford, mainly due to Mourinho selling him to United while still Chelsea manager, though that perception may be changing. Mata has been in good form in recent weeks and was particularly impressive when playing in place of Rooney on Saturday.
Mourinho claims he has a bright future at Old Trafford. “First of all it was not really me who sold him from Chelsea,” he said. “My job is not to buy and sell, it is to select teams and coach them to win games. All I can do is advise my boards about their transfer policy. Second, Juan Mata asked to leave and when a player does that you always have to think twice about whether you should keep him. Third and last, the football I wanted to play at Chelsea was one thing, here at Manchester United it is a completely different situation.
“Here, I have more players to play transitional football, we don’t have to be as physically strong and compact or to try and play in a defensive block. We can play in a different way here. The way we want to play is very adapted to Juan Mata’s natural qualities.”
Whichever way United are set up to play it appears Mourinho will always want Ibrahimovic in his team. At 34, the Swede is the old man of the side, certainly of the front line, but Mourinho is not worried about tiring him out and has no plans to use him sparingly. “We have two more matches before the international break, and Zlatan can play in both of them,” Mourinho said. “After those games he gets two weeks without football [Ibrahimovic retired as an international over summer] so he will have plenty of time to recover.”
United appear to be recovering too after losing three successive games to lose ground in the Premier League and the Europa League and allow Manchester City’s slick start to claim most of the attention. “We had a dip, we lost three games in one week,” Mourinho said. “But if we win against Zorya we will have won three games in a week, so I will be interested to see what sort of reaction that might bring.”
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