Europa League, Man Utd.

Mourinho Drops Rooney, Mkhitaryan And Lingard For Europa League Trip

europa-league-newJose Mourinho has named his 20-man squad to take on Feyenoord in the Europa League on Thursday and missing is captain Wayne Rooney, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard – both of whom were taken off at half time during the Manchester derby defeat last weekend. Also not traveling to Holland are full-backs Luke Shaw and Antonio Valencia.

Rooney was pictured in training on Wednesday morning, as was Lingard, so their omission is not due to injury. Rather it reflects Mourinho’s thinking after the derby day loss to Manchester City at the weekend.

Mourinho said after the City game that he wanted to move on as quick as possible and the match in Rotterdam gives him the perfect opportunity.

Even without Rooney, Mkhitaryan And Lingard, Mourinho has named a strong squad that includes theh likes of Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

It will be fascinating to see how United line-up without Rooney in the line-up, and I don’t expect Ibra to play either. The United boss has already said that Rashford will play and I would expect to see Martial start also along with either Depay or Mata. If it’s Depay does he move Mata into the No. 10 role, or will we finally see Pogba pushed further forward as we saw in the second half on Saturday?

MANCHESTER UNITED SQUAD TO FACE FEYENOORD
De Gea, Romero, Johnstone; Darmian, Bailly, Blind, Fosu-Mensah, Rojo, Smalling; Carrick, Fellaini, Herrera, Mata, Memphis, Pogba, Schneiderlin, Young; Ibrahimovic, Martial, Rashford