The derby defeat has left the Manchester United manager with a lot of questions rather than answers. Mourinho refused to blame any of the players in the game saying that it was the collective performance that had produced the result and not individual performance.
The duo of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard were hauled off at half-time in the loss to Manchester City and were replaced by Rashford and Herrera. Although the game failed to deliver any more goals in the second half, United were the better team and produced chances.
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Opposition manager Pep Guardiola also appreciated the tactical change that led to his team being more on the defensive as the game petered to an end.
Mourinho, though, confirmed that Marcus Rashford will make his first start of the season at Feyenoord in the Europa League this Thursday. Speaking to the press, Mourinho complimented the youngster on his performance in the derby and was heard saying, “For me the next big game is against Feyenoord and the next game [Rashford] is going to play. That is the only thing I can say.”
The Portuguese manager also said that “performances” will be the key to his decision making and based on the performances of Lingard and Mkhitaryan, there was little chance of either of them playing against Feyenoord. Both the players were making their first starts in the Premier League.
Mourinho, acknowledged the defensive mistakes as well, especially the first goal in which De Bruyne was the quickest to react as Blind was left on his heels. While it was Blind who failed to get to the end of the knock down from the Manchester City forward, it was bad judgement on the part of Bailly as well to allow Iheanacho to win the first header with such ease.
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His initial press conference immediately after the game laid bare the frustrations of the manager as he felt some of the players had disappointed him before taking a u-trun and terming the result as his own fault, stating that he should have been tactically more efficient.
Manchester United take on Feyenoord in the Europa League this Thursday. The Dutch side are currently top of the Eredivise having won their opening five games on the trot. The team managed by former Arsenal and Barcelona player, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst.
