Sports

What will happen to me on Sunday for not playing Rashford – Mourinho

Published

6 years ago

September 14, 2018

Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho has reacted to the report that Marcos Rashford was not finding adequate playing time at the club.

The youngster bagged two goals for England during the international break, leading to pundits questioning his lack of game time at Old Trafford.

Mourinho has now hit back at his critics at a press conference ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Watford, a game Rashford will miss due to suspension.

The United boss reeled out statistics in this morning’s press conference in an effort to disprove “compulsive lies” about his handling of the 20-year-old striker.

“Because some of the boys are really obsessed with me and some of them have a problem with some compulsive lies.

“Speaking about Marcus, I think I can expect that Sunday, I’m going to be highly criticised for not playing him tomorrow,” he said.

“So I can expect that Sunday some of them will wake up in the morning and the first thing they think of is Jose Mourinho.

“So I can imagine on Sunday I am going to be criticised for not playing Marcus but it’s not my fault, he’s suspended, so probably you should remind them he is suspended and cannot play.

“He had 53 appearances, but if you want to take to the minutes of play, he played 3,068, and if you wan to divide that by 90-minute matches, he played 34.2 matches of 90-minute matches in 2016-17.

“In 2017-18, he played 35 Premier League matches, eight in the Champions League, five in the FA Cup, three League Cup matches and the European Super Cup final.

“He played a total of 52 matches with 2,676 mins, and if you divide that by 90, it gives you 29.7 matches.

“So with me, in two seasons, he had 105 appearances, 5,774 mins, 63.7 matches of 90 minutes, including five finals, so the people speaking about these minutes, I think they are a bit confused.

“Marcus is not [Liverpool striker] Dominic Solanke, not [Chelsea midfielder] Ruben Loftus-Cheek, not [Everton forward] Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

“He’s Marcus Rashford, a 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.

“So Manchester United supporters, for you and just for you, to know what we are doing with Marcus, Luke Shaw, Jesse Lingard, Scott McTominay, that’s what we are doing here.”